About this sheet
A map covering Languedoc and its neighbours, with part of Gascogne to the west, part of the Limousin and the Auvergne to the north, the Rouergue and the Gevaudan in the middle, the Haute Forest, the principality of Orange, the Comtat Venaissin with Avignon, and part of Provence with Arles and the Camargue to the east, closing on the Mediterranean. The imprint reads Amsterdami, Guilielmus Blaeus excudit. This is the sheet that ties the whole south of France together and it is therefore useful to a collector as a frame for the smaller provincial plates. The Rhone delta, the papal enclave and the Languedoc coast all appear on one plate, which is unusual and makes it the most informative of the southern sheets.
The Blaeu house of Amsterdam was the greatest cartographic publisher of the Dutch golden age. Willem Jansz Blaeu began the atlas that his son Joan Blaeu carried to its full extent, and the Dutch text edition, Toonneel des Aerdriicx ofte Nieuwe Atlas, set a standard for engraving, paper and typography that no rival in Europe matched. The copper plates were cut with great delicacy, the title cartouches were designed as ornaments in their own right, and the sheets were printed on heavy laid paper that has survived three and a half centuries remarkably well.
Blaeu maps have been collected continuously since the seventeenth century and are the benchmark against which other Dutch cartography is measured, so a sheet from this atlas is a serious piece of the history of the book as well as a map. A large Blaeu plate is one of the few antique maps that can carry a wall on its own.
The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, soiling and a few small spots confined to the margins; the centre fold is as issued and the image is clean.
This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
