Joan Blaeu, Rhine River Map, 17th Century

The Rhine is a European river that begins in the Swiss canton of GraubConden in the southeastern Swiss Alps, forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German and then the Franco-German border, then flows through the German Rhineland and the Netherlands and eventually empties into the North Sea. The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital and navigable waterway carrying trade and goods deep inland. Its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire is supported by the many castles and fortifications built along it. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube), at about 760 miles. Joan Blaeu (September 23, 1596 - December 21, 1673) was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of cartographer Willem Blaeu. In 1620 he became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father. In 1635 they published the Atlas Novus (full title: Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas novus) in two volumes. The Atlas Maior is the final version of Joan Blaeu's atlas, published in Amsterdam between 1662 and 1672, in Latin, French, Dutch, German and Spanish, containing 594 maps and around 3, 000 pages of text. The Blaeu maps emphasized fine art and colors, being the most expensive of the time. The Atlas Maior is widely considered a masterpiece of the Golden Age of Dutch/Netherlandish cartography

Picture No

12696485

Media ID

47671505

Size

5700px x 2470px (8.7MB)

Credit

Science Source/Mary Evans