Asia Noviter Delienata

Blaeu's map of Asia is regarded as a cornerstone of any cartographic collection of the region. It was first issued as a loose sheet or separate publication in 1617 and then bound in 1630 in Blaeu's "Appendix". From then on it was constantly in use through a long publishing history, bound first in the "Atlas Novus" in 1635, through its various editions and then translocated into the "Atlas Major" from 1658 until 1672. It remained essentially unchanged throughout its entire publishing life.



Geographically, the map is based on Willem Blaeu's wall map of 1608. It formed part of a set of wall maps consisting of the world and continents issued between 1605 and 1608. At their initial release, the maps were lauded for their accuracy with geographical advances sourced from major geographical figures of all nations. Equally striking were the border illustrations, which were revolutionary for their time.



Among the leading geographical authorities for Asia in the late 16th and early 17th century were Hugo van Linschoten and Petrus Plancius. Linschoten is extensively used as a source for this map, especially for the Indian Ocean, the shape of Arabia, Persia and the Indian sub-continent. The Far East is based on several sources, including Plancius and even Marco Polo while the coast and shape of China, the perception of the island of Korea and the shape of Japan are based on Luis Texeira and Ludovico Giorgio, who in turn received the surveys of Jesuit missionaries in those countries. Maps based on these surveys were first published by Abraham Ortelius throughout the late 16th century.



Other geographical features of note on the map include the mythical lake Chiamay in northern Myanmar which acts as source for the major rivers of South East Asia; the mythical Anian Straits between Asia and America, a possible western entrance to the equally mythical Northwest Passage; the depiction of the eastern coast of Nova Zembla in the Arctic Ocean sourced from Theodor de Bry's map who based it on information brought back by Willem Barentz's expedition; and a fine depiction of the Great Wall of China.

In many ways, the illustrated borders were just as revolutionary as the geographical innovations. There is no doubt that they played a major part in both the appeal and commercial success of this map. They were inspired by Petrus Plancius, who first used this concept on his folio map of the world in 1594; Blaeu developed it into the illustrated borders on his world map of 1606 and then matched them onto this map of Asia and its other continental partners. The side panels depict multiple costumed figures from Asian countries and were sourced mostly from the images of Theodor de Bry and Linschoten; the upper border shows miniature city plans of historically and commercially important urban centres. These were taken mainly from Braun and Hogenberg's "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" and while Bantam, Macao and Kandy were taken from de Bry.



Blaeu's map sparked numerous imitators after it was published but it is a testament to its enduring popularity that its basic geography remained static despite half of century of rapid geographical discovery on the continent, with only very small alterations to the name of the cartographer and the removal of the date marking its states.



The example offered for sale is in particularly fine original hand-colour. French text on verso (image available on request ).

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