Copper engraving, mm 390x530, contemporary color, latin text on verso. Elegant and attractive map, taken from Atlas Novus, enriched with a beautiful cartouche with coats of arms. The map, which shows the early name Ocraina extends from Crimea and the Sea of Azov to Astracan and the Wolga river which frames the russian territory. An excellent, perfectly preserved example. Willem Blaeu, an astronomer and student of Tycho Brahe, founded a globe-making workshop in 1599; almost immediately, he began publishing maps, producing the first atlas, the "Atlantis Appendix," in 1630, and the first two-volume edition of the "Atlas Novus," five years later. After his death in 1638, his sons Joan and Cornelius took over their father’s shop and Joan took on his work as hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company. Joan edited the celebrated "Atlas Maior," in 11 volumes, in 1662. A fire destroyed the workshop in 1672, marking the end of the business. Copper engraving, 420 x 525 mm, Latin text on verso.