Copperplate engraving, full-field color, 420 x 500 mm, latin text. Slightly yellowed, but an excellent copy. This splendid color map of the Diocese of Stavanger in Norway is the first Blaeu map to specifically concern Norway. The coat of arms of Norway appears at the top right, while that of the Kingdom of Denmark appears at the left, both countries ruled by King Christian IV of Denmark. Four ships ply the waters of the North Sea. At the bottom left, a finely engraved title cartouche is flanked by two Norwegian goats and a lumberjack, a nod to the region's role as an exporter of timber to Europe in general and the Netherlands in particular. The map is attributed to Laurits Clausen Scabo (1562–1626), a Danish scholar and priest who served as Bishop of Stavanger from 1605 until his death. Scabo is believed to have drawn the map of his diocese that inspired this work in 1618, although the original has not survived. The map was not published until the episcopate of Scabo's successor, Bishop Thomas Wegner (1588–1654), and it has been speculated that the historian and clergyman Peder Claussøn Friis may have been its author. Friis's maps, sketches, and notes passed to Scavenius upon Friis's death in 1614, so it is possible that Wegner did not know who had produced the work. Friis is not known to have produced maps, but he and Scabo knew each other, and his historical and topographical descriptions may have influenced Scabo's work in mapping his diocese. This was the first map in Blaeu's atlas to focus specifically on Norway. Blaeu, an astronomer and student of Tycho Brahe, founded a globe-making workshop in 1599; he almost immediately began publishing maps as well, 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 son Johan edited the celebrated 11-volume Atlas Maior in 1662. A fire destroyed the workshop in 1672, marking the end of the business. Ginsberg, W. Maps and Mapping of Norway 1602-1855; Van der Krogt, P. C. J., Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, V. 2, 1310.