Copper engraving, original colour, mm 380x495. A good example. Light stain at right, vertical printing crease at left. W. Blaeu, born in Alkmaar in 1571, studied astronomy by Tycho Brahe and founded a business in 1599 as a globe and instrument maker. He immediately expanded the business publishing maps and in 1630 the first atlas “Atlantis appendix” and five years later the “Atlas novus“. After his death in 1638, his son Joan reached publication of the major work of the family, the “Atlas maior” in 11 volumes. in 1672 a great fire destroyed the Blaeu’s printing house.