Marvel at the Beautiful Atlas

Representing the entire surface of the Earth, the 50-volume Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem atlas contains more than 2,400 maps, prints, and drawings and offers a pictorial encyclopedia of 17th century knowledge ranging from geography and topography to warfare and politics. 

The lawyer Laurens Van der Hem (1621-1678) used the largest and most expensive book published in the 17th century, Joan Blaeu’s Atlas Maior as the base for an even more ambitious collection of maps, charts, townscapes, architectural prints, and portraits.

Inspiration for the Great Atlas.

Topographical knowledge was valuable and often kept secret. This was imparted in one of the most impressive additions to the Atlas: four volumes of manuscript maps and topographical drawings of East Asian regions, known as the “secret atlas of the Dutch East India Company."

The Atlas represents the cartographic heritage of the “Golden Age” of Dutch history when the development of overseas trade greatly influenced Dutch and European cultural life and led to changes in the global economy.

Most of these luxuriously painted illustrations were created by well-known artists in the 17th century. 

The Atlas also contains portraits of famous persons, technological inventions, public works, and many other aspects of 17th century history and culture.

The Atlas contains a treasure of information whose value is inestimable, not only for the fields of geography and topography, but also in archeology, architecture, sculpture, ethnography, folklore, heraldry, navigation, fortification, and warfare.