Toonneel des Aerdrycx, oft Nieuwe Atlas, eerste deel

Willem Jansz. Blaeu was one of the leading Amsterdam map and atlas publishers of the seventeenth century. His firm produced globes, astronomical instruments, wall maps, sea charts, pilot books, and atlases, and became a major competitor in the Dutch atlas market. In 1629, after the death of Jodocus Hondius Jr., Blaeu acquired thirty-seven copperplates from the Hondius family, allowing him to accelerate his own atlas publishing programme. This led to the multilingual Novus Atlas project of the 1630s. After Willem’s death, his son Joan Blaeu continued and greatly expanded the family atlas enterprise, culminating decades later in the monumental Atlas Maior. This title page belongs to the Dutch-language Toonneel des Aerdrycx, oft Nieuwe Atlas, first published in Amsterdam in 1635.

The words “Eerste Deel” are printed on a separate slip pasted into the centre of the composition, identifying this as the first part of the 1635 atlas and showing how the engraved framework could be adapted as the atlas expanded. In this early state, the lower cartouche, framed by weapons, armour, flags, and trophies, has been left blank; in later states it was filled with the Amsterdam imprint and date. At the top, a martial allegorical figure appears between two seated figures holding heraldic shields. The right shield shows the bundle of seven arrows of the Seven United Provinces, while the left shield refers to the Southern Netherlands under Spanish Habsburg rule. Together they evoke the historical unity of the Netherlands despite contemporary political division.

The side figures reinforce the political and intellectual programme of the atlas. At left, a woman in black scholarly dress possibly representing Cosmography or Philosophy; at right, an armoured soldier with a musket represents the art of war. The whole design presents the atlas as a theatre of geography, learning, sovereignty, and military power. It also marks the beginning of Blaeu’s great atlas enterprise, which grew from the Nieuwe Atlas into the multi-volume atlas project completed by Joan Blaeu and, ultimately, the Atlas Maior.