Read, Hear, Watch More

Over the past decades, much has been written about the cartography, the publishing business, and the national and international networks of the Blaeu family business. Please find below a concise list of recent and relevant literature about the Blaeu father-son duo and their works.

Digital Edition of Atlas Maior (Dutch version)

Blaeu, J. (1664-1665). J. Blaeus grooten atlas, oft, Werelt-beschryving, in welcke 't aertryck, de zee, en hemel, wordt vertoont en beschreven. [Amsterdam: Blaeu].

‘Atlas Maior’ by Blaeu
A compact, yet thorough, account of the production of the Atlas Maior, written by Marco van Egmond, Curator of Maps, Atlases, and Printed Works (Utrecht University Library).

Blaeu’s World
A video of an interview (in Dutch) with Kees Zandvliet and Djoeke van Netten about the publication of Zandvliet’s De wereld van de familie Blaeu, organized by Leiden University Libraries.

Two Generations of Blaeus, Amsterdam-based Publishers in the Golden Age
An audio recording of the Nottebohm Lecture delivered (in Dutch) by Djoeke van Netten, in which she addresses the conflict between commerce and science, and between the principles and priorities of seventeenth-century Amsterdam-based publishers Willem Jansz. Blaeu and Joan Blaeu, and elaborates on the concept of the publisher as the ‘gatekeeper’ of new knowledge.

Boogaart, E. van den (2019). Vreemde verwanten: de wereld buiten Europa 1400-1600 . Nijmegen: Vantilt.

Koeman, C., & Krogt, P. van der (2000). Koeman’s Atlantes neerlandici / Vol. 2, The Folio Atlases published by Willem Jansz. Blaeu and Joan Blaeu . Houten: HES & De Graaf.

Krogt, P. van der (2005). Joan Blaeu, Atlas maior of 1665 . Köln: Taschen.

Netten, D. van (2012). Koopman in kennis: de uitgever Willem Jansz Blaeu (1571-1638) in de geleerde wereld van zijn tijd . Zutphen: Walburg Pers.

Said, E.W. (1978). Orientalism . New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Schrikker, A., (ed.). (2023). Nederlands kolonialisme van archief tot geschiedschrijving: een gids voor onderzoekers . Leiden: LUP.

Schmidt, B. (2015). Inventing Exoticism: Geography, Globalism, and Europe's Early Modern World . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Vannieuwenhuyze, B., (ed.). (2023). Oude kaarten lezen: handboek voor historische cartografie . Zwolle: WBOOKS.

Wolf, E.R. (1982). Europe and the People Without History . Berkeley: University of California Press.

Zandvliet, K. (2023). De wereld van de familie Blaeu . Zutphen: Walburg Pers.

Caert-thresoor: tijdschrift voor de historische kartografie in Nederland (ISSN: 0167-4994). All editions of this Dutch magazine (except for the volumes published in the past three years) are available online free of charge.