Wilhelm and Johan Blaeu: Grooten Atlas, 1664

The map has clearly been remade, but it still retains the contours of the old Ubbo Emmius map from 1595. (Click on the detail above for a larger version.)

The fellow with the compass, leaning over the coffin with the scale on it, is an homage to the original corner decoration on Ubbo Emmius’ 1617 edition of his 1595 map. Jan Jansson drawing the Mercator edition in 1636 added the shield with the farmer above it, the barrels, the animals beside it. In the Blaeu edition, all the figures are redrawn, but the arrangement is about the same. Where Jansson signed his map, to the right of the man with the compass, we now find the name of Guiljelm (Wilhelm) Blaeu. (Click on the detail above for a larger version.)

An approximate English translation of the Harlingerland entry:

Harlingerland stretches ten miles further eastward from Norden; it has 16 villages with churches, and two towns [Esens and Wittmund, at the lower right corner—note the different symbols for villages of various sizes, with churches and without]. The land that lies further north is more fruitful; in the midland is less fertile. Men find the harbors here uneasy, besides Funixersiel, not surprisingly the end of Harlingerland.

You can translate it better? Let me know, and I’ll correct my version.

Blaeu 1659 . . . Blaeu 1664 1 . . . 2 . . . more

Back to Ancient Maps of Harlingerland index

All maps on these pages are reproduced courtesy of

The Map Division
The New York Public Library
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations


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