Beschreibung:

BLAEU, Joan Le Grand Atlas, ou Cosmographie Blaviaene, en laquelle est exactement descritte la Terre, la Mer, et le Ciel. Amsterdam, J. Blaeu, [-(of + 1 vols, in all vols folio: 1 allegorical frontispiece, 7 engr. title pages, engr. maps, plans, views and plates, mostly double-paged and all mounted on lvs, finely hand-coloured with details heightened in gold (repairs in vols I, VIII, minor browning, staining and foxing, some margins cropped, some maps wrinkled, some tears, a few wormholes). Cont. Dutch bindings: white ivory vellum over pasteboards with double ornamental gilt frame and gilt centerpiece, handwritten title on ornamented flat spine, gilt edges, remains of green silk ties (traces of glued paper on the inside of vols V-VI, VIII; traces of red wax on the inside of the covers of vols II, VII, X-XII; slightly damaged and loose spines on vols I-II, VI; some stains partic. at the bottom of vol. I). Extraordinary copy of the first French edition of Blaeu's "Atlas Maior", described as the "greatest and finest atlas ever published" (cf. H. de la Fontaine Verwey). Our set consists of (out of volumes with French text published in (vol. IV on the Low Countries missing) plus the Latin variant of vol. IX on Italy, dated and originally being part of the first edition of the "Atlas Maior". Compared to the Latin edition of our French one is considerably enlarged, making the volume on France too thick for one binding and, therefore, was split into two making a total of vols. Only copies of this French edition are known. Volume I. Arctic, Norway and Denmark. With its rare engr. frontispiece "Geographia Blaviana" (cropped and underlaid) and maps incl. the magnificent world map in two hemispheres. Volume II. Sweden, Russia, Poland, southeastern Europe, and Greece. maps. Volume III. Germany. maps. Volume V. England. Engr. title page and maps. Volume VI. Scotland and Ireland. Engr. title page and maps. Volume VII. France (part 1). Engr. title page and maps. Volume VIII. France (part and Switzerland. maps. Volume IX (Latin vol. VIII). Italy. Engr. title page and maps, identical to the French vol. it substitutes. Volume X. Spain and Africa. Engr. title page and maps. Without the rare engr. frontispiece on Africa. Volume XI. Asia. 2 engr. title pages and maps. Volume XII. America. maps. Ref. van der Krogt II [611]. Prov. From the library of the Brussels' palace of Charles Alexander of Lorraine with ownership mark in gold pen by his own hand. According to the "Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque [...] commencé en 1753", our copy is one of the highlights of the "Grande Bibliothèque" of Charles Alexander of Lorraine (1712-1780), governor of the Austrian Netherlands. After his death, Corneille-François de Nélis established a new catalogue from August onwards. Subsequently Emperor Joseph II, his "neveu par alliance" and legal heir, ordered the public sale of the collections. Hence, our "Grand Atlas" is listed as nr in the auction catalogue by Joseph Ermens ("...vol. in fol. rel.[iés] avec des Cartes & Estampes très proprement enlum.[inées]") and sold for "florins argent de change". Charles Alexander's ownership mark is present on 9 title pages (not in vols I and IX). Ultimately this copy moved to the collection of de Ligne Ref. AGR, SEG and - AGR, CF - Catalogue des livres, estampes, et planches gravées, de la bibliothèque de feue S.A.R. le duc Charles-Alexandre de Lorraine [...]. Brussels, Joseph Ermens, Nr. Condition report on request.