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Second Dutch edition. Amsterdam: Apud Iohannem Blaeu, 1648. Folio (22 3/16" x 14 1/8", 564mm x 360mm): Ï 1 *2 **1 A-4S2 5K2 4V-6O2 [$1 signed; -*1]. Pp. [8] (title (engraved with letterpress), blank, Blaeu to the reader, 4pp. Camden to the reader, poem), 1-364, [2] (register, blank), with 58 double-page hand-colored and gilded engraved maps, sometimes integral to the foliation, sometimes additional. Bound in seventeenth-century ribbon-bound red morocco (attributed to the workshop of Albert Magnus). On the boards, an elaborate gilt scrollwork-and-bird border surrounding four gilt corner-ornaments with an inner gilt scrollwork-and-bird border surrounding a gilt central ornament. On the spine, ten raised bands with a gilt roll. In the panels, gilt scrollwork surrounding a gilt scrollwork lozenge. Title (ATLAS/IV.STVCK/ENGELANDT) gilt to the second panel. On the edges of the boards, gilt roll. Four blue silk ribbon ties at the fore-edge. All edges of the text-block gilt. An exceptional binding, which has at various stages had some repairs, most of which are quite subtle. Some scuffs and patches of darkening. Internally, a mild dampstain at the spine, sometimes causing pigment bleed and offset. 4T (2pp. text and map of Cheshire) has been swapped for the analogous sheet from the Spanish edition, on a slightly smaller (352mm tall) sheet. Several pages remargined, or otherwise repaired. Gilt armorial bookplate of Alexander Lawson Duncan to the rear paste-down. Joan Blaeu (1596-1673) was, along with his father Willem and brother Cornelis, the great Dutch cartographer of the Golden Age. He was made official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company after his father's death. The joint family project was the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (first issued 1635), and after the death of the patriarch in 1638 the Theatrum was gradually expanded into the so-called Atlas Maior (Greater Atlas). The England volume (the fourth part of the Theatrum) draws on Speed's maps and Camden's text from earlier in the XVIIc. Blaeu's mastery of engraving and mise-en-page give the work power and beauty. The bibliography of the work is highly variable. This is van der Krogt/Koeman 2:322K, the second Dutch edition, with aspects of both the a and b issues (no priority; vdK/K has not seen any copies thus). Made with a view toward the longstanding Atlas Maior (of which it would eventually be part 5), it is given the designation (M). Dr. Truusje Goedings, the scholar of polychromy in this period, has studied the book via high-resolution photos. The coloring has been attributed to Dirk Janszoon Van Santen, and the binding to the workshop of Albert Magnus; this combination is the very finest pedigree for a Blaeu atlas. Van Santen was lavish with his use of ultramarine (ground lapis lazuli, found only in Afghanistan) and gilt, and his coloring is noted for its expressiveness and depth. Alexander Lawson Duncan (1859-1924) of Jordanstone (Perthshire, Scotland) amassed a large library at Jordanstone House (of which many items, though not the present one, were disbursed by Lyon & Turnbull after the death of Lady Duncan). His son, Sir James, was a major benefactor of the arts (setting up the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee (now a faculty of the University). Van der Krogt/Koeman Atlantes Nederlandici 2:322K[a-]b(M). Seller Inventory # 6JLR0088
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