Le Flambeau de la Navigation,

£60,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

Rare complete French edition of Janssonius's 1620 navigational atlas. Janssonius printed, after the 1620 Dutch and French editions, five Dutch, two English, and three French editions, of the 'Flambeau de la Navigation' after Willem Janszoon Blaeu until 1637. His navigation manual is considered on of the great books of Dutch cartography and one of the widest used pilot books for the European coasts. The work covers Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, France, Portugal, Spain, the western North African coast, the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores, south coasts of Ireland and England, Friesland, the German North Sea, Jutland, Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Prussia, the Baltic, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, northern Russia, the Faroe Islands, Shetland, the Hebrides, and the east coast of Scotland and England. 'Blaeu, using his patronym Janszoon, published his first book of sea-charts in 1608 (not in the BL) under the title 'Het Licht der Zee-vaert'. This work proved in demand as it updated the pioneering chart atlases of Lucas Waghenaer dating from the 1580s... None of the maps is signed by the engraver, but Destombes has conjectured that he might have been Joshua van den Ende. One of the two sea-men shown on the title-page is thought to represent Blaeu himself.' (Shirley). Blaeu claimed no originality for 'The Light of Navigation', but he did claim that its original source - Waghanaer's 'Mariner's Mirrour' - was 'corrected from manie faults, and inlarged with manie new Descripti

• Binding: Hardcover

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