Beschreibung:

BLAEU, Willem (1571-1638) and Joan (1596-1673). Atlas maior, sive cosmographia blauiana [volume VI, books XII: Scotia and XIII: Hibernia only]. Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu 1662 [part title amended in manuscript from 'M DC LIV' to 'M DC LXV']. 2 parts in one volume, 2° (520 x 336mm). Volume title with hand-coloured woodcut printer's device heightened in gold, hand-coloured engraved part title to book XII heightened in gold, with letterpress slip bearing title tipped into blank cartouche, letterpress part title to part XIII. 54 double-page and one single-page engraved maps, hand-coloured in outline. Woodcut tailpieces, initials (title and part title remargined, title neatly repaired, some browning, one map slightly wormed and supplied). 20th-century blind-panelled calf, flat spine gilt in compartments, gilt leather lettering-piece in one, gilt edges (lightly scuffed, spine and outer areas of boards faded). The present copy appears to be an early, variant issue of the first Latin edition of volume VI of the Atlas maior . This was, as Skelton notes, 'substantially a reissue of the Latin edition [of the Atlas novus ] of 1654' (the first printed atlas of Scotland), adding amended preliminary matter to the remainder sheets. The present copy conforms to Skelton 58, variant C, with all but one of the exceptions recorded under Skelton 74A. That variation occurs on quire **: instead of bearing the Imperial and States-General privileges on **1r-2v, this copy has Gordon's letter to Scot on **1r, and the Imperial privilege on **1v-2v (as does Skelton 58C), suggesting that this copy is a transitional issue between Skelton 58C and the first Latin edition, 74A, a possibility reinforced by the significant variations between the collation of Skelton 58 and the present volume (particularly the greater number of singletons in the present copy and the part title to 'Hibernia'). Chubb p.372, IV; NMM 3, i, 71; Skelton County Atlases 74A. Cf. Koeman Bl56 (second Latin edition).