- Title: Extima Scotiae Septentrionalis Ora
- Author: Joan Blaeu
- Date: 1654
- Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving
- Condition: Excellent
- Inches: 21 1/8 x 16 3/4 [Plate Mark]
- Centimeters: 53.66 x 42.55 [Plate Mark]
- Product ID: 3011002
Map of the Scottish Highlands including its counties and major geographic features, as well as cities of the region.
Extima Scotiae Septentrionalis Ora, ubi Provinciae sunt Rossia, Sutherlandia, Cathensesia, Strath-Naverniae, cum vicinis regiunculis quae eis subsunt, etiamque Moravia. R. Gordonius a Strath-loch collegit et descripsit.
"Northern coast of Scotland, where the provinces of Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Strath-Navern are, with neighboring regionswhich are beneath them, and also Moray. R. Gordon from Strath-loch collected and recorded."
Dutch cartographer Willem Blaeu (1571-1638), and later his heirs, dominated the world cartographic landscape for much of the seventeenth century. Blaeu studied under Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, one of the major figures in the history of modern astronomy. After returning to the Low Countries from Denmark in the late 1590s, Blaeu set up shop as a cartographer and globe maker. He produced numerous atlases, and in 1633 became the official mapmaker of the Dutch East India Company, the megacorporation which, thanks to Dutch naval prowess, controlled the seventeenth-century global economy. Numerous depictions of Blaeu maps appear in the work of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Blaeu's sons, cartographers Cornelis and Joan (or Johannes) Blaeu, took over the family business after their father's death.