- Title: Tabula Generalis Sabaudiae
- Author: House of Blaeu
- Date: 1682
- Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving
- Condition: Very Good - age toning, paper loss in margins, wear along issued center fold
- Inches: 24 x 20 1/4 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 60.9 x 51.4 [Paper]
- Product ID: 233043
The map depicts the Duchy of Savoy, which encompassed parts of modern France, Italy, and Switzerland. It includes beautiful engravings showing Savoy's Coats of Arms held by cherubs.
Background on Creator
The House of Blaeu was a renowned Dutch cartographic publishing dynasty based in Amsterdam, active during the 17th century and celebrated for producing some of the finest maps and atlases of the era. The firm was founded by Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571–1638), who initially trained under the astronomer Tycho Brahe before establishing himself as a leading printer, globe maker, and mapmaker in Amsterdam by the early 1600s. Blaeu’s first map appeared in 1604, and by the 1610s he was recognized as one of the city’s foremost cartographers.
Willem Blaeu’s sons, Joan (1596–1673) and Cornelis, inherited the business after his death in 1638, with Joan eventually becoming the sole proprietor. Under Joan’s leadership, the House of Blaeu reached its zenith, publishing the monumental Atlas Maior in 1662—an eleven-volume work featuring around 600 maps, regarded as the most splendid and expensive atlas of the 17th century. Joan Blaeu was also the official cartographer to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), a prestigious appointment that cemented the firm’s influence in European and global mapmaking.