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With our knowledge of the Contents of the four copies of the Atlantis Appendix
of 1630 the following conclusion can be made: between the years 1620-1630 a large
number of separate maps has been published by different editors at Amsterdam.
This aspect of individual issues is the predominant characteristic of Dutch carto-
graphy during the first thirty years of the 17th Century. The 15 inserted maps of
copy IV add new evidence in Support of the already existing theory on this subject.
The edition by W. J. Blaeu, in 1630, of the Atlantis Appendix with 60 maps could
not satisfy the buyers, as they knew of more current maps in that time. It has probably
been usual in 1630 to Supplement a newly-acquired Appendix with individual maps
of other authors. It may be that W. J. Blaeu did not have copies of the Appendix
bound until the customers asked for theman indication for it may be found in the
differences between the four known copies (f.i. the non-identical maps of France
and Spain). So customers had an opportunity for choice between at least three ver-
sions of these maps.
The apparent incompleteness of Blaeu's first atlas is clearly demonstrated by the
buyers' attitude to the insertion of maps immediately. This makes it quite understand-
able that Blaeu increased the number of maps in the Appendix to over a hundred
in the next year. The conception for the Appendix dated 1631, including the text,
will probably have been made ultimately in 1630. In advance of the edition of it,
Blaeu tried to serve customers and to get some profit of his conception as soon as
possible. So he printed a preliminary 'index' and wrote the year 1630 in the title page.
The four copies, now known, accentuate the opinion that the edition of 1630 was
a 'preludium' for the edition of 1631 rather than the edition of 1631 a perfection
of the Appendix of 1630.
B. The Archives of the Topographical Service at Delft possess a world atlas in
two volumes with 250 maps by Blaeu without text. There is no direct relation
between this remarkable atlas and the subjects referred to above, apart from the name
Blaeu and the characteristic of the blank backs of all the mapsheets.
As far as is known, the Atlantis Appendix of 1630 is the one and only Blaeu
atlas without text. Therefore a collection of 250 maps with blank back, bound up in
two volumes and arranged like a Blaeu atlas, deserves serious attention. As we find
references on such atlasses, neither in literature, nor in antiquarian's catalogues, one
may suppose that it concerns here a unique copy. We will not say that there don't
exist maps, printed by Blaeu, without text. They are not numerous, but they exist.
Often they are referred to as 'proof sheets'. Recently the author inspected a set of
mapsheets of the Dutch provinces by Blaeu, without text, collected in one small
volume, preceded by a handwritten index. And in 1910, a copy of a Blaeu atlas in
one volume, without text, was offered in the antiquarian's catalogue Geographie-
Voyages of Messrs Fred. Muller Co., Amsterdam, under number 2545, the de-
scription of which reads as follows:
RussieSuede. Pologne. Atlas de ces pays. Tirage part, sans texte, du grand
Atlas de Blaeu, publie vers 1660, 3 titres et 19 cartes coloriees. gr. in. fol. fl. 40.
- Ce n'est pas une partie decoupee de 1'atlas, comme on en offre parfois mais c'est
un tirage part des cartes seules; le texte n'a pas ete imprimee
But a collection of 250 sheets of the period 1630-1664, without text, arranged in
the same order as in the Blaeu world atlases, the sheets continuously numbered in
a 17th Century handwriting and the maps evidently printed in different periods, has
probably been assembled with a fixed intention. The Solution of the mystery of this
intention may contribute to the scarce knowledge we have of Blaeu's production
process.
