Tartaria Sive Magnichami Imperium.

Decorative copperplate map of china, tartary and Central Asia from Mongolia and Xanadu to the Caspian Sea and Volva River and to Tibet nad the Ganges River. Two splendid figural cartouches, one featuring a camel.

The Amsterdam based Blaeu family represents the single most important family in the history of cartography. The firm was founded in 1596 by Willem Janzoon Blaeu (1571-1638).

It was in this initial period, from 1596 to 1672, under the leadership of the Willem Blaeu and with this assistance of his two talented sons Cornelius (1616-1648) and Johannis (1596-1673), that the firm was most active. In 1633 Willem was appointed map-maker of the Dutch East India Company. He was also an editor and published works of Decartes,Visscher as well as several others.

Their greatest cartographic achievement was the publication of the magnificent multi-volume “Atlas Major”. To this day, the Atlas Major represents one of the finest developments in cartography. The vast scope, high attention to detail, historical importance, and unparalleled beauty of this great work redefined the field of cartography in ways that have endured well into to the modern era. The cartographic works of the Blaeu firm are the crowning glory of the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography.

The firm shut down in 1672 when their offices were destroyed during the Great Amsterdam Fire. The fire also destroyed all of Blaeu's original printing plates and records, an incomparable loss to the history of cartography.