[Title Page] Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus in quo Tabulæ et Descriptiones Omnium Regionum, Editæ a Guiljel: et Ioanne Blaeu.
     Theater of the World, or a New Atlas of Maps and Representations of All Regions, Edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu.
      Preview Image | 150 dpi image | 500 dpi image [THE ATRVM-LAB.tif]

Browse Contents
     Europae Septentrionalia & Orientalia Northern and Eastern Europe (without thumbnail images)
     Germania Germany (without thumbnail images)
     Germania Inferior Lower Germany (without thumbnail images)

Indexes of Place Names
     Latin Names
     Translated Names
     Modern Countries

Description of the Blaeu Atlas
     This Latin edition of Willem Janszoon and Joan Blaeu's Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas novus was published in 4 volumes beginning in 1645. The first edition of this atlas was published in 1635 as a two volume set in German, Dutch, Latin, and French. By 1662 the atlas had grown to 11 or 12 volumes depending on the edition and the inclusion of a sea-atlas. At this point in time the atlas became known as the Atlas maior. This work is considered the Blaeus' crowning achievement in the field of cartography.
     YRL Reference and Instructional Services owns the first volume of the set, "Europa-Germania-Germania Inferior". The volume was given to the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies as part of a donation from the Margaret W. Romani Estate, and the Center offered the Atlas to the UCLA Library. The atlas contains extensive text, but only the map pages were scanned for this project. Scanning was funded by the Henry J. Bruman Educational Foundation.
     This copy of the atlas lacks the following maps (based on the Table of Contents): Orbis Terrarum. Europa. Norvegiæ descriptio. Lithuania Magnus ducatus. Borysthenes fluvius. Hassia Landgraviatus. Francofurtense territorium. Danubius, & in illum defluentes fluvii. Dunkercka. Geldria ducatus. Hollandia comitatus. Zeelandia comitatus. Frisia Occidentalis.

Technical Metadata
     Individual pages from the Library's Blaeu Atlas were scanned by Blair Graphics (http://www.blairgfx.com/) between July and November 2000 with a Tangent Imaging System Digital Composite Color Scanner (model CCS500-44SF) using Tangent's Reproworks 3.0 software. Images were scanned at 500 dpi in Lab color mode and color corrected by Blair staff using Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and Blair Graphics' color profiles. Files were saved in uncompressed TIFF format.
     The 150 dpi images available on the web were processed from the original files by UCLA Library staff using Adobe Photoshop 5.0. The images were converted to RGB mode, image size was reduced to 150 dpi, and contrast was increased by 15 points for greater on-screen clarity. Preview images were further reduced in image size to 1000 pixels horizontal (with some variation for non-standard pages). Thumbnail images were further reduced in image size to 150 pixels horizontal (again with some variations) and contrast was increased an additional 15 points.

Browse Contents | Indexes of Names | Description of the Atlas | Technical Metadata