EVENTS CALENDAR
Sotheby’s sale of Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History in London on May 9 includes this large wall map of south-east Asia and Australia by the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu (1596-1673). Titled Archipelagus Orientalis Sive Asiaticus, Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1659, the six engraved sheets include panels of descriptive text in Latin, Dutch and French.
In his capacity as cartographer to the Dutch East India Company, Blaeu had access to the company’s records of the ongoing exploration of the coasts of Australia. These included the earliest recorded European landfall, by the Dutch ship Duyfken in 1606, up to the more extensive exploration conducted by Abel Janszoon Tasman in 1642-44.