Now available: accompanying publication
This year we will complete the publication of the facsimile of the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem. To celebrate this occasion, we have just published an accompanying publication with background information on the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem and the production of the facsimile. In this book, various experts on the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem describe the many aspects of this unique compilation atlas from the 17th century. The book contains contributions by Roelof van Gelder on the Atlas of Laurens van de Hem and his library, a detailed description of the life and works of the collector and the making of his Atlas; Truusje Goedings on the coloration of the Atlas; Erlend de Groot on the art historical aspects of a series of drawings from the Atlas; Peter van der Krogt on the Atlas Maior by Blaeu, which served as the point of departure for the Atlas; Benjamin Schmidt on the printed maps from the Atlas, and Dick Gaasbeek on the making of the facsimile of the Atlas, including a detailed description of the photography, the printing and the binding. Together with an introduction by Günter Schilder, this book further contains a catalogue with the numbers and titles of, and brief information on all the maps and images present in the 8 volumes of the facsimile.
Cloth with full colour dust jacket. 28 x 20 cm. 240 pp. ISBN 978 90 6194 300 6.
Price: € 318,-
For more information or to order, visit our website: www.hesdegraaf.com
Documentary on DVD now available
A documentary on the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem is now available on DVD. This DVD gives an amazing report on the history of the Atlas and the coming about of the facsimile. It is directed by the well known Dutch director Han Budding (a.o. `Tussen Kunst & Kitsch`, the Dutch version of the Antiques Roadshow).
Length of the documentary: 50 minutes
Available in English and Dutch, in PAL and NTSC version.
Price: € 49.95
For more information or to order the DVD, see our website: www.hesdegraaf.com
Video teaser on the production of the facsimile
Below you can view a small compilation of a 50 minutes long documentary showing the entire production process of the facsimile edition of the Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem as well as the fascinating story of how the original 17th century atlas came to be. The full documentary highlights the uncompromising production values of the facsimile and the historic and cultural importance of the entire project. The full length documentary will be available in a few months.
The Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem from HES & DE GRAAF Publishers on Vimeo.
Facsimile at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2009
Ocober 14-18 2009 HES & DE GRAAF Publishers will bring a copy of the Facsimile Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem to the Frankfurter Buchmesse. We invite anyone who is interested in viewing the facsimile to visit our stand. Also, if you would like to discuss a possible sales co-operation regarding the facsimile, we encourage you to visit us at our booth 6.0 C 938.
International presentation
On June 2
nd 2009 the international presentation of the Facsimile Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem took place in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (National Library of Austria) in Vienna. During a festive evening with important guests and interesting speeches, the publisher from HES & DE GRAAF Publishers BV was proud to present the first four volumes of the Facsimile Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem. The complete set of eight volumes (pertaining the 11 volumes of the original Atlas Van der Hem containing the non-European parts) will be published end 2009.
On the evening of June 2nd many guest gathered in the beautiful and impressing Prunksaal of the Austrian National Library where they listened to speeches of General Direktorin Frau Dr. Johanna Rachinger, the Dutch ambassador for Austria, Mr. Drs. A.C.M. Hamer, the publisher Mr. Sebastian Hesselink and the maps conservator of the ONB, Herr Jan Mokre. Emeritus Professor Günter Schilder completed the official part of the evening with his festive speech.
Afterwards the visitors were allowed to look through the facsimile atlas, as this is exactly one of te important achievements of this high quality facsimile: the original volumes of the Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem will now be watched and preserved even more meticulously and will probably never be shown to the public again and will only be available to a very few scientists or other researchers in the future.
Volume V of the Facsimile Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem on display in the Prunksaal, ONB.
General Direktorin Frau Dr. Johanna Rachinger
Publisher, Sebastiaan Hesselink, HES & DE GRAAF Publishers
Director of the maps department, Mag. Jan Mokre
Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem media exposure
Over the last months there has been a tremendous amount of media coverage of our facsimile edition of the Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem. Most of the reports were published in newspapers and magazines. Below you can find some of these reports that have also been published online:
Websites in Dutch:
Two large Dutch newspapers (Het Parool and De Telegraaf) have both published full-page articles on the Van der Hem facsimile. Unfortunately, these articles are not available online.
Websites in English:
In The Book Collector, Volume 58 no 2, Summer 2009, the following review appeared:
"HES & DE GRAAF announce the publication of a facsimile of the Atlas Blaeu-De Hem. This is a copy of the great Blaeu Atlas Maior, itself a collection of a generation of Dutch map-making, here enlarged with extra maps and topographical drawings for the use of Laurens van der Hem, a contemporary Amsterdam lawyer and collector. The De Hems heirs sold it to Prince Eugene in 1730, and his daughter sold it to the imperial library; it is now in the Österreichische National Bibliothek. The complete atlas runs to fifty volumes, of which eleven have been reproduced, covering the exotic lands, three on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Africa, with Morocco and Madagascar, four reproducing the ‘secret atlas’ of the Dutch East India Company, two more covering China and all of Asia to the west, from Tartary to Palestine and Anatolia, and two final volumes, one dealing with north, central and south America, the other with ‘Dutch Brazil’, the northern parts of modern Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela and the south Caribbean coast. Besides fine copies of all the relevant Blaeu maps there are original drawings by Callot, two Cornelises, Dekker and Janzs, Adrian Matham, Zeeman, three Peeters, Bonaventura I & II and Jan, and others, as well as material from the Vingboons album.
All these have been accompanied with preliminary essays, including a biography of Van der Hem, the history of the Blaeu firm, on the colouring and art content, and (art upon art) on the production of the facsimile. The whole is bound in eight huge volumes in imitation of the original puglisher’s vellum binding, price €79,500 (€75,000 outside the EEC); a combined horizontal storage unit with folding lectern on top, elegantly made of rosewood, adds €11,840.50 (€9950 outside the EU). A suitably sumptuous brochure is available from Hes & De Graaf (PO Box 540, 3990 GH Houten, The Netherlands, info@hesdegraaf.com), including eight well-chosen samples of the facsimile, each with a full-size detail on one side, on the other a reduced reproduction of the whole, with the relevant explanatory text: among them the original Blaeu maps of Peking, southern Africa and southern New Wngland down to New York, the Vingboons chart of Ternate (a regular VOC staging post), the fort at Osaaka and Acapulco, and a very fine drawing of the citadel at Aleppo by Bonaventura Peeters I&II. As a publishing venture this is remarkable indeed. As a scholarly contribution to the history of the Dutch colonial enterprise, it needs no further commendation; any public or private library well enough endowed to invest in it will be richly rewarded."
Official presentation April 2009 in Amsterdam
On April 16th 2009, the official presentation of the first copy of the Facsimile Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem will take place in Amsterdam.
On this day the Special Collections department of the University of Amsterdam will organize a symposium in collaboration with Werkgroep voor de Geschiedenis van de Kartografie, Amsterdams Centrum voor de Studie van de Gouden Eeuw and Amsterdam Wereldboeken Stad. At this occasion the first copy will be presented by HES & DE GRAAF Publishers.
For all information, registration for the symposium or more details see website Bijzondere Collecties or click here to download the official announcement and programme for the symposium.
High quality sample gallery now online
Under the button "Illustrations" you can now find high quality samples of maps, views, drawings and charts taken from the facsimile edition of the Atlas Blaeu - Van der Hem.
There was some delay preparing these samples for internet viewing because the digital files used to produce the facsimile were extremly large in filesize. Below are a few quick links to the sample galleries.