Paraguay, O Prov. De Rio de la Plata cum regionibus adiacentibus Tucuman et Sta. Cruz de la Sierra

Original map of Paraguay, the Río de la Plata and the surrounding region. In the centre stand out the courses of the Río de la Plata, the Paraguay River and the Paraná River, while on the left the Andes mountain range (represented pictorially) and Lake Titicaca dominate. It identifies important cities such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Santiago, Mendoza, Potosí and Cusco. The Tropic of Capricorn divides the map longitudinally and it contains some of the most characteristic elements of the Dutch golden age of cartography, such as a ship, a sea monster and a compass rose crowned by a fleur-de-lis. Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) was a prominent Dutch publisher and geographer. He studied with the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and established a shop of globes, maps and astronomical instruments in Amsterdam. In 1635 he published his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive, Atlas novus. Three years later, Blaeu died and bequeathed his publishing firm to his sons Cornelius and Johannes, with whom it continued to prosper. The latter was responsible for the Atlas Major that was published in two volumes in 1662 and contained six hundred maps. This work was not as accurate and up to date as its author would have liked, but this deficiency was surpassed by the fine engraving and the colour, to the point of being considered one of the best of its kind. In 1672 a fire destroyed Blaeu’s printing house and a year later he died. The plates and maps that survived the fire were dispersed, passing into the hands of F. de Wit, Schenk and Valck.