Joan Blaeu (1596-1673)

Joan Blaeu, eldest son of Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638), studied law at the University of Leiden before going into partnership with his father in the 1630s. Under his leadership the Blaeu printing press moved towards the printing of maps and became the largest printing press in 17th-century Europe.

This map by the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini, was published in the Atlas Sinensis. It is the first map ever to show Korea as a peninsula. The northern parts of Honshu ("Iaponia") incorporate the "discoveries" of Maerten Geritszoon de Vries (1643).