Joan Blaeu (1596-1673) took over the cartographic publishing house of his father Willem Blaeu (1573-1638). His ‘Great Atlas oft Description of the World’ in nine volumes (Amsterdam 1664-1665) was considered to be the most beautifully produced atlas at that time. Lavishly bound copies in colour were given to royal personages as gifts and were a popular collectors’ item. Another famous publication was his Atlas of Dutch Cities from 1652. Blaue is resting his left hand on a tellurion, an instrument that shows how day, night and the seasons result from the tilt of the earth. In 1672, a year after Joan Blaeu’s death, the printing house with its nine printing presses, known as ‘The Nine Muses’, was destroyed by fire.