Blaeu Atlas of Scotland

Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland in the Atlas of Scotland

The book commonly known as Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, the fifth volume of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Sive Atlas Novus, is the first known atlas of Scotland and Ireland.[1] It was compiled by Joan Blaeu, and contains 49 engraved maps and 154 pages of descriptive text written in Latin; it was first published in 1654.[1] Most of the maps were made by Timothy Pont, a Scottish cartographer. Those maps, made between 1583 and 1596, were collected, edited, and augmented with other maps (made by Robert Gordon of Straloch and his son James) by John Scot, Lord Scotstarvit, a Scottish laird.

It is the first known atlas of Scotland, and is praised for its quality and its importance; cartobibliographer Jeffrey Stone said in 1972 that for a century after its publication nothing notable happened in the cartography of Scotland. A translated version, including additional documentation, was published in association with the National Library of Scotland in 2006.

  1. ^ a b "Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 8 February 2014.