24 
H. G. FORDHAM-HERTFORDSHIRE MAPS. 
Coat of Arms with pennons hearing crosses of St. George and 
St. Andrew.* In right bottom corner group of three soldiers, 
one seated and drawing on scroll, and below, scale of miles and 
“ Milliaria Anglica quorum quatuor unum Germanicum .” 
This map is from the 4 Theatrum Orbis Terr arum sive Atlas 
JYovus . . . .’ Amstelodami. A pud Guilielmum et Johannem Blaeu. 
Anno clo Iocxxxvm (1638), large folio, published in a series of 
volumes dated successively. Great Britain is printed, with the 
text of Camden’s ‘ Britannia ,’ in the fourth part, Amstelodami. 
Apud Johannem Blaeu , do Iocxlviii (1648). 
It is difficult to assign dates to the various editions of this great 
work, and to the subsequent editions published under the title 
‘ Geographia , quce est Cosmographies Blavianee Pars Prima etc., 
more shortly denominated the ‘ Atlas Major ’ (q.v., post, p. 28). 
The first appeared in Latin, Trench, and Dutch only (at least, 
I have not seen copies in any other languages), the second in Latin, 
Trench, Dutch, and Spanish, and in its later and more complete 
form in editions of nine (Dutch), ten (Spanish), eleven (Latin), 
and twelve (Trench) large folio volumes. 
This work was commenced by William Blaeu, but as he died 
in 1634, the publication must have been principally carried through 
by his sons Johannes and Cornelis, the name of the former generally 
appearing alone on the title-page. A primary difficulty in fixing 
the dates of the various editions arises through the practice of 
adopting for all editions the original engraved title-page with the 
Latin imprint and the date 1638, etc., at foot, with a title in 
the language of the particular edition, but undated, pasted in. 
A Trench edition in the Inner Temple Library has the following 
title: 1 Le Theatre du Monde ou Nouvel Atlas contenant Les Chartes 
et Descriptions De tous les Pais de la terre Mis en lumiere , Par 
Guillaume et Jean Blaeu,' and below the Latin imprint and the 
date 1638. The fourth part of this edition contains Great Britain, 
and is dated 1648, with an address to the reader by Jehan Blaeu, 
dated 1st October, 1645, and a dedication to u Henriette-Marie, 
Reyne de la Grande Bretagne, France, et YrlandeP The text is that 
of Camden’s ‘ Britannia ,’ and there are 63 maps in the volume. 
In a Dutch edition, in seven volumes, in the British Museum, as 
well as in a copy in the Library of the Boyal Geographical Society, 
Great Britain is found in the fourth volume, with the date 1648 
(preface dated 12th November, 1647). William Blaeu had published 
previously, in 1631, an Appendix to the 4 Theatrum ’ of Ortelius 
and Mercator, but I have seen only one volume (in the University 
library, Cambridge), and this does not contain any maps of Great 
Britain. There is also, in the Bibliotheque nationale, in Paris, 
a single volume (the ninth) of the 4 Geographic Blavianej which 
is dated Amsterdam, 1640. 
It may therefore be that in assigning 1648 as the earliest date 
of the publication of Blaeu’s map of Herts I am on rather 
Reproduced in facsimile as the tailpiece on p. 32. 
