Johannes Blaeu

A 17th century map of the early exploration of the Arctic Circle.

• Johannes Blaeu (Dutch).
• Regiones sub Polo Arctico.
• Amsterdam: 1662.
• Original color with gold highlights.
• Unframed.

The Arctic Circle, showing European attempts to find the Northwest and Northeast Passages. In Arctic America, the preponderance of English names shows the importance of the English explorers in the region, trying to circumvent the Spanish control of routes to the East Indies. On Greenland and the entrance to "M. Forbischers Straet" is marked, and in Arctic Russia the names are those given by the Dutch explorers such as Berentz.