Old Map of Wales 1645 by Jean Blaeu - Cardiff, Swansea, Pembrokeshire
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This vividly coloured map of Wales was produced in 1645 by Jean (Joan) Blaeu, one of the most celebrated cartographers of the Dutch Golden Age, working from his renowned workshop in Amsterdam. It originally appeared in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Sive Atlas Novus, one of the most ambitious atlas projects of the seventeenth century. True to the conventions of the time, the map is titled in Latin - "Wallia Principatus Vulgo Wales" - reflecting the old Latin name for the principality.
Despite its age, the map is remarkably legible to modern eyes, with many familiar Welsh towns already recorded by the 1640s. Cardiff, Newport and Chepstow line the south coast, while inland you can find Abergavenny, Hay, Caernarfon and Denbigh, along with the scattered villages of Pembrokeshire tracing the west coast. It's a wonderful piece for tracing how the shape of Wales has - and hasn't - changed in the centuries since.
With its warm hand-colouring and old-world charm, this map makes a heartfelt gift for a birthday, Christmas or housewarming - ideal for any proud Welshman or Welshwoman who wants a piece of home on the wall, wherever life has taken them.
