Utriusque Castiliae Nova Descriptio – Castile – Madrid – Segovia – Alcalá – Toledo – Cuidad Real – Original Copper Engraved Map – 1650

Publisher: Blaeu, Willem
Price: £250
Publication Date: Not dated but c.1650
Format: Original copper engraving with original or early hand-colouring
Condition: In near fine condition, unframed
Sheet Size: 62.5cm x 53.3cm

Condition:

Date: c.1650. Dutch text to the reverse. Sheet Size: 62.5cm x 53.3cm. Original or early hand-colouring. Original central fold lines. Minor creasing. Very minor age-toning but generally very bright and clean with very good, wide margins. A strong impression. Overall in near fine condition. Scarce thus.

Description:

Castiliae Veteris et Novae (“Old and New Castile”)—is a mid-seventeenth-century copper-engraved regional map by the Amsterdam firm of Willem and Joan Blaeu. Issued in the great Atlas Novus and subsequent Blaeu atlases, it presents the heartland of the Spanish monarchy with a blend of scholarly cartography and sumptuous design.

Geographic scope and content

• Territorial division: The sheet covers Castile la Vieja (Old Castile) to the north and Castile la Nueva (New Castile) to the south, reflecting early-modern administrative geography.
• Principal cities and towns: Expect to see Toledo (the historic seat of the archbishop and namesake of New Castile), Valladolid and Burgos (key centres in Old Castile), Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca, Soria, and an increasingly prominent Madrid (often Latinised as Matritum), whose political rise is already legible in Blaeu’s treatment.
• Rivers and relief: The Duero (Douro) drains the northern plateau, while the Tajo (Tagus) flows westward through New Castile. Blaeu renders the Sistema Central—including the Sierra de Guadarrama and Sierra de Gredos—with “molehills” in shaded relief, a period convention that nonetheless communicates the barrier between the Meseta’s northern and southern tables.
• Roads and provinces: Although not a road map, the density and hierarchy of settlements imply principal routes linking court, cathedral cities, and university towns. Provincial labels and border stippling help the reader navigate administrative units.

Sources and method

Blaeu’s practice combined best-available Iberian surveys with Netherlandish compilations. The firm routinely re-evaluated earlier models (Ortelius, Hondius and regional Spanish cartographers), correcting coastlines and refining river courses and toponymy. While triangulation in the modern sense was not applied systematically across inland Spain, the comparative consistency of river basins, inter-city distances, and mountain chains in Castiliae shows a conscientious editorial hand. Place-names appear in Latinised or early-modern spellings, with significant towns in larger roman types and minor places in italic—a visual hierarchy that aids quick reading.

Location: Map Drawer C: SR: 003022

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