Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
| Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
| Title: | Ionnes Blaev Lectori Salvtem |
| Pagination: | [2r] |
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When, reader, some years ago I published England, I gave a promise that, after the edition of maps of Belgian Cities, I would issue Scotland. Now I fulfil it: here is Scotland together with Ireland, as the fifth part of my Atlas. I dedicate it to your prudence and benevolence, so that it may sail with the support of these favourable winds, or rather may fly to the attention of men like you, who are capable of both understanding and forgiving. For it is obviously a new work which is now for the first time perceived by your eyes; it has come together from the industry and labour of various people; for the weight of an Atlas, which carries the whole sphere of Earth, cannot be sustained even in part by one man.
What each has done I shall set out. Timothy Pont, a native Scot, traversed widely every region of Scotland, more curiously observed details by eye, and reduced them to some maps, still crude, as all tasks are imperfect at their beginning. John Scot of Scotstarvit with amazing care collected both these and others, scattered in the hands of various persons, and sent them to me like sacred images from a shipwreck, torn indeed and very unsightly. These I arranged and frequently separated into several what was one confused map. The final touch was provided here by Robert and James Gordon, who besides corrections to Pont’s maps, also
