BLAEU, J. / MORTIER, P. - Valletta ou Valete ville Forte, de l'Isle de Malta.

A beautifully engraved and richly detailed birds-eye plan of the harbour and city of Valletta seen from the northwest. In lower part extensive key, identifying 57 feautures on the plan. Joan Blaeu published during his life three town-books of Italy; Citta del Vaticano, Rome and Napoli. By the year 1672 a fire largely destroyed the main Blaeu workshop, and much of the prepared material. However, work on the town-book continued, and in 1682 the completed work was published in Amsterdam by the heirs of Joan Blaeu. The town-book was a great success and reissued several times by different publishers in Amsterdam, as late as 1726. Pierre Mortier re-issued all the Blaeu plates in the years 1704/05 in an atlas comprising four volumes. The plates are now signed "A Amsterdam chez Pierre Mortier".