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Rare example of Jansson's paneled map of Asia, which was included in an exceptionally rare edition of Heylyn's Cosmographia, circa 1657.
We note that as with the map of America, the panels on this example have been trimmed at the left and right, which we believe may have been how the book as intended to be issued, although according to Burden there are only 2 other known examples, one in the British Library in an extra illustrated edition of 1665 and a second which we believe was broken up by Magna Galleries in the early 1980s.
Among the other fascinating elements of the map, we note that the map is in full original ENGLISH color, which is very distinctive from Dutch color of the period.
A rare and quite exceptional find.
Jan Janssonius (also known as Johann or Jan Jansson or Janszoon) (1588-1664) was a renowned geographer and publisher of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch dominated map publishing in Europe. Born in Arnhem, Jan was first exposed to the trade via his father, who was also a bookseller and publisher. In 1612, Jan married the daughter of Jodocus Hondius, who was also a prominent mapmaker and seller. Jonssonius’ first maps date from 1616.
In the 1630s, Janssonius worked with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius. Their most successful venture was to reissue the Mercator-Hondius atlas. Jodocus Hondius had acquired the plates to the Mercator atlas, first published in 1595, and added 36 additional maps. After Hondius died in 1612, Henricus took over publication; Janssonius joined the venture in 1633. Eventually, the atlas was renamed the Atlas Novus and then the Atlas Major, by which time it had expanded to eleven volumes. Janssonius is also well known for his volume of English county maps, published in 1646.
Janssonius died in Amsterdam in 1664. His son-in-law, Johannes van Waesbergen, took over his business. Eventually, many of Janssonius’ plates were sold to Gerard Valck and Pieter Schenk, who added their names and continued to reissue the maps.
