The Atlas Minor was first published in 1607 in Latin. French and German editions followed shortly thereafter. The 1610 edition was published in Dordrecht by Adrianus Bottius. The atlas underwent some minor changes in collation when the copperplates for the maps were sold to Jan Janszoon of Arnhem in 1621. At some point before 1625, he resold the plates to some English printers, and they used the maps to illustrate editions of Purchas his Pilgrimes, as well as an English translation of Mercator's Atlas, and Michael Sparke's Historia Mundi.
The Dutch publisher Johannes Janssonius had to hire the engravers Pieter van den Keere and Abraham Goos to engrave a new set of plates as the original plates for Mercator's Atlas Minor were in England. Goos engraved the world and continents maps, while van den Keere did the remaining maps. Latin, French, Dutch, and German editions started appearing in 1628, issued with 143 maps (save the French with 142 maps). Koeman states that the present 1634 edition "is almost identical to the 1628 Latin edition, although the text is reset." In 1648, the atlas was expanded into a two-volume production, including 214 plates, of which two versions appeared, in 1648 and 1651.
Phillips highlights the following maps herein as relating to America:
- Typus Orbis Terrarum
- Europae Nova Tabula [showing Greenland]
- Asia [showing the extreme NW coast of North America]
- Americae descriptio
- Septentrionalium Terrarum... [polar region]
- Tartaria [showing the extreme NW coast of North America]
- China ["C. de Fortuna / Costa de los Iacbaios..." on NW coast]
- Insulae Indae Orientalis ["Islas de Las Velas" or Mariana Islands]
- Hispaniae Novae [New Spain]
- Nova Virginiae Tabvla.
- Cuba, Hispaniola
- America Meridionalis
Provenance
Gosivinus Golt / Bittner Engelberti Archebergi eremptus 1706
Joseph A. Thie 1899
Jodocus Hondius the Elder (1563-1612), or Joost de Hondt, was one of the most prominent geographers and engravers of his time. His work did much to establish Amsterdam as the center of cartographic publishing in the seventeenth century. Born in Wakken but raised in Ghent, the young Jodocus worked as an engraver, instrument maker, and globe maker.
Hondius moved to London in 1584, fleeing religious persecution in Flanders. There, he worked for Richard Hakluyt and Edward Wright, among others. Hondius also engraved the globe gores for Emery Molyneux’s pair of globes in 1592; Wright plotted the coastlines. His engraving and nautical painting skills introduced him to an elite group of geographic knowledge seekers and producers, including the navigators Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and Walter Raleigh, as well as engravers like Theodor De Bry and Augustine Ryther. This network gave Hondius access to manuscript charts and descriptions which he then translated into engraved maps.
In 1593 Hondius returned to Amsterdam, where he lived for the rest of his life. Hondius worked in partnership with Cornelis Claesz, a publisher, and maintained his ties to contacts in Europe and England. For example, from 1605 to 1610, Hondius engraved the plates for John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine.
One of Hondius’ most successful commercial ventures was the reprinting of Mercator’s atlas. When he acquired the Mercator plates, he added 36 maps, many engraved by him, and released the atlas under Mercator’s name, helping to solidify Mercator’s reputation posthumously. Hondius died in 1612, at only 48 years of age, after which time his son of the same name and another son, Henricus, took over the business, including the reissuing of the Mercator atlas. After 1633, Hondius the Elder’s son-in-law, Johannes Janssonius, was also listed as a co-publisher for the atlas.
Gerard Mercator is one of the most famous cartographers of all time. Mercator was born in Flanders and educated at the Catholic University in Leuven. After his graduation in 1532, Mercator worked with Gemma Frisius, a prominent mathematician, and Gaspar a Myrica, a goldsmith and engraver. Together, these men produced globes and scientific instruments, allowing Mercator to hone his skills.
With his wife, Barbara, Mercator had six children: Arnold, Emerentia, Dorothes, Bartholomeus, Rumold, and Catharina. In 1552, Mercator moved to Duisburg from Leuven, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1564, he was appointed the official cosmographer to the court of Duke Wilhelm of Cleve.
Mercator’s most important contribution was the creation and popularization of a projection which now bears his name. On Mercator projection maps, all parallels and meridians are drawn at right angles to each other, with the distance between the parallels extending towards the poles. This allowed for accurate latitude and longitude calculation and also allowed navigational routes to be drawn using straight lines, a huge advantage for sailors as this allowed them to plot courses without constant recourse to adjusting compass readings.
Mercator’s other enduring contribution to cartography is the term “atlas”, which was first used to describe his collection of maps gathered in one volume. The Mercator atlas was published in 1595, a year after Mercator’s death, thanks to the work of his sons, particularly Rumold, and his grandsons.