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Description

Nice old color map of Lithuania, with parts of Poland, Prussia, Ukraine and Belarus, published by Gerard Mercator.

This is one of the maps which includes Gerhard Marcator's name as the map maker. Extends from the Baltic, including part of Prussia, to the Carpathian mountains at the headwaters of the Vistula in the southwest, confluence of the Bug and Dnieper Rivers in the Southeast and the headwaters of the Volga in Belarus.

The map is centered on Lithuania and shows many cities, towns, rivers, mountains, forests, lakes, etc.  

Per Andrew Kapochunas, Gerard Mercator first created the map but it was published by Rumold until 1599. Subsequently, Gerard Jr. published plates until 1604. For the next thirty years, Jocodus Hondius, who had bought the plates, issued the map.

This is a late state of the map, which was created by Gerard Mercator and issued by Hondius.

Condition Description
Old color. Minor toning.
Jodocus Hondius Biography

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.