Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
The item illustrated and described below is sold, but we have another example in stock. To view the example which is currently being offered for sale, click the "View Details" button below.
1641 Henricus Hondius
$ 1,400.00
Description

Decorative example of Jansson's edition of this highly decorative map of Africa. The map is richly embellished both inside and outside the map with a number of indigenous animals, seven sailing vessels, six flying fish, four sea monsters, and, in the lower left, Neptune embraces a mermaid.

This remarkable map of Africa was originally published in 1619 as a separate map in a set of four continent maps by Jodocus Hondius Jr. (1593-1629). Jodocus drew his map from the earlier work of his father, Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), who mapped Africa in 1606 with a border of town views top and bottom and five pairs of Africans on either side.

In 1631, it was reissued by Jodocus's brother, Henricus Hondius (1597-1651), as part of his folio atlas without the large decorative border. The copperplates of the map continued to be held within the family and were used by Jodocus's brother-in-law, Johannes Janssonius (Jan Jansson), in his Atlas Novus published from 1646-1657. This is the fifth state of the map with Jansson's imprint at the bottom right and Latin text on the verso.

While the general geography for this map is taken from Willem Blaeu's wall map of 1608 and his 1617 folio map, this example represents a considerable advance in the detail and accuracy of Africa from Hondius' prior maps. Geographical improvements include a more rounded southern Cape, the naming of the Rio de Spiritu Santo and of the Cuama River , the insertion of Zimbaos and alteration in the shape of Madagascar. The Kingdom of Monomotapa fills the entire southern tip of Africa. However, the map is also filled with fictitious rivers and mountains and shows the origin of the Nile conforming to the Ptolemaic tradition of twin lakes located below the equator, as is typical of 17th Century cartography.

Condition Description
Minor soiling.
Henricus Hondius Biography

Henricus Hondius (1597-1651) was a Dutch engraver and mapmaker, a member of a prominent cartographic family. His father, Jodocus Hondius, was also an engraver and geographer. While working with his father, Henricus was instrumental in the expansion and republishing of Mercator’s atlas, first published in 1595 and republished by Hondius in 1606.   

Upon his father’s death in 1612, Henricus and his brother, Jodocus the Younger, took over the business. He set up his own shop in 1621, where he continued to release new editions of the Mercator atlas. Later, he partnered with his brother-in-law, Jan Janssonius, in continuing to expand and publish Mercator’s atlas, which would become known as the Mercator-Hondius-Janssonius atlas. Born and based in Amsterdam, he died there in 1651.