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Description

Unrecorded Early State!

Scarce map of the world engraved by Jodocus Hondius for an early book by Cornelis Claesz, one of the most influential publishers at the end of the 16th century.

The first state of the map noted by Shirley was published in Middelburg in 1598, in the first edition of Barent Langenes' Caert-Thresoor. However this 1596 Amsterdam example is not noted by Shirley.

The map is very similar to the oval format world in Abraham Ortelius' Epitome Du Theatre du Monde, although there are several notable differences. This map includes several new names in North and South America ('Tolm reg.[num],' 'Norrobega,' 'California,' 'Virginia,' and 'Patagones'). The Solomon Islands are 'Islas de Salomon' on the Ortelius map and 'Insulae Salomonis' here and 'Guinea Nova' is circumscribed on the earlier map and undefined on this one, where it is labeled 'Guinea no.' The configuration of the gigantic southern continent, 'Terra Australis nondum cognita' on both maps, is very different.

The present example is a clear clean impression, reflecting a very early use of the plate printing plate.

A nice example of this scarce map.

Reference
Shirley, No.211.
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.