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Scarce Henricus Hondius map of South America, pre-dating the change to Janssonius's name on the ma.
The map provides substantial detail in South America, along with a number of vignettes showing native scenes, animals, canoes and huts. Off shore a number of sailing ships, canoes and sea monsters appear off both coasts. Massive decorative cartouche shows natives with weaponry and indigenous flora and fauna.
The map was originally issued by Hondius, but shortly thereafter the name on the map was changed to his partner and brother in law, Johannes Jansson.
One of the earliest separate maps of South America and one of the first decorative maps of South America to appear in a Dutch Atlas.
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.
