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Full original color example of Jansson's rare view of Bergen, Norway.
Includes a key locating about 20 points of interest in the view.
The view is based upon a view drawn by Hieronymus Scholeus, who, in 1581, drew the first known prospect of Bergen and the oldest known depiction of a Norwegian city. The view first appeared in the fourth volume Braun & Hogenberg's atlas Civitates Orbis Terrarum,
Several authors have doubted that Scholeus really was in Bergen, but a letter from Governor Henrik Rantzau to King Frederick II in 1585 confirms that the drafter was indeed in the city when he drew the picture. Rantzau reports that Georg Braun in Cologne had asked him for a picture, and he had then ordered and sent a copy of an older picture in the Bergenfarers' guild in Lübeck. But Braun had rejected it as a hundred years too old and therefore had someone who had been on the spot to draw the city.
Henrik Rantzau (1526-1598) was a Danish royal governor in Schleswig and Holstein. He had contact with Braun and Hogenberg in Cologne and helped them with the publication of the atlas by providing a map of Denmark and images of several cities in the duchies and Jutland. The contact with the publishers of the atlas led the Swedish author L.M. Bååth to believe that Rantzau himself had drawn the templates for the Scandinavian city prospects under the pseudonym Hieronymus Scholeus.
The engraving shows, among other things, the now-lost Nikolaikirken and Martinskirken.
Jan Janssonius (also known as Johann or Jan Jansson or Janszoon) (1588-1664) was a renowned geographer and publisher of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch dominated map publishing in Europe. Born in Arnhem, Jan was first exposed to the trade via his father, who was also a bookseller and publisher. In 1612, Jan married the daughter of Jodocus Hondius, who was also a prominent mapmaker and seller. Jonssonius’ first maps date from 1616.
In the 1630s, Janssonius worked with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius. Their most successful venture was to reissue the Mercator-Hondius atlas. Jodocus Hondius had acquired the plates to the Mercator atlas, first published in 1595, and added 36 additional maps. After Hondius died in 1612, Henricus took over publication; Janssonius joined the venture in 1633. Eventually, the atlas was renamed the Atlas Novus and then the Atlas Major, by which time it had expanded to eleven volumes. Janssonius is also well known for his volume of English county maps, published in 1646.
Janssonius died in Amsterdam in 1664. His son-in-law, Johannes van Waesbergen, took over his business. Eventually, many of Janssonius’ plates were sold to Gerard Valck and Pieter Schenk, who added their names and continued to reissue the maps.
![[Map of Sweden and Norway] Карта Швеціи и Норвегіи](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/66784.jpg)
![[ Norway and Sweden ] Septentrionalium Regionum Suetiae Gothiae Norvegia Daniae](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/67558.jpg)
![[ Bergen, Norway ] Berga Noorwegiae](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/93728.jpg)
