Mercator Hondius, Europe, 1661

Small, early map of Europe based larger map of the continent drawn by Hondius. Reduced for Jansson's Mercator Minor first published in 1608.

This map was part of an important academic work on the history of geography and cartography compiled by Philip Cluverius. Often called the first scholar of this particular discipline, his “Introductio in Universam Geographiam” was published in 1624 and ran to eleven volumes. It became the major work in this discipline and was widely read with issues in multiple editions throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Many of the editions were illustrated with maps by several map makers. This particular map was issued in the 1661 quarto edition published by Johannes Jansson. Jansson used many of his own maps to illustrate the work, contrasting “modern” versions drawn heavily from his own work the “Mercator Minoris” to classical maps, based mostly on those of Gerhard Mercator’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia and Abraham Ortelius’s Parergon, or his appendix of maps of the classical world. Many of the maps from this edition of the “Introductio” were engraved by two important map makers in their own right, cousins Abraham Goos and Pieter van den Keere; in turn, they were distantly related to Jansson through marriage.

Coloured [EUR1550]

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Mercator Hondius , 1661