Joducus Hondius (1563 - 1612) Henricus Hondius, (1587 - 1638)
Joducus Hondius - son (1594 - 1629)
Jodocus Hondius, one of the most notable engravers of his time, is known for his work in association with many of the cartographers and publishers prominent at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century.
A native of Flanders, he grew up in Ghent, apprenticed as an instrument and globe maker and map engraver. In 1584, to escape the religious troubles sweeping the Low Countries at that time, he fled to London where he spent some years before finally settling in Amsterdam about 1593. In the London period he came into contact with the leading scientists and geographers of the day and engraved maps in The Mariner's Mirrour, the English edition of Waghenaer's Sea Atlas, as well as others with Pieter van den Keere, his brother-in-law. No doubt his temporary exile in London stood him in good stead, earning him an international reputation, for it could have been no accident that Speed chose Hondius to engrave the plates for the maps in The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine in the years between 1605 and 1610.
In 1604 Hondius bought the plates of Mercator's Atlas which, in spite of its excellence, had not competed successfully with the continuing demand for the Ortelius Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. To meet this competition Hondius added about 40 maps to Mercator's original number and from 16o6 published enlarged editions in many languages, still under Mercator's name but with his own name as publisher. These atlases have become known as the Mercator/Hondius series. The following year the maps were re-engraved in miniature form and issued as a pocket Atlas Minor. After the death of Jodocus Hondius the Elder in 1611, work on the two atlases, folio and miniature, was carried on by his widow and sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and eventually in conjunction with Jan Jansson in Amsterdam. In all, from 1606 onwards, nearly 50 editions with increasing numbers of maps with texts in the main European languages were printed.
Joducus & Henricus Hondius (1)
1636 Jan Jansson Antique Map of China, with Korea, Japan & Part of America
- Title : China
- Size: 23in x 19in (585mm x 480mm)
- Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
- Date : 1636
- Ref #: 75010
Description:
This map of China, Japan with Korea and parts of the west coast of America was the first Chinese map published by Mercator first released in 1606. This map was published in the 1636 edition of Mercator's Atlas published by Henricus Hondius & Jan Jansson.
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Green, red, orange, yellow, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic and beautiful
Paper size: - 23in x 19in (585mm x 480mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 14in (470mm x 355mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Small repair to top margin centerfold, no loss
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
Background: This boldly engraved and hand coloured map combines elements of the maps complied by the two Portuguese Jesuits priests, on Japan by Luis Teixeira (1595) and on China by Luis Jorge de Barbuda (1584). Amoungst the decorative features including sea monsters, ships both European and Chinese and a wind powered land cart is also a vignette depicting the torture of Christians in Japan if caught.
Although Mercator has faithfully followed the Ortelius/Teixeira type of map he has added an explanation for Korea saying it was not yet certain whether it was an island or part of the mainland.
In contrast to the relatively late mapping of the major continents by the Europeans the mapping of China stretches back as far back as 1100BC. Almost 100years after Ptolemy produced "Geographia" and around the same time paper was invented in China an 18-sheet map of China was produced by Pei Hsui (AD 224-71). In the following years contact was re-established between the Chinese and Europeans - contact was known between the two cultures from before Ptolemy - through Marco Polo, Carpini (1245), Rubruquis (1252) and other Franciscan missionaries and it was through the accounts of their travels that scholars began to reshape their ideas of Cathay. In the 16th & 17th centuries the Jesuits exerted a considerable influence on Chinese mapmaking. Matteo Ricci complied the first European map of the world printed and circulated in China (1584 - 1602) Ludovico Georgio who's map of China was used by Ortelius (1584) and subsequently by other Dutch publishers; Father Martino Martini an Italian Jesuit who compiled the first European Atlas of China Atlas Sinensis which was used by Blaeu, Jansson and others. (Ref: Koeman; M&B; Tooley)
