Africae Nova Tabula

Henricus Hondius (1597-1651) was a Dutch engraver and cartographer and a member of a prominent family of mapmakers and publishers in Amsterdam. His father, Jodocus Hondius, an engraver and geographer, had purchased part of the estate after Gerhard Mercator. Henricus was instrumental in the first Hondius edition of Mercator’s 1595 atlas (1606). When the father died in 1612, the family business was passed on to him and his brother, Jodocus the Younger. They ran the firm together for nine more years until Henricus decided to venture out independently.

Family ties remained close, and in the early 1630s, Henricus joined forces with his brother-in-law (husband to his sister), the highly skilled engraver Johannes Jansonnius. Together, they recreate and expand the Mercator atlas to such an extent that its contents since have come to be classified as Mercator-Hondius-Janssonius maps. Henricus Hondius died in Amsterdam in 1651.

Johannes Janssonius (1588 – 1664; born Jan Janszoon, also Jan Jansson) was a Dutch cartographer and publisher who lived and worked in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Janssonius was born in Arnhem, the son of Jan Janszoon the Elder, a publisher and bookseller. In 1612 he married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy.

In the 1630s, Janssonius formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Henricus Hondius; they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. Under the leadership of Janssonius, the Hondius Atlas was steadily enlarged. After Janssonius’s death, the publishing company was continued by his son-in-law, Johannes van Waesbergen. The London bookseller Moses Pitt attempted publication of the Atlas Major in English but ran out of resources after the fourth volume in 1683.

Some toned areas, remnants of old stains in lower margin, otherwise a fresh example; remnants of hanging tape on the verso.

Betz #58. Norwich #29 & #34. Tooley, pp 53-54.