TITLE PAGE FROM AN ATLAS OF MERCATOR

Inventory number 586

Original title: Atlas Sive Cosmographia Italiae Sclavoniae, Et Graeciae tabula geographice, Per Gerardum Mercatorem Illustrissimi Ducis Iulie, Cliuie, etc Cosmographum

Publishing year: 1619

Place of publishing and publisher: Amsterdam

Format: 19,1 x 28,7 cm

Technique: Coloured copper engraving

The colored title page of the Atlas Sive Cosmographia dates from 1595. This atlas was reprinted as a reprint in the workshop of Jodocus and Henricus Hondius. The father and son continued to reproduce and use the copper plates that Jodocus had bought upon his return to Amsterdam in the family graphic and cartographic workshop. Henricus worked on these materials and prepared them for the first publication in 1595 and for the reprint of the Mercator-Hondius atlas in 1606. Henricus’s brother Jodocus Jr. joined him to work in the workshop after their father died in 1612. Later, they teamed up with their son-in-law, Jan Janssonius, with whom they published new and supplemented Mercator-Hondius-Janssonius atlases. The title of the atlas cover is recorded as Italiae Sclavoniae, Et Graeciae tabula geographice, Per Gerardum Mercatorem Illustrissimi Ducis Iulie, Cliuie, etc Cosmographum and is found in a manneristically decorated monumental architectural cartouche framed by garlands, cherubs and eagles. In the lower cartridge is the supplementary mark Cum gratia & priuilegio.

HONDIUS, JODOCUS

After Ortelius' death, JOCODUS HONDIUS (1563-1611) continued his work. Hondius was a graphic artist and map publisher. He spent ten years in London where he was producing globe models. Around 1593/94 he went back to Amsterdam. In 1604 he bought Mercator's engraving plates, and in 1606 he finished his work on the first enlarged edition of the Atlas of Mercator to which he added 36 new maps. Until 1611 he published five more editions of this atlas (In 1607 the atlas was edited in Latin and in French, in 1608 in French and in 1611 in Latin). HENRICUS HONDIUS (1587-1637) succeded Jacodus Hondius and continued to publish Mercator-Hondius atlases.