Description
hand-coloured copper engraving.
The smaller version from the Atlas Minor with the Philippines but without Mindanao.
Map from the “Atlas Minor”, published by Joannes Janssonius; shows Southeast Asia from
India till the Philippines, without Mindanao. Gerhard Mercator’s famous large folio size “Atlas Major”
was an achievement to admire albeit at an inherently high price. In 1607 Jodocus Hondius decided
therefore to publish a reduced size version calling it the “Atlas Minor”. The maps were either copied
from Mercator’s ca. 1580-90 editions or were reductions of Hondius’ own maps of 1606.
The popularity of the smaller format and lower price, compared to the folio “Atlas Major” led to
many subsequent editions and derivative publications in similar style. Almost 20 years later, the
atlas and map publisher Joannes Janssonius commissioned a new set of copperplates to be engraved
by Pieter van den Keere (Petrus Kaerius) and Abraham Goos, two of the most proficient and experienced
Dutch map engravers of the period. These maps were elegantly designed with decorative title cartouches,
finely engraved and surprisingly detailed, magnificent smaller versions of the larger and therefore
almost unaffordable maps from the “Atlas Major”.
