1631 Jansson / Hondius Map of Africa

This is an attractive example of the Hondius map of Africa. It is a classic of Dutch decorative cartography and a long-lived foundational map, being copied by Bertius, Tavernier, Boisseau, and Berey, among others.

A Closer Look

The map is embellished with lions, zebras, elephants, ostriches, and monkeys, while the oceans display seven sailing ships menaced by sea monsters. Flying fish skim the waters west of Guinea. A merman and mermaid embrace in the southern Atlantic - a recurring image in Hondius' maps (the identical couple appears in at least one other, Hondius' 1631 map of Italy.)

Sources

This map was originally engraved in 1619 by Jodocus Hondius Jr. as part of a set of four continent maps, and appeared in his brother Henricus Hondius' atlases onwards from 1631. It replaced the map engraved by the elder Jodocus Hondius in 1606 - the earlier map was based on the work of Gerard Mercator. Hondius' new map was derived from the 1617 Blaeu folio as well as the 1608 Blaeu wall map of Africa.

Hondius's cartography follows Blaeu's folio map both in terms of detail and execution. The coastline is rich in toponomy and the overall shape of the continent is accurate. Nonetheless, points within the continent reveal the European ignorance of Africa's interior. The Nile, for example, is illustrated with its sources in the lakes of Zaire and Zaflan, an assumption inherited from the 2nd-century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy. The equally fictitious Lake Sachaf, derived from Laurent Fries' 1522 geography, appears in southern Africa feeding the Zambere River, flowing to the Rio de Spirito Santo. The Cuama River is shown north of the Rio de Spirito Santo, but unlike earlier maps - including the 1608 Blaeu wall map - the Cuama is given its own source, instead of sharing a source at Lake Sachaf. The Niger River here runs in the wrong direction, as it is shown emptying into the Senegal River, after having flowed from a supposed Lake Niger (a misunderstanding of the Niger inland delta) in the general vicinity of what is now the Central African Republic. (A detailed mapping of the Niger River was not completed until the 1890s.)

Publication History and Census

This is the fifth state of Jodocus and Henricus Hondius' map. It was initially engraved in 1619. From the 1631 third state, it was included in most Hondius / Janssonius atlases. This example appeared in the 1666 edition of Atlas Contractus. Thirteen examples of the separate map, in various editions but not this one, are cataloged in institutional collections. The complete 1666 Atlas Contractus is cataloged only in the Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Staatsbibliothek Zu Berlin, and the ULB Sachsen Anhalt Zentrale.