Henricus Hondius (1597-1651) was a Dutch engraver and mapmaker, a member of a prominent cartographic family. His father, Jodocus Hondius, was also an engraver and geographer. While working with his father, Henricus was instrumental in the expansion and republishing of Mercator’s atlas, first published in 1595 and republished by Hondius in 1606.
Upon his father’s death in 1612, Henricus and his brother, Jodocus the Younger, took over the business. He set up his own shop in 1621, where he continued to release new editions of the Mercator atlas. Later, he partnered with his brother-in-law, Jan Janssonius, in continuing to expand and publish Mercator’s atlas, which would become known as the Mercator-Hondius-Janssonius atlas. Born and based in Amsterdam, he died there in 1651.
Striking example of Henricus Hondius' map of the North Polar Regions, first issued in 1636. With the advances in the knowledge of the Arctic, Mercator's map of 1595 had become obsolete by the 1630s. Hondius drew on the cartography of Henry Briggs for...
![[Title Page] Italiae Sclavoniae, Et Graeciae tabula geographice, Per Gerardum Mercatorem . . .](/map/small/37176.jpg)
Finely colored example of this decorative title page from the first complete edition of Mercator's Atlas Sive Cosmographia . . .
