Extremely rare early double hemisphere world map and portrait of the explorer Thomas Cavendish, celebrating his circumnavigation of the World (1586-1588).

The portrait is almost certainly from the pair of portraits of Cavendish and Sir Francis Drake, which appeared in a rare work summarizing the exploits of Drake entitled Franciscus Dracus Redivivus. Das ist, kurtze Beschreibung, aller vornehmbsten Reysen, Schiffarten vnnd Wasserschlachten, so der weitberümbte englische Admiral, Franciscus Dracus.

The map is very similar to Hondius' rare portrait of Sir Francis Drake, illustrated by Shirley (p.209). The map shows Cavendish's route around the globe. We have located two similar portraits, one in the Collection of Engravings Formed Between the Years 1860-68 By Alfred Morrison, which Morrison attributed to Jodocus Hondius. The double hemisphere map and portrait essentially the same, except that Morrison describes Cavendish's left hand as being on the globe (our example has the right hand on the globe). The portraits of Drake and Cavendish were likely originally engraved as part of the rare side panels for Hondius' Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae of c1595 (Shirely 188), of which only 8 examples are known, only a few of which include the side panels. Theodor de Bry did similar portraits of Drake and Van Noordt, although Shirley does not reference another use of the Cavenish portrait and map.

The earliest recorded example of a similar portrait and world map pairing is in the upper left corner of Cornelis Claesz' 1601 Wall Map of the World, celebrating Olivier Van Noort's circumnavigation of 1598-1601. No example of the original is known, although the map survives in 2 examples of the second edition, published by Claesz Janszoon Visscher in 1650. The portrait in this example is somewhat smaller and lacks the text below the world map.

Jonathan Potter listed a portrait and map with a similar title in his Catalogue 10, item 24 (1995). Potter listed the portrait and map as anonymous and our attribution of the engraving to Hondius is based upon Morrison.