China, India, and Southeast Asia:   India Orientalis

Original copperplate engraved map
Fine Handcolor
350 x 490 mm
Map #  AS-154
$ Sold

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This is an early views of India, China, and Southeast Asia at the beginning of Dutch expansion into the area.   This is a very attractive, boldly engraved map in the fine, distinctive style of Jodocus Hondius.

A strapwork title cartouche is at the bottom right.  A European ship sails in the waters south of Macao, and, a Chinese junk sails in the Sea of Bengal.   A large sea monster is to the east (right) and India.

This map improves the general shape of the region as depicted on the Ortelius map titled Indiae Orientalis... .  The map extends from Persia on the left side of the map, through all of India and Sri Lanka, to The Philippines and the coast of China.  In the south, the map shows Southeast Asia and the Malay peninsula, northern Sumatra and Borneo.  The map has placename detail with Macao, Canton and the Pearl River estuary, Formosa, Goa, Calicut, etc., etc. identified.

Source material for this map likely include the earlier Ortelius map of the region,  and the manuscripts of the Portuguese, Luis Teixeria and Luiz Jorge de Barbuda, as reflected in Linschoten's Itinerario.  

Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) was the founder of the famous 17th century Dutch map publishing family.  Hondius, along with sons Jodocus II and Henricus and son-in-law Johannes Janssonius, was prominent in Dutch cartography and competed with the emerging Blaeu family map business. 

When Jodocus Hondius acquired the copperplates of the Mercator atlas and decided to re-issue them in 1606, he prepared this map for inclusion in his Atlas sive Cosmographicae......, or the Mercator-Hondius atlas as it is more commonly called.   This map is from an edition of 1613 with Latin text on the verso with a signature of "Rrrrrrr" and pages 346-347.  (vd Krogt, p.707).  This map last appeared in a Mercator Hondius atlas of 1636.  There were later maps of this region  included in the Mercator-Hondius series of atlases by Henricus Hondius and then Johannes Janssonius from 1638 to c.1680.

Reference:   Van der Krogt, Peter.  Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, vol. 1. 't Goy-Houten: HES Publishers,1997.

Fine Condition.   Solid paper with no separations.   A strong impression, finely colored, with wide margins.   Some minor discoloration to outer parts of wide margins, but the map image is clean with no spots.   This map would be a nice addition to any collection of maps of the region.