BEAUTIFUL HAND-COLORED HONDIUS MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA
(SOUTH AMERICA) HONDIUS, Henricus. Americae Pars Meridionalis. Amsterdam: Henricus Hondius, [1638]. Original hand-colored copper-engraved map (plate mark measures 22 by 19 inches); matted and framed, entire piece measures 28 by 31 inches.
Lovely 1638 impression of one of the earliest, largest, and most attractive maps to focus on South America, beautifully engraved and hand-colored with numerous embellishments of native people and animals, ships and sea monsters.
This is an important, early, and decorative map of the South American continent. The coastlines are well detailed but the interior is more speculative: several rivers (including the Amazon and Paraguay) have their source in the Lago de los Xarayes and the mythical Lake Parime dominates the interior of Guyana. The map is richly embellished with ships and sea monsters in the oceans and vignettes of villages and animals on the continent. The large title cartouche features native and indigenous animals. Henricus Hondius was the son of renowned cartographer and mapseller Jodocus Hondius. By 1621 Henricus had established his own business, and in 1623 when he published the fifth edition of the Mercator-Hondius Atlas. Sometime around 1628 Jan Janssonius joined the business, and soon the Janssonius name came to predominate the maps produced, until by 1646 Henricus’ name disappears from published maps and atlases. This map originally came from a Latin edition of the Atlas, printed 1638-41. Latin text on verso. Van der Krogt, P. Koeman’s Atlantes Neederlandici, I:9800. Phillips, Maps of America, 793. Adonias, A Cartografia da Regiao Amazonica, I: 185-86.
Archival tape reinforcement on verso along edges. Light age toning, a few minor spots of foxing, original coloring fine. An extremely good copy of this scarce map.