Thomas Phillips Exhibition
17th Century
Gerard Mercator. Atlas, or A geographicke description of the regions, countries, and kingdomes of the world. Amsterdam, 1636.
The Mercator-Hondius Atlas, with its engraved double-page maps, finely coloured by a contemporary hand, is one of the most important atlases in the history of cartography. It was first published in 1595 by Gerard Mercator (1512-1594) and then updated by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) who purchased the plates at the auction of Mercator’s library in 1604. The new edition of Mercator's work was a great success, selling out within a year. After Hondius' death in 1612, his publishing work in Amsterdam was continued by his widow and two sons, Jodocus II and Henricus. Later his family formed a partnership with Jan Jansson, whose name appears on this edition. New maps were included in each edition, expanding the 107 maps of the first edition to 150 by the 1620s.
