South East Asia c.1596

Reproduction of a rare early 17th century map of Southeast Asia and the East Indies by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) who bought the plates of Mercator’s Atlas in 1604 and added 37 new maps to Mercator’s original number including this beautiful map of Southeast Asia and from 1606 published enlarged editions in Latin and French. These atlases entitled Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figure, are generally known as the Mercator/Hondius series. The map shows the whole region from the Malay Peninsula to New Guinea with the Spice Islands central, and is closely modelled on Petrus Plancius’ Insulae Moluccae published in Linschoten’s Itinerario ten years earlier. The geography of the East Indian Islands is no improvement on that of Linschoten and De Bry of a decade earlier. In addition to its aesthetic appeal, it is also noteworthy for being one of the few maps to show evidence of Francis Drake’s presence in Southeast Asia during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-80. Drake made a landfall on the southern coast of Java, probably in the vicinity of Cilacap and Hondius draws the little known southern coast as a dotted line, save for the presumed point of Drake’s supposed landing which is marked `Huc Franciscus Dra. Appulit (here Francis Drake landed).

size: 53 cm x 40 cm