| Method | Copper engraved with hand colour |
| Artist | Jansson, Jan |
| Published | [Amsterdam, c.1650] |
| Dimensions | 378 x 485 mm |
| Notes |
A large and decorative map of Oxfordshire, from the fourth volume of Jansson's Atlas Novus. The county hundreds are outlined in hand-colour, and principal cities and towns are picked out in red. In the bottom left corner, two scholars and a cherub examine a set of cartographic tools that rest against the title cartouche. The map is further ornamented with a ribboned array of the crests of the colleges of the University of Oxford, held up by a host of cherubs. French text on verso. Johannes Janssonius (1588 - 1664) was a famed cartographer and print publisher. More commonly known as Jan Jansson, he was born in Arnhem where his father, Jan Janszoon the Elder, was a bookseller and publisher. In 1612 he married the daughter of the cartographer and publisher Jodocus Hondius, and then set up in business in Amsterdam as a book publisher. In 1616 he published his first maps of France and Italy and from then onwards, produced a very large number of maps which went some way to rival those of the Blaeu family, who held a virtual monopoly over the industry. From about 1630 to 1638 he was in partnership with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius, issuing further editions of the Mercator/Hondius atlases to which his name was added. On the death of Hondius he took over the business, expanding the atlas still further, until eventually he published an eleven volume Atlas Major on a scale similar to Johannes Blaeu's magnum opus. After Jansson's death, his heirs published a number of maps in the Atlas Contractus of 1666, and, later still, many of the plates of his British maps were acquired by Pieter Schenk and Gerard Valck, who published them again in 1683 as separate maps. Condition: Central vertical fold, as issued. Large crease to bottom left corner of sheet, not affecting map. Repaired tears just into boarder on right and left. Repaired tear to centre fold bottom. |
| Framing | mounted |
| Price | £825.00 |
| Stock ID | 52774 |