Fig. 91. Terrestrial Globe of Jodocus Hondius, 1618.
The map is slightly water-stained, but the American portion is particularly well preserved. A crack in the sphere along the meridian of 150 degrees east extends from pole to pole, and is rather a disfigurement than a serious injury to any part of the surface. The map is a remarkably fine example of the Dutch map engraver’s art. The lettering and the continental outlines were remarkably well cut in the copper plate used in the printing, and in many places the luster of the ink is still preserved. In the northern part of North America is the brief and interesting dedication “Clarissimis Consultissimique Nauticae Belgicaeque Federatarum Inferioris Germaniae Regionum Praefectis D. D. Jodocus Hondius.” “To the most illustrious and most prudent prefects and seamen of Belgium and of the region of lower Germany, Jodocus Hondius gives and dedicates (this globe).” In the “Terra Australis incognita” is the address to the reader which is practically identical with that to be found on the Hondius terrestrial globe of 1601, omitting, however, the word “Vale” and changing the date to “1618.” Near the entrance to Hudson’s Bay is a legend reading “Huc retrocesserunt Amstelodamensis anno 1612.”
From this bay an arm extends to the southwest which is referred to as “The bay where Hudson did winter,” and an arm extends to the southeast, which is referred to as “The Bay of Gosneres.” A few other brief legends are given, referring to an event or to events supposed to have taken place in the locality in which they are placed. Small but artistically engraved ships sail the Atlantic and the Pacific, and here and there a marine animal is represented. Loxodromic lines are made a conspicuous feature, having their crossing centers at longitudes 0, 90, 180, and 270 on the equator, likewise on the prime meridian at latitude 35 degrees both north and south, as well as at the same latitudes on the opposite side of the sphere, where the prime meridian becomes the meridian of 180 degrees. In addition to this example belonging to The Hispanic Society’s collection, one may be found in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nürnberg.[13]
Not until the year 1640 do we find the name Hondius again appearing on a dated globe. Attention has been called to the fact that Henricus, the son of Jodocus, continued, with more or less diligence, the work of map engraving and map printing, which the latter had carried on so successfully in Amsterdam until the time of his death. We are told that a partnership in the business, about the year 1639, was formed by Henricus Hondius with Johan Janssonius, his brother-in-law, and that this business, after the year 1644, passed entirely into the hands of the latter. It was in the year 1640 that the firm referred to undertook the reissue of the Hondius globes of earlier date. These had a diameter of about 52 cm. The gore maps, consisting of twelve parts, were made to extend to within twenty degrees of each pole, the polar space being covered with the usual polar cap.
The address to the reader, to be found on the terrestrial globe of the year 1613, is repeated on this of 1640,[14] but the dedication differs somewhat in the two, reading, on those of the 1640 issue, “Illustrissimis, Nobilissimis, Amplissimis et Prudentissimis Foederatarum Inferioris Germaniae provinciarum Ordinibus ac Patribus Patriae Dominis suis clementissimis dedicabat Henricus Hondius. Henricus Hondius excudebat An. 1640.” “To the Most Illustrious, Most Noble, Most Exalted and Prudent Lords of the United Netherlands, the Fathers of their Country, his Most Clement Master, Henricus Hondius dedicates (this globe). Constructed by Henricus Hondius in the year 1640.” There have been added a number of interesting legends, such as the following: “Inter S. Laurentii et los Romeros insulas vehemens admodum est versus ortum et occasum fluxus et refluxus maris.” “Between the islands of St. Lawrence and Los Romeros there is an exceedingly strong ebb and flow of the sea eastward and westward”; “Psitacorum regio sic a Lusitanis appellata ob eorum avium ibidem magnitudinem.” “The region of the parrots, and this is so called by the Portuguese because of the great number of these birds found here”;[15] “Promontorium terrae australis distans 450 leucas a capite Bonae Spei et 600 a S. Augustini.” “This promontory of the southern land is distant 450 leagues from the Cape of Good Hope, and 600 from Cape St. Augustine”; “Accolae Freti Magellanici septentrionem versus procerae, meridiem vero versus exiquae magnitidinis reperiuntur.” “The inhabitants of the Strait of Magellan toward the north are of large size, but toward the south they are of small stature”; “Lybia inferior quae hodie Saara appellatur quae vox idem quod desertum significat.” “Lower Lybia is called today Sahara, which word means desert.” In the Hudson Bay region we find, “In sinu Maris Hudsons Bay vulgo dictus ubi M. Hudson hybernavit, ibidem maris aestus non ultra duos pedes accrescebat, quod et observabit D. Thomas Jacobus a. 1631 in sinu ‘James his Bay’ dicto et ubi mensuram duorum pedum non excedebat maris tumor.” “In the bend of the sea called Hudson’s Bay, where Hudson passed the winter, the tide of the sea did not rise more than two feet, which also was observed by Thomas James in the year 1631[16] in the Bay called James his Bay where the rise of the sea likewise did not exceed two feet.” Near the last-quoted legend we find, “Thomas Button hibernans in portu Nelson ad altitudinem grad. 57 observavit singulis ex horis aestum maris accrescere 15 pedes aut ultra, qui flante Zephiro solito magis instar plenilunii intumescebat. Sequenti aestate animadvertit quoque ad altitudinem grad. 60 similes aestus maris qui nunc orientem versus nunc occidentem vergebant.” “Thomas Button,[17] who passed the winter in Port Nelson, at the high latitude of 57 degrees, observed hour by hour the tide of the sea to rise 15 feet or more, which tide, with the accustomed wind blowing, swelled very like a (spring) tide. Next summer he noticed at a latitude of 60 degrees similar ocean tides which now had an eastward flow and now a westward.” A legend has been added relating to the magnetic poles and to the difficulty of locating the same, reading “Duos in hoc loco Gerardus Mercator et alii eundem secuti posuerunt Polos magnetis, unum respectu insularum capitis viridis, alterum respectu insulae Corvi et Floridis: cum vero de his nihil certi sit, et quotidiana experientia nos aliter doceat de deviatione acus nauticae ambos omissimus.” “Gerard Mercator and others following him have placed two magnetic poles in this locality, one according to the direction indicated (by the compass needle) at the Cape Verde Islands, the other according to the direction indicated at the Islands of Corvus and Flores: but as nothing is known for a certainty concerning these, and a daily experience teaches us otherwise concerning the variation of the magnetic needle, we have omitted both poles.”[18]
The globes of this edition were supplied with the usual brass meridian circles, wooden horizon circles, on the surface of which was pasted the printed representation of the zodiacal signs, the names of the months, and of the principal winds or directions.
The celestial globe follows, in its records, more closely than does the terrestrial, the issue of 1613. The title legend, the reference to Tycho Brahe, and the reference to the star which appeared in the year 1572 in the constellation Cassiopeia, all agree with those in the earlier edition, as do, in the main, the representations of the figures of the several Ptolemaic constellations and those added in the southern hemisphere. The dedication reads, “Illustrissimis Nobilissimis Amplissimis Clarissimisque D. D. Dominis Ordinibus Provinciarum Foederis Belgici Dominis suis Clementissimis in assiduae gratitudinis memoriam dat, dicat dedicatque Illustriss. Amplit. Vest. devotus Henricus Hondius.” “To the Most Illustrious, Most Noble, Most Exalted, Most Renowned Lords of the United Provinces of Belgium, his Most Clement Masters, as a memorial of constant gratitude, gives and dedicates to Your Illustrious Highnesses (this globe). Henricus Hondius.”
A copy of each of these globes of 1640 may be found in the library of the Seminario Vescovile of Portogruaro, a copy of each in the Biblioteca Quiriniana of Brescia, and one of each, though undated, in the Museo Civico of Vicenza.
If the Van Langren family and the Hondius family brought renown to their country through the excellence of their work in the field of cartography, so likewise did the Blaeu family, father and sons. Perhaps to Willem Jansz. Blaeu (Fig. [92]) and his son, John, belongs first place in the long line of distinguished map and globe makers of the Netherlands.[19]