Jansson – Mercator Atlas Minor

Mapmaker / Cartographer: Gerhard Mercator / Gerard Mercator / Gerardi Mercatoris

Name of Work:  Jansson-Mercator Atlas Minor
Publisher: Jan Jansson / Johannes Janssonius / Jan Janssonius
Engraver:  Petrus Kaerius (Pieter van der Keere) and Abraham Goos
Date of Publication: 1628

Jan Jansson (1588, Arnhem – buried July 11, 1664, Amsterdam) was a Dutch cartographer and publisher who lived and worked in Amsterdam in the 17th century.

He was named for his father, Jan Janszoon the Elder a publisher and bookseller in Arnhem, and married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of the famous mapmaker Jodocus Hondius with whom his family had business ties.  Jansson began producing maps in 1616 – and eventually owned bookstores across Europe in Frankfurt am Main, later also in Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva and Lyon. In the 1630s he formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius, and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius.

Atlas Minor

Jansson’s Atlas Minor was a reduced version of the Atlas produced by Gerard Mercator (1512-1594). The Copperplate engravings for Altas Minor were done by Pieter van den Keere (Petrus Kaerius – 1571-1646) or Abraham Goos.  Due to the unique error found on the map of Cuba, we believe this set of maps most likely comes from the 1628 Latin edition.  Each sheet has Latin texts on the reverse.