Chile - Central and southern coast, up to the Chiloé archipelago.; Henricus Hondius - Chili - Gravure sur cuivre, coloris d'époque - Hondius - Navires et monstres marins - 1621-1650

Old copper-engraved map of Chile, hand-enhanced, by Henricus Hondius, published in 1633 in the Mercator-Hondius atlas.

It shows the coast of Chile, from the Copayapo Valley to the Chiloé archipelago (Ancud, Castro), with the main valleys and colonial towns (La Serena, Santiago, La Concepción, Imperial, Valdivia, Osorno), the coastal islands (Mocha, Santa Maria, Juan Fernandez) and the Andes mountain range depicted in a cavalier view, with the cities of Mendoza and San Juan de la Frontera.

The map is oriented with the west at the bottom. It features a cartouche-title with a mascaron, a scale cartouche with three scales (miles of France, leagues of Spain, miles of Germany) surmounted by a winged head, an address cartouche “Amstelodami, Henricus Hondius excudit” adorned with an armillary sphere, two wind roses, two sea monsters and two ships.

- Dimensions: on the sheet: 56 x 47.5 cm; on the plate (map): 46.9 x 35.3 cm
- Condition: Good overall for a map of this period. Presence of a central vertical fold, light stains, minor soiling and a small hole in the upper margin. See photos for more details.

Mercator-Hondius Atlas
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The atlas called “Mercator-Hondius” reprises the work of Gerard Mercator, whose plates Jodocus Hondius bought back in 1604. This French edition of 1633 is signed by his son Henricus Hondius and his son-in-law Joannes Janssonius, who added new maps.

Henricus Hondius
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Henricus Hondius (Amsterdam, 1597 – Amsterdam, August 16, 1651) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. The son of Jodocus Hondius and Colette van den Keere, he continued the family business after his father’s death in 1612 with his mother, his brother Jodocus II and his brother-in-law Jan Janssonius. He founded his own company in Amsterdam in 1621. His name first appears in the Mercator-Hondius atlas in 1623, in its fifth edition. The name Janssonius appears there as co-editor after 1633.