République Tchèque - Marquisate of Moravia: East of the Czech Republic; Jan Amos Comenius - Marquisat de Moravie - Gravure sur cuivre, coloris d'époque - Jan Amos Comenius - 1621-1650

Old copper engraving map of Moravia, hand-highlighted, by Hondius after Comenius, published in 1633 in the Mercator-Hondius atlas.

It shows a title cartouche adorned with two winged putti, who hold the crowned shield with the Moravian eagle in chessboard pattern. A large legend, “Notularum explicatio,” occupies the upper-left corner and details the signs of the map: towns, villages, monasteries, vineyards, baths, glassworks and mines.

The scale in German miles and French miles appears in a cartouche with spiral borders at the bottom left. The relief is drawn in perspective, with many forests.
The towns are depicted by small views, notably Olmütz, Brinn, Austerlitz, Iglau and Znaim. The river network is dense and the borders are outlined in yellow, pink and green. The neighboring regions, Bohemia, Silesia, the Duchy of Oppavie, Hungary and Austria, are named in spaced capital letters.

- Dimensions: on sheet: 56 x 47.5 cm; on the map plate: 46.9 x 35.3 cm
- Condition: Good overall for a map of this period. Presence of a vertical central crease, brown damp-stain traces in the upper margin and minor soiling. See photos for details.

Atlas Mercator-Hondius
-
The atlas called “Mercator-Hondius” reuses the work of Gerard Mercator, whose copper engravings were bought back by Jodocus Hondius 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.

Jan Amos Comenius
–
Jan Amos Comenius (Komenský) (1592 – Amsterdam, 1670) is a Moravian educator, theologian and writer, the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren. Forced into exile after the Battle of White Mountain (1620), he later lived in Poland, Sweden, England, Hungary and the Netherlands. He is the author of the Didactica magna and the Orbis sensualium pictus (1658). His map of Moravia, published in 1627, remained a reference and was taken up by Amsterdam publishers, including Henricus Hondius.