Germany - Saxony: East of Germany, Southwest of Poland, North of the Czech Republic; Gérard Mercator - Haute-Saxe - Gravure sur cuivre, coloris d'époque - Gérard Mercator - Misnie, Lusace - 1621-1650

Old copper-engraved map of Upper Saxony, Meissen and Lusace by Mercator, published in 1633 in the Mercator-Hondius atlas.

There you see, in the upper left, an oval title cartouche decorated with cut leather and scrolls, hand-colored. The scale in German miles ("Miliaria Germanica communia") occupies the upper right corner.
The borders are outlined with pink, orange, yellow and green borders.

The forests are depicted by clusters of trees painted in green, notably the Spreewald, the Oderwald and the Görlitsche Heyde.
The reliefs of the Metalliferous Mountains and the Giant Mountains ("Riesengebirg") are drawn as small shaded elevations.
The principal towns are represented by vignettes: Wittenberg, Leipzig, Meissen, Dresden, Bautzen, Görlitz, Glogau and Prague. The Elbe, the Mulde, the Spree, the Neisse and the Oder structure the whole.

The map bears the signature "Per Gerardum Mercatorem Cum privilegio" and the address of Henricus Hondius in Amsterdam, dated 1627. French text on the verso, titled "Duchy of the Haute Saxe, with la Misne and Lusace" (pp. 493 and 496).

- Dimensions: on sheet: 56 x 47.5 cm; on plate (map): 46.9 x 35.3 cm
- Condition: Very good overall for a map of this period. Presence of a vertical center fold, light brown damp-stain traces in the upper margin, a slit in the upper margin, foxing and small marks. See photos for more details.

Atlas Mercator-Hondius
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The atlas called "Mercator-Hondius" takes up the work of Gerard Mercator, whose copperplates 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 augmented it with new maps.

Gérard Mercator
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Gérard Mercator (Rupelmonde, 1512 – Duisburg, 1594) was a Flemish geographer, mathematician and engraver. Trained at Leuven, he settled in 1552 in Duisburg, where in 1569 he published the world map drawn according to the projection bearing his name. His regional maps appeared in installments from 1585. The complete collection, entitled Atlas, was published in 1595, one year after his death. The copperplates were acquired in 1604 by Jodocus Hondius, who reissued the atlas in Amsterdam from 1606 onward, enlarging it. His sons Jodocus II and Henricus Hondius continued the publication, in several languages, in the following decades.