The globe has been identified by scholars as one published by Hondius. In 1668, the great Delft artist, Johannes Vermeer, painted The Astronomer, in which the subject is examining a large celestial globe ( fifth image). Above we see a celestial globe that was published in 1600 ( fourth image). Hondius also produced a number of globes, issued in pairs-terrestrial and celestial-as was customary. The National Portrait gallery in London has a fine engraved dual portrait of Hondius and Mercator, with Mercator on the left ( third image), done by an unknown artist after the death of Hondius in 1612. Hondiuis republished Mercator's Atlas in 1606, with important additions of his own, and the revived Mercator/Hondius atlas and its subsequent reissues came to dominate 17th-century cartography until mid-century. Mercator had begun issuing maps for his Atlas in 1578, but Abraham Ortelius had published his Atlas earlier, in 1570, and Ortelius did a better job of keeping his up to date, so that Mercator and his maps fell into eclipse. Hondius played a major role in restoring Gerard Mercator to his rightful place as a cartographic pioneer. There were not many artists that were equally at home, whether engraving maps or portraits. Hondius also engraved a portrait of Drake ( second image). We see above one of 1595, which not only tracks Drake's voyages (and that of Thomas Cavendish), but has several insets showing notable Drake stopping points, including California ( see first image above). It was in 1577-80 that Francis Drake had circumnavigated the globe, and Hondius did much to publicize the voyage on his world maps. Hondius started out in Holland, moved to London for a while, and then returned to Amsterdam, where he became one of the premier publishers of maps and globes. Jodocus Hondius, a Dutch cartographer and engraver, was born Oct.
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