120 MAPS AND THEIR MAKERS 



Then when the whole appeared it was by no means complete, 

 for it lacked maps of the Italian peninsula and individual maps 

 of the world outside Europe. Later, when Jodocus Hondius 

 bought the plates from Mercator's heirs, after a second, 

 unaltered, edition had appeared in 1602, and added thirty-six 

 new maps to supply some of the deficiencies, the Atlas, con- 

 stantly enlarged, was very popular in the seventeenth century. 

 After the first Mercator-Hondius edition, Amsterdam, 1606, 

 some thirty editions appeared before 1640, a number with 

 little alteration. In addition to the original Latin there were 

 editions in French, German, Dutch, and English. As time went 

 on, however, they became much more the work of the Hondius 

 and Jansson families. Finally it was superseded by the atlas 

 of William Janszoon Blaeu, the first version of which appeared 

 in 1630. 



It is necessary to retrace our steps at this point. The major 

 factor in the little success which attended the early issue of 

 Mercator's Atlas was undoubtedly the existence of Abraham 

 Ortelius' *Theatrum orb is terrarum', which had appeared as 

 early as 1570. 



Abraham Ortelius, bom at Antwerp in 1527, was a scholar 

 and craftsman rather than a practical cartographer. He began 

 work as an illuminator of maps, and later established himself 

 as a map seller. His business seems to have flourished, for he 

 was able to indulge his classical tastes by forming a large 

 library and a collection of antiquities. His extensive travels in 

 western Europe, including the British Isles, brought him a wide 

 circle of friends and correspondents, which included John Dee, 

 William Camden, Richard Hakluyt, and Humphrey Lhuyd. 

 Through these connexions Ortelius obtained a good deal of 

 his material. Lhuyd, shortly before his death in 1568, sent him 

 two maps of England, one with ancient and modern names, 

 and another described as 'tolerably accurate', as well as a 

 map of Wales. Dee wrote asking about his map of Asia, and 

 Hakluyt asked him to publish something on North America. 

 This was of course the period when the English cosmographers, 

 merchants, and navigators were keenly interested in the 

 practicability of the north-west and north-east passages to the 

 East Indies. 



