Henricus Hondius

First-edition map of North America, important for disseminating the misconception of California as an island than any other.

• Henricus Hondius (Dutch).
• Amsterdam: Jan Jansson, 1636.
• Original color.

This was the first map titled "North America" in a folio atlas, with earlier maps showing both North and South America. It shows from the Arctic Circle down to Raleigh's "Parime Lacus" and "Manoa o el Dorado" in South America. Only one Great Lake is depicted, Ontario ("Lac des Iroquois"); California is shown with a flat northern coast and four islands in the gulf; and the unknown regions to the north are hidden under a fine title cartouche in full color.

Although John Speed's map of America showed California as an island a decade earlier, it was only published with an English text. Hondius's map, printed in several languages, reached further across Europe.

The map first appeared in volume three of the Atlas Novus in 1636, with the same printing used for the second Latin edition in 1638. By 1641 Jan Jansson had added his signature to the blank cartouche lower right.

McLaughlin: 6.

Burden: 245, first state of three; 'beautifully engraved.

Koeman: 1:401.3A, with atlas title page date of 1636 changed to 1638.