Beschrijving:

Antique map of Belgium. Hainaut - Namur A coloured copper engraving. Size: 38 x 50cm Johannes Janssonius (Arnhem 1588-Amsterdam 1664 (born Jan Janszoon, in English usually Jan Jansson) was a Dutch cartographer who lived and worked in Amsterdam. Janssonius was born in Arnhem, the son of Jan Janszoon the Elder, a publisher and bookseller. In 1612 he married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of the cartographer and publisher Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy. Elisabeth Hondius died in 1627 and he remarried one Elisabeth Carlier in 1629. In the 1630s he formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. On the death of Henricus he took over the business. Under the leadership of Janssonius the Hondius Atlas was steadily enlarged. Renamed "Atlas Novus", it had three volumes in 1638, one fully dedicated to Italy. 1646 a fourth volume came out with "English County Maps", a year after a similar issue by Willem Blaeu. Janssons maps are similar to those of Blaeu, and he is often accused of copying from his rival, but many of his maps predate those of Blaeu and/or covered different regions. Still they tend to be more flamboyant and, some think, more decorative than Blaue’s. By 1660, at which point the atlas bore the approprate name "Atlas Major", there were 11 volumes, containing the work of about a hundred credited authors and engravers. It included a description of "most of the cities of the world" (Townatlas), of the waterworld (Atlas Maritimus in 33 maps), and of the Ancient World (60 maps). The eleventh volume was the Atlas of the Heavens by Andreas Cellarius. Editions were printed in Dutch, Latin, French, and a few times in German. After Jansson's death, the publishing company was continued by his son-in law, Johannes van Waesbergen and later still many of the plates of his British maps were acquired by Pieter Schenk and Gerard Valck, who published them again in 1683 as separate maps. Damaged, small holes