Tartaria sive Magnichami Imperium.

Title

Tartaria sive Magnichami Imperium.

Description

Map shows Tartaria ( notheeast of Russia), with two decorative title cartouches showing natives of the country.

ca. 1633

Artist

Janssonius/Mercator-Hondius, H. (1588-1664)

Johannes Janssonius (Jansson),( 1588- 1664) Amsterdam 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 Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy. In 1623 Janssonius owned a bookstore in Frankfurt am Main, later also in Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva and Lyon. In the 1630s he formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius, and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. 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. Janssonius' 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. By 1660, at which point the atlas bore the appropriate 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.

Historical Description

Until the end of the 18th century, Tatarei was the name for a large region in Central Asia, Northern Asia and parts of Eastern Europe. This land was the homeland of the Tatars, as the Mongols and the Turkic peoples were generalized by Europeans. The territory of the Mongol Empire and its successor states covered large parts of the Tatarei.The historical name Tatarei were used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, but is no longer in use today. Tatarei gradually lost its importance as political and ethnic conditions changed with the expansion of the Russian Empire and Russian settlement, and the process of assimilation by the Russian Empire was completed with the dissolution of Free Tartarei in the early 19th century.