The fourth Table of Denmarke. Fionia

Title

The fourth Table of Denmarke. Fionia

Description

Map shows the islands of Fuenen with the city Odense, Nyborg, Langeland, etc. Partly the coasts of Juettland and Zealand. With a decorative title cartouche.

ca. 1620

Artist

Hondius/Sparke (1563-1612)

Jodocus Hondius (1563 –1612) was a Dutch engraver, and cartographer. He is best known for his early maps of the New World and Europe, for re-establishing the reputation of the work of Gerard Mercator, and for his portraits of Francis Drake. He helped establish Amsterdam as the center of cartography in Europe in the 17th century. He was born in Wakken and grew up in Ghent. In his early years he established himself as an engraver, instrument maker and globe maker. In 1584 he moved to London to escape religious difficulties in Flanders. While in England, Hondius was instrumental in publicizing the work of Francis Drake, who had made a circumnavigation of the world in the late 1570s. In particular, in 1589 Hondius produced a now famous map of the bay of New Albion, where Drake briefly established a settlement on the west coast of North America. Hondius' map was based on journal and eyewitness accounts of the trip and has long fueled speculation about the precise location of Drake's landing, which has not yet been firmly established by historians. Hondius is also thought to be the artist of several well-known portraits of Drake that are now in the National Portrait Gallery in London. In 1593 he moved to Amsterdam, where he remained until the end of his life. In co-operation with the Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz. in 1604 he purchased the plates of Gerard Mercator's Atlas from Mercator's grandson. Mercator's work had languished in comparison to the rival Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Ortelius. Hondius republished Mercator's work with 36 additional maps, including several which he himself had produced. Despite the addition of his own contributions, Hondius gave Mercator full credit as the author of the work, listing himself as the publisher. Hondius' new edition of Mercator's work was a great success, selling out after a year. Hondius later published a second edition, as well as a pocket version Atlas Minor. The maps have since become known as the ""Mercator/Hondius series"" . In the French edition of the Atlas Minor we find one of the first instances of a thematic map using map symbols. This is a map entitled Designatio orbis christiani (1607) showing the dispersion of major religions. Between 1605 and 1610 he was employed by John Speed to engrave the plates for Speed's The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. Hondius died, aged 48, in Amsterdam. After his death, his publishing work in Amsterdam was continued by his widow, two sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and son-in-law Johannes Janssonius, whose name appears on the Atlas as co-publisher after 1633. Eventually, starting with the first 1606 edition in Latin, about 50 editions of the Atlas were released in the main European languages. In the Islamic world, the atlas was partially translated by the Turkish scholar Katip Çelebi. The series is sometimes called the ""Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius"" series because of Janssonius's later contributions.

Historical Description

Denmark is a country and sovereign state in Northern Europe and a parliamentary monarchy. Denmark is officially called the Kingdom of Denmark along with the Faroe Islands, which geographically belong to Northern Europe, like the mother country, and Greenland, which belongs to North America. The Danish people are said to have come from Scania to Jutland and the western Baltic islands in the 6th century, where they displaced other Germanic tribes. In the 10th century, Gorm the Old (around 950) united the individual minor kingdoms under his rule. Until 1035, when Knut the Great died, the Danish kings succeeded in conquering large parts of the British Isles. Until well into the 11th century, the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians, among others, were called Vikings, who founded colonies and traded throughout Europe. The only land border is between Denmark and Germany. A Danish minority lives in the former Danish southern Schleswig. With the Kalmar Union, Halland was suddenly in the center of the Danish Empire and, according to the Union Treaty, Erich of Pomerania should have been crowned in Halmstad. In the period that followed, Halland was not spared the wars of the era. In 1434, the landscape was conquered by the fighters of the Engelbrekt uprising and the Falkenberg castle was burned down. In the course of the Three Crown War, the Battle of Axtorna (also: Battle on the Falkenberger Haide) took place here in 1565, during which the Danish general Rantzau defeated a superior Swedish army. Until 1645 Halland belonged to Denmark and was then awarded in the peace of Brömsebro to Sweden for 30 years. Since the Peace of Roskilde in 1658, Halland has finally belonged to Sweden, although Denmark tried again in the Schoen War (1675–1679) to recapture lost territory.