DE JODE, Gerard (1509-91) - Cornelis DE JODE (1568-1600). Hemispheriu ab Aequinoctiali Linea, ad Circulu Poli Arctici, Hemispheriu ab Aequinoctiali Linea, ad Circulu Poli Atarctici

DE JODE, Gerard (1509-91) - Cornelis DE JODE (1568-1600). Hemispheriu ab Aequinoctiali Linea, ad Circulu Poli Arctici, Hemispheriu ab Aequinoctiali Linea, ad Circulu Poli Atarctici. [Antwerp: Arnold Coninx for the widow and heirs of Gerard de Jode, 1593].

Single sheet, float-mounted and framed (sheet size: 12 4/8 x 20 4/8 inches, full margins showing the plate mark). An exceptionally fine engraved double-hemisphere world map, the title within two elegant mannerist strapwork cartouches along the top, and each hemisphere surrounded by an elaborated border of wind cherubs and clouds, without acknowledgment of author, engraver or publisher, as issued.

First edition, published in de Jode's rare second edition of his "Speculum Orbis Terrae" of 1593. Unusually the hemispheres are drawn from a north and south polar aspect. The map "owes much to the world map of French Arabist scholar Guillaume Postel. Postel, like Mercator, allowed the possibility of a great south land, ... De Jode's double-hemisphere map follows Postel in calling the south land Chasdia and the mapping and other annotations are clearly derived from it. Most prominent in capital letters, however, are letters 'Ter. Australis Incognita'. thereby giving Chasdia secondary importance. Large and small islands labelled 'Iava maior' and 'Iava minor' also appear on the map making it clear that neither is associated with the south land. Polar views were popularised by Dutch mapmakers half a century later" (Susannah Helman for "Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia", National Library of Australia, page 92).

As in Postel's map "we have the same configuration for the northern coats - the gulf of Merostro in North America, the placing of 'Ter. d Labrador' and 'Nova Zemla', and the odd junction of the eastern part of Asia with one of the large arctic masses. Japan is to be found only a few degrees from the west coast of America, and in the delineation of South Africa and South America there are further features strongly suggesting a common source" (Shirley 184).

Born in Nijmegen in 1509, Cornelis de Jode was a cartographer, engraver, printer and publisher based in Antwerp, then one of the major commercial capitals of Europe. Little is known of his early training or education, and it was not until well into his 30s, in 1547, that de Jode was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke and became a print seller. In 1550 he was licensed as a printer. He printed Jacopo Gastaldi's map of the world in 1555, Jacob van Deventer's map of Brabant in 1558, maps by Bartholomeus Musinus, Fernando Alvares Seco, and (before they became competitors) Abraham Ortelius's eight-sheet map of the world (1564).

#K7-33