HONDIUS, Jodocus (1563-1612). Virginiae Item et Floridae...

HONDIUS, Jodocus (1563-1612).

Virginiae Item et Floridae...

Copperplate engraving with hand color in part.

Amsterdam, 1606 (1613). French Text. 18 1/2 x 22 inches sheet

This stunning map was compiled from two of the most important source maps of the early colonial period: John White’s Virginia and Jacques le Moyne’s Florida. Hondius’ map became the prototype map of the region for the first half of the 17th century and continued to influence the cartography of the region until the 18th century .Burden #15

Nicely colored example of Jodocus Hondius's important map of Virginia and the Carolinas, from the Mercator-Hondius Atlas Sive Cosmographie . . .

Hondius utilized John White's map of Virginia and Jacques Le Moyne's map of Florida to create what amounts to a composite of these two tremendously important late 16th Century maps of the region. The map has a profound impact on the mapping of the region for much of the 17th Century and became the prototype map for the region until the Ogilby-Moxon "Description of Carolina" ca. 1672. The gold bearing mountains of Apalatcy, the lake fed by the great waterfall, the lake with the unseen shore, Lake Sarrope, the French names for the rivers, the location for the French fort at Port Royal: these and many other details are based on Le Moyne.

Hondius does contribute additional information to the composite. The large lake with the opposite shore invisible, which in Le Moyne lies in a southwesterly direction from the mouth of the River May, has been moved northward to the foothills of the Apalatcy Montes. This makes the River May flow in a southeasterly direction instead of in the A-shaped course given by Le Moyne. Hondius drew upon other maps for his source, including Mercator's World map of 1569, the second edition of Ortelius' map of America (1584), and Wytfliet's map of the Southeast, first issued in 1597, in which the river Sola flows in a southeasterly direction from the mountains.

According to Cummings, the River May is Le Moyne's name for St. Johns River in Florida, on which Fort Caroline was built. By putting the lake and the direction of the River May to the northwest of its mouth, and changing the accompanying topographical features and Indian settlements, Hondius created geographical misconceptions of the region, which lasted for nearly 150 years. Also he moved the latitude of the mouth of the River May from 29°30' N.L. (St. Johns is 30°25') to 31°20'. This is actually the latitude of the Altamaha in Georgia, the first river above Florida which has its source in the Appalachian range. These factors undoubtedly encouraged the continuance of erroneous beliefs in the minds of subsequent explorers and cartographers. St. Marys River, which lies between St. Johns and the Altamaha, rises in the Okefenokee Swamp. Some writers think that the River May is the St. Marys River and that the great lake is the Okefenokee Swamp.

A wild turkey and other game are illustrated, along with sea monsters, an indigenous canoe and sailing ships