Nova totius terrarum orbis geographica ac hydrographica tabula

Dirck Evertsz. Lons was an Amsterdam engraver and mapmaker about whom little is known. His surviving cartographic output appears to have been limited, but it includes this separately published world map issued in Amsterdam in 1622.

Shirley notes that Lons clearly took Pieter van den Keere’s 1608 world map (109) as his prototype. The overall composition, decorative border, and much of the southern-continent geography derive from Van den Keere’s map, but Lons updated the geography in several important places. The trans-Pacific route of Jacob Le Maire and Willem Cornelisz. Schouten’s 1615–1617 voyage is marked, and the land south of South America has been redrawn to reflect the discovery of the Strait of Le Maire. The northeastern parts of America were also updated in response to recent discoveries. In the southern hemisphere, the map retains the large conjectural southern continent, here labelled Magellanica. Much of its geography derives from Van den Keere’s 1608 world map, including inscriptions concerning Spanish and Portuguese reports, Psittacorum regio, and the imagined extent of Terra Australis.

The southern continent also contains two biblical scenes: Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the Expulsion from Eden. In the North American cartouche, portraits of geographers, explorers, and circumnavigators place the map within a history of discovery, including Claudius Ptolemy, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan, Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, Olivier van Noort, Joris van Spilbergen, and Jacob Le Maire. The decorative border combines rulers, town views, and costumed figures. The upper border features eight sovereigns on horseback, each set within arched openings supported by ornate columns. The lower border depicts ten pairs of male and female figures in regional European dress. The side borders each contain nine town views in oval frames. Some of the costume figures were copied from Claes Jansz. Visscher’s 1614 world map.

Within the collection, this map is directly connected with Van den Keere’s 1608 world map (109). It also relates to Jodocus Hondius I’s Orbis terrae novissima descriptio (199), and Willem Blaeu’s 1606 world map (9).