Orbem maritimum

Johannes Janssonius was an Amsterdam publisher, bookseller, and mapmaker who became one of the leading figures in the continuation of the Mercator-Hondius atlas tradition. In 1612 he married Elisabeth Hondius, daughter of Jodocus Hondius I, and in 1630 he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law Henricus Hondius. Their Atlantis maioris appendix, sive pars altera of 1630 expanded the Mercator-Hondius atlas project and placed the firm in direct competition with the Blaeu publishing house.

This title page introduces the maritime part of Janssonius’s Atlas novus, issued as part of the fifth volume. Although the engraved title refers to Quarta, the sheet belongs to the atlas’s maritime volume, Orbem maritimum, concerned with seas, navigation, and maritime geography. This example is the third state, dated 1657.

The upper part of the design draws on Old Testament imagery. Moses appears with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, with Aaron, the high priest, standing beside him in ceremonial dress. In the background, the parting of the Red Sea evokes divine guidance through water, while another scene shows Moses and the Israelites looking toward the Promised Land of Canaan. Below, the scouts sent into Canaan return carrying the large cluster of grapes described in Numbers 13: 23, a sign of the land’s abundance.

The central title panel is flanked by two armoured figures, linking the maritime atlas with classical authority and military strength. At the bottom sits a regal figure, probably the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, who reigned from 1637 to 1657. On either side are scenes of maritime activity, with navigators and chartmakers at work. These lower vignettes bring the title page back to the practical subject of the Atlas maritimus: navigation, sea routes, and the charting of the world’s oceans.