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JANSSONIUS, J. Novus Atlas Absolutissimus... Die Wasser-Welt,
oder See-Atlas
In folio, with 6 additional charts, total 39 charts.
Amsterdam, 1657 [after 1664]
 
Although pilot guides, or rutters, supplemented by charts had been produced as early as 1584, Janssonius must be credited with the production of the “first real sea-atlas”, which contained “a collection of charts in folio size, to serve as an atlas for general purposes” (Van der Krogt).
Some Anglo-Italians might put forward for that title Robert Dudley’s Acarno del Mare – a work of numerable firsts, published in 1646 – but it was not until the second edition of 1661 that all the charts in it were uniformly bound.
Also prof. Koeman states, the “first sea-atlas (in the real sense of the word) printed in the Netherlands”.
It was first published in 1650, containing 23 charts and ten historical maps, and formed the fifth volume of Janssonius’ five volume ‘Atlas Novus’. In 1657, Janssonius issued a new, six-volume edition of the ‘Atlas Novus’. For this edition he added nine new charts to the ‘Waterwereld’, removed the historical maps, and reset the text. As well as being issued within the ‘Atlas Novus’, the ‘Waterwereld’ was also issued separately.
This is the First German text edition of the Maritime Atlas Volume 9 of the "Novus Atlas Absolutissimus".
Volume IX : engraved frontispiece (highlighted in gold), 39 charts, thus 6 extra
charts by Visscher ("Insulae
Americanae", "Insula Matanino", "Novi Belgii", "Indiae orientalis", "Insularum
Melitae" et "Insula Candia").
The atlas is bound in very
rich contemporary Dutch publisher's paneled vellum, each cover elaborately
decorated in gilt in two panels with fillets of broad floral roll tools, large
floral inner corner-pieces and central floral cartouche surrounding an armillary
globe. Some charts have slight browning
and offsetting due to oxidation of paint. With usual text pages browning.
The "Novus Atlas Absolutissimus" is the most developed of the editions of the "Novus
Atlas", of which only the Latin edition arrived at the final state of the "Atlas
Maior". The atlas comprises eleven volumes, formed (just as the Latin and
Dutch
editions) by splitting the five volumes of the "Atlas Nouveau" and by
supplementing with a number of newly-engraved maps and with maps published by
Nic. Visscher. Contrary to the Latin and Dutch atlases Janssonius printed new
letterpress titles and new indexes for the German edition. The index includes
the new maps.
The atlases were probably made in a very small number of copies and later
obviously only made to order. This can explain the variation in letterpress
titles and title-pages. When letterpress titles were out of print, the later
made-to-order copies have letterpress titles composed by cutting and pasting of
words, sometimes even syllables or letters. The Visscher maps occur in various
states.
The atlas includes some very decorative and important charts and maps:
 Northeast/ New York City. JANSSON J./ VISSCHER, C. J. Novi
Belgii Novaeque Angliae... 18 ¼ x 21 ½ inches. A
most attractive example of a map that is as historically important as it is
beautiful. It was the culmination of all the surveys of the area conducted by
the Dutch colonists of New Netherlands during their first three decades in
America. It is also the first printed map to delineate the shape of Manhattan
with relative accuracy; it had been shown as a triangle earlier. Also, English
towns that were just being settled at the time, such as Milford, Guilford,
Stratford, and Stamford, are shown along the Connecticut shoreline. Every Indian
tribe encountered by the colonists, most of which are long extinct, as well as
every town and settlement in existence at the time, are believed to be on this
map.
The map in its original form was part of a protest by New Netherlands colonists
against the policies of the Dutch West India Company, the organization that
sponsored the colonization of New York. The author of this original was possibly
A. van der Donck, a lawyer who was an early resident of New Amsterdam and who
led the protest of the colonists.
The view of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan in the lower right
hand corner is based on the second earliest image of the city. It is believed to
be a generally accurate though sanitized depiction of New Amsterdam
approximately 25 years after initial settlement. The view reveals a modest but
charming village set on the rolling landscape that characterized Manhattan
topography in its virgin state. See below for Joep De Koning’s new research on
the origins and dating of the view.
Burden 315, state 4; Tooley, America, no. 5, p. 284; Augustyn/ Cohen, Manhattan
in Maps, pp. 32-33; J. De Koning, “From Van der Donck to Visscher” in Mercator’s
World, July/ August 2000, pp. 28-33.
"Mar di India", covers the area between the Cape of Good Hope and Korea (INS: CORAI) and Japan. It owes its importance to the rendering of the coastline of
Australia, which bears the name 'TERRA DEL ZUR'. Of the results of the Carstensz
expedition in 1623, only those of the ship Pera on the West Coast of Cape York
Peninsula are shown. The results of the voyage of the Arnhem are omitted. The
discoveries of the Vianen in 1628 are rendered.
Mar del Zur Hispanis Mare Pacificum: the first map of the Pacific to show
California as an Island and the earliest map of the Pacific to appear in a Dutch
Atlas. From the string of fictitious islands in the South Pacific, to the
recently discovered coastlines of Australia and New Guinea, to "Japon" and "Corai"
and Terra Incognita in the north. Ref.: McLaughlin 11; Tooley pl 30; Burden 292;
Potter p.129; Wagner 359; Leighly pl VI.
Much
attention is paid to the Northern region, a water way considered for a long time
for reaching the East. The Pole maps both in circular form rank among the
highlight of Dutch map making and are decorated with whaling and maritime
scenes. The chart of the South pole "Polus Antarcticus", is predating the first
appearance of New Zealand and Van Dieman's Land
Tabula Anemographica Seu Pyxis Nautica. . . oder des See-Compasses. . .
Over the centuries, an increased diversity of names for the winds and ambiguity
about the direction they came from, produced a multitude of different wind
systems. To create order out of the tangled confusion of names and directions,
cartographers produced wind roses such as this by Joannes Janssonius in 1650.
Thirty-two points (directions) are shown and labeled with various directional
names for the winds. But to sailors plying the waters of the open oceans, a wind
blowing from Thrace (Thracias) lost all relevance in defining direction.
Eventually, the wind rose, overburdened by a multiplicity of names and obtuse
symbolism, gave way to the directional system of north, east, south, and west,
with their intermediate compounds, as used today.
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