VIRGINIA

Date1648

Maker Johannes Janssonius 1588 - 1664

After work by Captain John Smith (1580-1631)

After work by Henricus Hondius 1597 - 1651

OriginEurope, Netherlands, Amsterdam

MediumBlack and white line engraving

DimensionsTo neat lines: 5 5/8" x 7 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2017-51

DescriptionUpper margin: "Von Virginia. 389"
In cartouche at upper left-hand corner: "VIRGI:/ NIA./ Notar Explicatio/ Domus Regum/ Ordinairae Domus / Lucubrationes An/ glorum."
Label TextThis deriviative of the John Smith map of Virginia (1612) was published in Amsterdam for the German market in 1648 by Dutch mapmaker, bookseller, and publisher Johannes Janssonius (Jan Jansson, Joannes Janssonius, Jan Janszoon). It originally appeared in a German edition of Gerhard Mercator's 'Atlas Minor.' The letterpress heading reads "Von Virginia. 389" and the page includes text in German on the verso. Between 1628 and 1648, mapmakers published small, more affordable copies of the Hondius version of John Smith's map of Virginia (1612). Janssonius married the daughter of Dutch mapmaker Jocodus Hondius, Elisabeth de Hondt in 1612. In the 1630s, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, mapmaker Henricus Hondius.

This copy is published in William C. Wooldridge, Mapping Virginia: From the Age of Exploration to the Civil War (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012), #36, pp. 40-41.ProvenanceBefore 1998, Roderick M. Barron (Kent, England); 1998, purchased by William C. Wooldridge (Norfolk, VA); 2009, purchased by the Virginia Cartographical Society (Norfolk, VA); 2017-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).