The Continents
Hondius's Europe
Europe, described most exactly, by its own mapmakers.
- Map
- Europa exactissime descripta
- Mapmaker
- Henricus Hondius
- Date
- 1631, printed 1638
- Held by
- Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library · via Digital Commonwealth
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
Europa exactissime descripta: Europe described most exactly. This was the mapmakers' own continent, and Henricus Hondius dated the plate 1631 before it went into the Atlas Novus he published with Jan Jansson in Amsterdam in 1638. A dedication sits in its cartouche and the relief is drawn as rows of small hills. The claim of exactness was a boast the Amsterdam trade made about its own home ground, and it is a fair one here. It is the fourth of the atlas's continent maps dated 1631, and it makes the most sense beside the other three.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain map held by Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library · via Digital Commonwealth — the work is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper or 400gsm canvas; framed pieces sit behind acrylic.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed and linen-backed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our maps cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans in existence, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the sea monsters, the tiny place-names, the burin lines — on matte paper that holds every line without glare.
From the same mapmaker
