Code: 54825
Date : Circa 1665
Latin text on verso . Highly decorative map of Cardiganshire, a copper engraving with original hand colouring. Overall sheet size: 59cms x 45.7cms; image size : 508mm x 381mm. The map shows villages, settlements, rivers, lakes, mountains and woods. The Royal Coat of Arms within the Garter is engraved top left , with the Coat of Arms of Wales and the Prince of Wales' Feathers at right and the motto ‘Ich Diene’ (I serve) in banner form below. The map’s title cartouche is surrounded by birds, fish, beavers, and a hunter, as well as a scale of miles cartouche with putti using a surveyor's chain. The sea shows three ships and two compass roses in the Irish Sea. On the verso are the remnants of tape from a past framing at the edges, centrefold re-inforced , none visible from the front but please study image two carefully.
Jan Jansson (1588-1664) was the son of a bookseller and publisher who had worked with Jodocus Hondius Sr. From about 1633 onwards, his imprint appears on the title-pages of the Mercator-Hondius "Atlas", in conjunction with his brother-in-law, Henry, as they re-issued their "Atlas" in competition with the Blaeus. At this time, many of the maps were re-drawn or replaced and the "Atlas" was expanded to become the "Atlas Novus" series, an attempt to rival Blaeu's "Atlas Maior" for size and quality. Jansson began to prepare his volume devoted to the British Isles c.1640. In 1644 he published eleven county maps in an appendix to the "Atlas", but they appeared from 1646 in the "Novus Atlas". Jansson's county maps are seen far less frequently than those of his rival Blaeu, but are similar in appearance with coats of arms and decorative title cartouches. Jansson, like Blaeu, used Speed maps when creating his own thus showing hundreds but no roads. However, Jansson (and Blaeu) chose to omit Speed's innovative town plans.
