Jodocus HONDIUS I

1563 - 1612

Jodocus Hondius I (Joost de Hondt, also known as Jodocus Hondius the Elder) was born on October 14, 1563, in Wakken, Flanders, and died on February 12, 1612, in Amsterdam. He grew up in Ghent, where his family relocated during his early childhood. Hondius established what would become a highly prominent multi-generational dynasty of mapmakers and publishers. He showed an early aptitude for drawing, mathematics, and engraving, largely teaching himself before fleeing religious persecution to London in 1584, where he worked as an engraver and instrument maker. There, he collaborated with English mapmakers, including John Speed, and married Colette van den Keere, a sister of the engraver Pieter van den Keere, further intertwining his personal life with prominent publishing families.

Hondius holds a position of outstanding importance in the history of cartography because he single-handedly revived the legacy of Gerardus Mercator. After establishing a successful publishing house in Amsterdam in 1593, Hondius purchased the original printing plates of Mercator's Atlas from Mercator's heirs in 1604. He added dozens of newly engraved, highly accurate maps to the collection to compete with the dominant atlas of Abraham Ortelius. This expanded work, first published in 1606 and commonly referred to as the Mercator-Hondius Atlas, effectively popularised Mercator’s innovative projection methodology and established Amsterdam as the global epicenter of 17^th-century commercial cartography. Following his death, Hondius’ flourishing business and substantial inventory of copper printing plates were passed on to, and maintained by, his widow, Colette, alongside his sons Jodocus II and Henricus Hondius II, and later his son-in-law Jan Jansson.

Jodocus Hondius I will be remembered as the brilliant engraver and entrepreneurial publisher who rescued Mercator’s work from obscurity, permanently establishing the “Atlas” format as the standard presentation of world geography.