This popular baroque-style map was originally designed as a frontispiece to Henricus Hondius’s 1630 revision of the long-lived Mercator/Hondius atlas, a work then being challenged by rival map publishers. The decorations include depictions of the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and portraits of Julius Caesar and cartographers Claudius Ptolemy, Gerard Mercator, and Jodocus Hondius Sr.
