Johannes Janssonius (1588-1664) was the great rival of the Blaeu family. In 1630 Blaeu published his Appendix which was a challenge to the pre-dominance of the Mercator-Hondius atlases of the day. A publishing race ensued and Jodocus Hondius joined forces with Janssonius who co-published and distributed the Atlas Novus. In 1640 Janssonius began work on a volume covering England and Wales. Progress was slow and it was not until the competition of Blaeu’s own atlas of England and Wales published in 1645 that Janssonius pushed his to completion the following year. This is the first edition with German text with a title page from that of the Latin edition of 1646. The maps, with German text on the back, are as in the Latin edition. The preface is dated 9 March 1647. Provenance: private English collection. Skelton 40.