A Dutch sea chart of the South Atlantic Ocean by Jan Jansson. In 1650 he published the sea atlas entitled ‘Atlantis Majoris Quinta Pars, Orbem Maritimum’ as the fifth volume of his ‘Atlas Novus’. It is the first sea atlas of the world only pre-dated by the much more cumbersome six-volume ‘Arcano del Mare’ by Sir Robert Dudley in 1646-7. This chart illustrates the coastlines of South America, Southwestern Africa, along with the imagined ‘Terra Australis Incognita’. The inland waterways to both continents are detailed. In South America the Rio de la Plata is sourced from a fictional ‘Lago de los Xarayes’. Nearer its mouth is a tributary entitled Rio de Carcarannu fed from directly west where none exists at all. A prominent Lake Zaire dominates the African continent.

Jan Jannson (1596-1664) was the great rival of the Blaeu family of publishers. 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 Jansson who co-published and distributed the ‘Atlas Novus’. It was expanded over the years to six volumes and eventually formed 12 volumes in the ‘Atlas Major’. Jansson often conceived of ideas in cartography prior to that of Blaeu. This example lacks any text to the verso indicating its origins from a later Dutch composite atlas. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Koeman (1967) vol. 2, pp. 492-3, no. 653; van der Krogt (Atlantes) 0102:1; Phillips (1909-) no. 502.