This is a reduction of Gerard Mercator’s similar folio map first published in 1595. It consists of four separate maps of British Islands. That of Anglesey appears to have been derived from the Christopher Saxton map from 1579. The Isle of Wight appears to be derived from the Baptista Boazio map of the island from 1591 with the notable alteration to the size of the sandbank off the northeast coast. Guernsey is reasonably accurate and bears a remarkable similarity to the manuscript prepared by Reyner Wolfe c.1565. Indeed, every placename on the manuscript is repeated here with no additional names. That of Jersey is derived from the manuscript by John Norden (British Library Add. MS. 31,853) presented to Queen Elizabeth.In 1604 Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) acquired the copper plates to Gerard Mercator’s ‘Atlas Sive Cosmographicae’. He published his own edition of the atlas in 1606. This was followed swiftly by a smaller version entitled ‘Atlas Minor’ in 1607. It included this reduced size map which is identical. It is inevitable that some loss of detail has occurred, but most toponyms remain. Various language editions appeared through 1621 after which the plates were sold to an unknown party in London where many were used in Samuael Purchas’ ‘Purchas his Pilgrimes’, 1625-26. The next appearance of this plate was to illustrate the English translation by Wye Saltonstall of Mercator’s atlas entitled Historia Mundi published in 1635. Two later editions appeared in 1637 and 1639. Provenance: private Jersey collection. Refer Burden (1996) no. 153; Koeman (1967) vol. 2, p. 549; Shirley (2004) T.HON 1e.