This sea chart of the English Channel is derived from that found in Willem Blaeu’s ‘Zeespiegel’ of 1623. It is one of 14 such charts engraved by Matthaus Merian for Johann Angel von Werdenhagen’s ‘De Rebus Publicis Hanseaticis’. Werdenhagen (1581-1652) published an enlarged second edition of this work in 1641 and chose to heavily illustrate it with plates supplied by Merian. The book details the Hanseatic League, a powerful trading block of Baltic, Central and northwestern European guilds and towns. Merian (1593-50) was a noted engraver and publisher born in Basle. He married a daughter of the engraver and publisher Theodore de Bry and eventually continued his father-in-law’s business in Frankfurt. The most notable difference between the two maps is the removal of the privilege upper right and the naming of France changing from ‘Vranc-riick’ to ‘Franc-riick’ Provenance: private Jersey collection. Phillips (1909-) 7645 no. 164; Shirley (2004) G.Werd 1a no.141; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).