Jodocus Hondius I

Founder of the Hondius publishing house in Amsterdam in the late 16th Century. Between about 1584 and 1593 Hondius lived and worked in London, and became fascinated by Francis Drake and his voyages. Many portraits of the explorer are attributed to Hondius, as well as a very famous and rare world map showing Drake's voyages.

In July of 1604, Hondius purchased many of Gerard Mercator’s original engraved copperplates from his grandson, Gerard Mercator, Jr., and thereafter built a successful publishing career from his own Mercator-Hondius atlas, issued as ‘Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas Sive Cosmographicae’. After Hondius died in 1612, his widow Jodocus Hondius II and his brother, Henricus Hondius II (1597–1651), continued publishing atlases under his name until 1620. Unfortunately, in 1621 Jodocus Hondius II split with his brother, creating a rival publishing house. Henricus continued his father’s business with his brother-in-law, Johannes Janssonius (1588–1664) , who had married Elizabeth Hondius in 1612. After 1619, the Atlas was published under the name of Henricus Hondius, Jodocus Hondius’s son, but by 1629, the Blaeu family were becoming serious rivals to their publishing house.