Utriusque Castiliae Nova Descriptio

Map of Castile comprising Extremadura, Castilla la Nueva, Ávila, Salamanca and part of Burgos, Logroño, Palencia, Aragon, Valencia, Jaén, Madrid, Córdoba, Seville, Granada, Murcia, among others. It was published in Amsterdam in the work Nouveau Theatre du Monde ou Nouvel Atlas comprenant Les Tables et Descriptions de toutes les Regions de la Terre. It contains many interesting elements such as the ornate title cartouche crowned by an orb, the coats of arms of Castile and of the former kingdom of Toledo, a key with the location of bishoprics and universities, and a small cartouche decorated with the scale. Abundant toponymy in Spanish and Latin, and orography in profile. Henricus Hondius (1597-1651) was a Dutch cartographer and engraver, member of a prominent family of cartographers. While he worked with his father, the famous Jodocus Hondius, he played a fundamental role in the reissue of Mercator’s atlas, first published in 1595. On the death of his father in 1612, Henricus and his brother, Jodocus the Younger, continued with the family business. He established his first shop in 1621 and later associated with his brother-in-law, Jan Janssonius, another famous cartographer, with whom he continued to expand and publish Mercator’s atlas, which came to be known as the Mercator-Hondius-Janssonius atlas. He died in 1651.