short time, for in the year 1569 we find a residence had been taken up at Duffel near Antwerp. In this city two children were born, a daughter whose name is now unknown and a son Henry, usually referred to as Henry the Elder.

Jodocus at an early age gave evidence of possessing very remarkable talent for designing and engraving. We are told that at the age of eight he began to apply himself to the art of portraiture, of ivory carving, and of copper engraving, and that his father, noting the exhibition of special talent in the son, placed him as an apprentice with an engraver and sculptor in Antwerp. During this period of apprenticeship he carried on his studies of the fine arts, also of Latin, Greek, and mathematics, under the direction of his father, at the same time applying himself to the work of map engraving. It probably was about the year 1585 that he went to England, where, by reason of the talent he exhibited, he found employment with the English geographers, Richard Hakluyt and Edward Wright, during which period he appears to have engraved and printed a small world map in hemispheres. In the year 1592 he returned to Amsterdam, where he established himself as an engraver and printer, turning his attention especially to the issue of geographical maps.2 Among his friends he numbered the men most prominent in his field, notably Petrus Bertius, very learned as a geographer, and Petrus Montanus.3 It appears to have been Bertius who informed him of the intention of the heirs of Mercator to dispose of that illustrious geographer’s engraving and printing establishment, and who perhaps negotiated the sale of the same. At any rate, we find that in the year 1604 Jodocus Hondius came into possession of the Mercator copper plates of the Ptolemy maps, and at the same time he seems also to have acquired the greater part of the edition of Mercator’s ‘Atlas’ of 1602 then remaining unsold. In the year 1605 Hondius prepared and issued a third edition of the Ptolemy maps; in 1606 he issued a third edition of Mercator’s ‘Atlas’; in 1608 he published a fourth edition; in 1609 and in 1610 other editions.4 It must have been in the year 1611 that he issued his great world map in two hemispheres, bearing the title “Novissima ac exactissima totius orbis terrarum descriptio magna cura & industria ex optimis quibusque tabulis Geographicis et Hydrographicis nuperrimisque doctorum virorum observationibus duobus planisphaerijs delineata. Auct. I. Hondio.” This work has been recently issued in a superb facsimile of the only known extant original copy, now in the possession of Prince Maximilian of Waldburg zu Wolfegg-Waldsee.5 Of such superior excellence is the work of Hondius, as exhibited in this masterpiece, that it justly entitles him to first place among those who, up to this date, had undertaken to construct world maps.

It seems to have been early in his career as engraver and printer that he prepared his first globe gores and issued his first celestial globe. The director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nürnberg, in courteous communication, reports that in the rich collection of that institution there is a Hondius globe of the year 1592, which date, if accurately read, makes this to be the only known copy of what must be taken as his first issue. The map is a colored copper engraving covering a ball of wood having a diameter of 60 cm. The mounting of the globe, which clearly is the original, consists of the usual circles, resting upon six wooden support columns. A more detailed description of this particular example it has not been possible to obtain.6

Not until the year 1600 does there appear to have been a second issue of his globes. Of this second issue a remarkably fine pair (Figs. 88, 89) was recently acquired by Mr. Henry E. Huntington of New York City.7 Excepting very slight damage to the celestial globe in the north polar region, they may be said to be in practically as fine condition as they were when first given out from the master’s workshop. Their complete history has not been obtainable, but so remarkably well preserved are they that it seems quite probable they have been kept through all these years in the library case of some rich Italian treasure-loving family. There cannot be the slightest doubt of their age, certainly none of the age of the spheres themselves, but the exact date of the bronze mounting, though clearly in the style of certain Italian workmanship of the period, is less easy to determine. These globes have a diameter of about 34 cm. and an entire height, including the base, of 73 cm. The spheres on which have been pasted the twelve engraved gores are of papier-mâché, over which is a covering of plaster and a coating of thick varnish or shellac giving a smooth surface for the terrestrial and the celestial maps. To each, color was artistically applied by hand, which still retains a richness of tone. Each is supplied with a bronze meridian and horizon circle and with an hour circle attached in the accustomed manner at the north pole. These circles are appropriately graduated, the horizon circle having, in addition to its graduation into three hundred and sixty degrees, a series of concentric circles engraved, counting from the outermost, with the names of the winds, compass directions in the Dutch language, the names of the months, and the signs of the zodiac. Each sphere with its circles is carried on a base composed of three artistically designed and engraved bronze supports, these being attached at their lower extremities by an appropriately designed plate, and in this plate has been set a compass, still apparently in perfect condition, the dial face of this compass having a diameter of 8 cm. Aside from their scientific value for the student of geography and of astronomy, these are fit pieces to adorn the library shelves of a prince among American book collectors, as they must, in keeping with the custom of the time, have once adorned the shelves of an Italian patrician book lover.