Old Map of the South Polar Regions, c.1645
Price range: £35.55 through £59.95
Polus Antarcticus, the South Pole map by Jan Jansson
First designed by Henricus Hondius and later issued in revised form by Jan Jansson, this mid-seventeenth-century map places the South Pole at the centre of a circular projection. Southern coastlines, islands, ships and decorative scenes surround a region still largely unexplored by Europeans. New Zealand and Van Diemen’s Land appear alongside broad areas of conjecture, making the sheet a vivid record of how quickly discoveries were changing the map of the southern world.
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Historical Background
Polus Antarcticus gathers the southern oceans around the pole in a hemispherical view. This revised mid-seventeenth-century state includes coastlines and island discoveries alongside a large, still-unmapped polar interior, so the image records both new observations and the limits of European knowledge.
Map Details
- Original title: Polus Antarcticus
- Original design: Henricus Hondius; this later state issued by Jan Jansson (Johannes Janssonius)
- Date: Circa 1645; the precise state of this reproduction has not been confirmed
- Area shown: The southern hemisphere around the South Pole, including parts of South America, Africa and Australia
The map’s revised geography incorporates discoveries made during Dutch voyages in the 1640s. Van Diemen’s Land and New Zealand appear among the southern lands, while the polar centre remains blank or conjectural rather than depicting a continent that European cartographers had not yet surveyed. Ships and decorative vignettes turn that incomplete geography into a polished atlas plate.
Compare the more defined outlines near the continents with the open space around the pole. The contrast is central to the map’s interest: discoveries had improved knowledge of the southern oceans, but they had not yet resolved what lay at the bottom of the world. The engraved circle, surrounding scenes and newly charted coastlines make this a particularly elegant record of exploration in progress.
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