This is a map of Cyprus with rhumb lines. Three sailing ships, two compass roses, and a sea monster are scattered next to the representation of Cyprus. The map is written in an unknown text, perhaps Latin. The details and drawings on the map are accented with bright colors. The mountain ridges, ships, trees and other images all contain vivid colors. There is a label/title in the top left hand corner and a small box of text in the bottom right hand corner. The map is matted on a cream background and in a simple dark wooden frame. There is glass covering the front of the map.

Purchased by Cyprus Museum through Richard B. Arkway, Inc. for $400.00 on March 11, 1989

Jan Jansson, also known as Johannes Janssonius, was a Dutch cartographer born in 1588 in the Netherlands. He published his first map in 1616 and 15 years later while working in Amsterdam, issued further editions of the Mercator/Hondius atlas.

Colors in a map like this one are used to distinguish between different geographical areas.

Jan Jansson Jr. (1588-1664)
Jan Jansson Jr., also known as Johannes Janssonius, was the son of Jan Janzoon the Elder, a bookseller and publisher who had worked with the cartographer and publisher Jodocus Hondius. Jan Jansson Jr. married Jodocus' daughter Elisabeth in 1612 and set up a business in Amsterdam as a book publisher.

In 1616, Jansson published his first maps of France and Italy. Partnered with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius, from 1630-1638, Jansson issued further editions of the Mercator-Hondius atlases. Upon Henricus' deather, he took over the business, expanding the atlas until eventually he published the eleven volume Atlas Major on a scale similar to Blaeu's Atlas Major.

In 1646, the first full edition of Jansson's English Country Maps was published. Some years earlier, between 1636 and 1644, Jansson issued a number of British maps in the Mercator-Hondius-Jansson series of atlases. The maps were printed from newly engraved plates and were differenct from the later 1646 issue. Jansson also issued a revised reprint of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum of Braun and Hogenberg, retaining many of the existing plates and also adding a number of new ones. Other atlases that he published include Andreas Cellarius' celestial atlas and George Hornius' classical atlas.

In general appearance, Jansson's maps bear striking similarities to those of the Blaeu Family's, and, in fact, were often copied from them.

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