India Orientalis

1611

Copper engraving on paper

Print size: 14 x 19.25 in (35.4 x 48.6 cm)
Sheet size: 16.5 x 20.25 in (41.8 x 51.7 cm)

Hondius—India Orientalis, 1611: Bengal, the Bay of Bengal & the Indo-China World

This example of Jodocus Hondius the Elder’s India Orientalis (engraved 1606, here from the 1611 Amsterdam edition of the Mercator–Hondius Atlas) ranks among the most finely engraved early modern European maps of India, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms part of the group of 37 new maps Hondius added after acquiring Gerard Mercator’s copperplates, modernising the atlas with updated geographic intelligence and a distinctive, energetic engraving style.

The map spans from the Indus River valley in the west across Bengal and the Bay of Bengal, extending eastward to encompass Burma, Siam (Ayutthaya), Cochinchina, China, and the Philippines, situating Eastern India within a wider Indo-Pacific maritime world. The Mergui Archipelago appears in distorted form along the Burmese coast, while Siam is depicted as an island, reflecting early-seventeenth-century geographic uncertainty. The Philippines, Borneo, and Sumatra are rendered with notable detail, and Formosa (Taiwan) is named, though inaccurately delineated.

A defining and historically significant feature is the inclusion of the mythical Lake Chiamay, shown as the source of multiple major Southeast Asian rivers—including the Irrawaddy, Brahmaputra, Chao Phraya, and others—echoing a cartographic hypothesis shared by Mercator, Ortelius, and Linschoten. This apocryphal lake, possibly derived from lost Portuguese geographic sources such as João de Barros, persisted in European cartography until the mid-eighteenth century before being conclusively disproved.

The surrounding seas are animated with a European sailing vessel, an Asian dhow, and a sea monster, visually reinforcing the commercial and imperial maritime ambitions that shaped European engagement with the Bay of Bengal and the East Indies. Typographical evidence on the verso indicates this example derives from the 1611 Mercator–Hondius atlas edition, with relatively few institutional holdings of this specific issue recorded.

As an artefact, the map captures a pivotal moment in European geographic thought, where classical theory, traveller accounts, and expanding maritime trade converged to define an enduring vision of Eastern India and the Indo-Chinese world.

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