Caert-Thresoor was a compact, pocket-sized atlas that combined maps and illustrations with short descriptive texts. It first appeared in 1598 under the imprint of Barent Langenes in Middelburg, with copies available for sale through the Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz. Conceived as an affordable and portable alternative to large-format atlases, it brought together terrestrial, maritime, and cosmographical material in a form intended for both learned readers and a broader public.

The maps and illustrations were engraved chiefly by Pieter van den Keere (#285, #383), with substantial contributions by Jodocus Hondius (including the present plate, #295, #296) The authorship of some plates, including the East Indies map (#388), remains uncertain and may involve either engraver.

This map closely follows the world map engraved a decade earlier by Philip Galle for the Epitome, the pocket-sized atlas of Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (#252, 1584 edition). It is framed by decorative strapwork, with the biblical inscription Domini est terra et plenitudo eius (“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof”), drawn from Psalm 24:1, underscoring the map’s theological and cosmographical framing.

Geographically, the map incorporates updated toponymy in the Americas, including California, Norrobega, Virginia, and Patagones, while retaining unresolved features such as Guinea Nova, which is not shown as an island. The Solomon Islands appear as Insulae Salomonis, reflecting the Latinised nomenclature typical of the period.

Across the southern hemisphere, Terra Australis nondum cognita forms a continuous, conjectural landmass extending around the lower margin of the map. This depiction reflects late sixteenth-century assumptions about a vast southern continent, conceived as a necessary geographical and cosmographical counterweight to the lands of the northern hemisphere.

The map bears Hondius’s signature beneath the inscription and is marked “A” at lower right, indicating the first leaf of section A. It later served as the basis for revised states issued in 1649 by Claes Jansz. Visscher in Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri quatuor denuo recogniti, where it reappeared as Typus Orbis Terrarum (#292).

Peter van der Krogt, ed., Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici, vol. 3 (’t Goy-Houten: HES & De Graaf, 1997–), 376-381 (no. 341:01).

Günter Schilder, Monumenta cartographica Neerlandica, vol. 7 (Canaletto, 2003), 457