IAPONIA, Petrus Kaerius Coelavit [Korea as an Island].

An extremely rare variant of the map of Japan and Korea, based on Jodocus Hondius' folio map of Japan. The map follows the Ortelius/Teixeira type for Japan, with Korea shown as an island [maybe the last to do so] and an explanation that its insularity is uncertain.
Now erased are the jagged oceans, and no text is printed on the verso. This map was engraved by Petrus Kaerius. From the updated and expanded 1676 edition of one of the greatest miniature atlases of the 17th century, the Mercator-Hondius 'Atlas Minor', published by Johannes Janssonium van Waesberge in Amsterdam in 1676.

Late History of the Mercator-Hondius Miniature Atlas: In 1630 Johannes Cloppenburg reworked and enlarged the Mercator-Hondius 'Atlas Minor' with a set of newly engraved maps; two other editions followed in 1632 and 1636. In 1673 the plates appeared again, this time published by Johannes Janssonius's son-in-law, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge who expanded the run to 183 maps. 1676 saw another Janssonius van Waesberge issue, lengthened yet again to include 207 maps.

Comparing the 1673 and 1676 editions: The 1676 atlas is almost comprehensively revised from the 1673; not only has the complement of maps expanded by 24, but many of the maps from the earlier edition have been substantially revised or changed out for new plates.
The themes of the revision of the 1676 includes amongst other that the decorative style has shifted toward what one might expect from Dutch maps of the 1670s, with more figurative cartouches and decorative elements like ships in the sea, and fewer generalised stylistic devices like the jagged oceans, which here are erased from most of the plates - although remnants still visible.
RBH records only one example of the 1673 edition appearing at auction (Parke Bernet 1966). No other copies of the 1676 can be located, either at auction or in institutional collections. This variant edition was unrecorded by Koeman.