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, #294) The authorship of some plates, including the East Indies map (#388), remains uncertain and may involve either engraver.

This small double-hemisphere world map presents the Earth divided into eastern and western hemispheres and belongs to the cosmographical component of the atlas, complementing its terrestrial geography. Framed by decorative strapwork, the map reflects contemporary conceptions of the world as part of a divinely ordered cosmos. At the top, nestled between the hemispheres, is the inscription “IEHOVA,” a Latinised form of the Hebrew name for God, reinforcing the map’s theological framing.

The engraver’s name, Jodicus Hondius, appears at the foot of the plate. The map is numbered “17” in the upper right corner, indicating its sequence within the atlas, and marked “B” in the lower right, the printer’s signature, denoting the first leaf of section B. The design later served as the basis for revised states issued by Claes Jansz. Visscher in the 1649 work Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri quatuor denuo recogniti (1649), where it reappeared as Iehova (#293).

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