Wind chart from Atlantis Majoris quinta pars, Orbem Maritimum...
Jan Jansson (1558-1664)
Amsterdam, 1650
Handcolored engraving
WOP-254

This chart illustrates the winds configured in the form of a compass. The names of the directions are given in Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and Greek. The four major winds are represented as personifications of the seasons--Winter is the north wind, Spring the west, Summer the south, and Fall the east. Significantly, the winds also take on the appearance of what were understood at that time to be the different races of the world. This engraving is the first chart in a volume of Jansson's atlas devoted to maps of the coastal regions of the world. Jansson was one of the major publishers of maps in the Netherlands during the middle of the 17th century.