The ‘Atlas Minor’ by Johannes Cloppenburg was the least successful of three ‘Minor’ versions of Gerard Mercator’s ‘Atlas’. Published in just three editions the first was issued in 1630. The reasons for this are unknown but may have something to do with the fact that when the plates reappeared some forty years later they were in the hands of Jan Jansson van Waesberge, the son-in-law of Joannes Janssonius. Janssonius had published a rival slightly smaller atlas in 1628. It is possible he bought this, the largest of the three works. The copperplates for this work were engraved by Pieter van den Keere, and this one of the British Isles is derived directly from Mercator. The plate is in its rare second state having had the moire effect sea erased for publication in the 1673 edition. Provenance: acquired from Doreen Green, 1998; private English collection. Koeman ME 205; Phillips 3439; Shirley (1991) 413; Shirley(2004) T.Clop 1c; Van der Krogt, P. (1997, Atlantes) 353:21.