This is the fourth state of Van den Keere's second folio-size map of the world on Mercator's projection. It is a handsome, well-balanced, finely engraved and visually appealing map with many striking decorations. The title runs along the top edge, and the imprint is within a simple cartouche in the upper right corner.
Three large decorative elements appear on the map itself. The interior of North America is occupied by a large cartouche surrounded by portraits of nine cartographers, explorers and world circumnavigators: Ptolemy, Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, Drake, and Cavendish, along with three Dutchmen, Van Noort, Van Spilbergen, and Le Maire. The legend in the cartouche refers to their voyages. The bottom corners show Adam and Eve's Temptation and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Van den Keere copied these panels from Visscher's 1614 world map.
Decorative borders frame the map on all sides. The top border presents eight sovereigns on horseback in niches. Ten pairs of costumed figures are shown along the bottom border, while the two side borders each present ten town views in oval frames. These town views and the costumed figures are all copied faithfully from Claes Jansz Visscher's 1614 world map. The geographical content is generally up-to-date. Van den Keere shows Jacob le Maire's route (1615-17) in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific, together with the results of this voyage as they relate to the southern tip of South America and the Pacific; New Guinea, however, still has the old shape. The drawing of the unknown Southland (MAGALLANICA) and its extensive legends are copied from Van den Keere's earlier map of 1608. On the northeast coast of North America are references to John Davis's voyages of 1585-87 and the Amsterdam expedition of 1613. Furthermore, the results of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage (1610-11), made public for the first time by Hessel Gerritsz's 1612 map, are also included. Van den Keere probably took this information from Willem Jansz Blaeu's double-hemisphere 1619 wall map of the world. The presentation of the Arctic areas in the northeastern part of Canada is unusual in some respects. The Dutch voyages (1594-96) in search of a north-east passage are mentioned, and the results of Willem Barentz's voyage to Bear Island (Tverre Eylandt) and Spitsbergen (Nieulandt) are presented next to the imaginary representations of the English predecessors. The drawing of Novaya Zemlya as a peninsula, showing the Kara Sea as an inland sea, is striking. A legend expresses the mapmaker's uncertainty about the delineation of this part of Asia. (Schilder)

This map first appeared in 1622. After his first wife's death, Van den Keere was forced to sell several map plates. This map passed to Dirck Evertsen Lons, who reprinted it in the same year. Subsequently, the plates were passed to Janssonius, who reprinted them in 1626 and 1632, as seen here.

Pieter Van den Keere (Petrus Kaerius) (1571-c.1650)

Pieter van den Keere was born in Ghent in 1571 as the son of the type-founder, Hendrik van den Keere. In 1584 he moved with his family for religious reasons to London. There, Van den Keere received training as an engraver from Jodocus Hondius, his brother-in-law. Not only the companionship with Jodocus Hondius but also the acquaintanceship with Pieter van den Berghe (Petrus Montanus) author of the text of the Germania Inferior originates from the years of refuge in London.
In 1593, both Keere and Hondius settled in Amsterdam. There, one of the first big enterprises was the large wall map of Europe, dated 1595: Nova totius Europae descriptio.
In 1610 he set up a workshop in the Kalverstraat that he called ‘In den onseeckeren tijd’ (In the uncertain time). In this period, he made numerous copperplates, including for maps for his atlas of the Netherlands and the Atlas Minor published by Jodocus Hondius.
The Germania Inferior (1617) is the first original atlas of the Netherlands published in folio size. The text for the atlas, both in Dutch and in French, was written by Petrus Montanus. After 1623, Claes Jansz. Visscher bought the plates and substituted his name for that of Kaerius’s. In 1634, Visscher included many of these maps in his Germana Inferior.
The fame of Kaerius is not only based on his atlas of the Netherlands. He is even better known as an engraver of many loose-leaf maps and as a collaborator of book publishers. His maps are found, i.a., in the Caert thresoor (Barent Langenes, 1598), Licht der Zeevaert (Blaeu, 1608), Atlas Minor (Hondius, 1628), and Caertboeck vande Midellandsche Zee (Barents, 1595).