Johannes van Loon's very rare sea chart of the Northern part of America, with Hudson Bay, Davis Straits, Button Bay and the North West Passage. The first sea chart of the region. All charts by Joannes van Loon's Sea Atlas are of exceptional rarity.

"This particularly uncommon chart of the approaches to Hudson Bay and the North West Passage was a progenitor. In the same year, 1666, Pieter Goos published his 'Zee Atlas' which includes a virtually identical chart. It has not been proved which appeared first, but it is believed that the van Loon most probably takes pride of place. This is because his atlas was the most innovative of the two while Goos largely drew upon existing charts."

(Burden 394)

Joannes van Loon was an accomplished mathematician and astronomer. His first cartographic involvements were with Theunis Jacobsz during the 1640s. From 1650 he worked with Joannes Janssonius, engraving amongst other worksthe plates for his Celestial Atlas by Cellarius, 1660.

In 1661 he published his first work with his brother, Gillis; the 'Zee Atlas' contained thirty-five maps. In 1666 the plates were Jan Jansson van Waesberge, with whom he then co-published the atlas. This edition was expanded to forty-seven maps, and by 1676 there were fifty.

(Burden)