CYPRUS

CYPRUS / ΚΥΠΡΟΣ - KIBRIS.

First International Congress of Cypriot Studies.
Map of Cyprus island made by Henricus Hondius in 1638.
First stamp in a set of 2, issued on 07.04.1969.
Face value: 35 mils of Cypriot piastre.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Print: 261,432 copies.
Size: 42 x 29 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 317.
- Scott No. 324.
- StampWold No. 323.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 329.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 309.

Henricus Hondius (Amsterdam, 1597 - 16 August 1651) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer, and publisher, son of the famous cartographer Jodocus Hondius who had started a map-making business in the city. Henricus obtained the original plates of the Mercator 1569 world map, and published a 1606 version of it: he relied on Mercator's maps to make his own cartography. The map depicted on the stamp was incorporated into one of the last editions of Mercator's Atlas, known as the Mercator-Hondius edition.