Henricus Hondius was born in Amsterdam in 1597, the son of the Flemish cartographer Judocus Hondius. Henricus learned his cartographic craft from his father, who had become famous for his new, improved editions of the atlases of the German cartographer Gerardus Mercator.

From a young age, both Henricus and his brother Judocus II demonstrated a great talent for engraving. Together, they worked in their father's family business, where they not only produced maps but also published them under their own names. In 1612, their father, Judocus, died when Henricus was only 15 years old, and the family business passed into the hands of the widow Hondius. She continued the business with her seven children. Henricus ran the business together with his brother-in-law, Joannes Janssonius, who was married to his sister, Elisabeth Hondius. Initially, the new maps were still issued under the name of Judocus Hondius, but after 1619, Henricus's talent had become sufficiently well-known that the publications were now issued under his name.

In 1621, Henricus married and started his own business in his new home called "de Atlas" on Dam Square in Amsterdam. His brother-in-law, Joannes, moved with Henricus, and together they ran "de Atlas." His brother, Judocus II, continued the old family business. In 1623, Henricus published his first version of the Gerardus Mercator atlas. This atlas contained 156 maps, all improved versions of the original, old maps. Henricus had added the new discoveries of not only Dutch but also Spanish and English navigators. He had also strikingly embellished the maps with cartouches containing marginal information, coats of arms, small images of cityscapes, and portraits of prominent figures. The publication was a great success, and Henricus became a famous figure.

The Hondius family, however, were not the only skilled cartographers in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. In 1629, their brother Judocus II died suddenly, resulting in Henricus's greatest rival, Willem Blaeu, acquiring a considerable number of original copperplates from Judocus's father's estate. After some reworking, he intended to use them to publish his own atlases. This was a major blow to Henricus, who immediately decided to move back to his parents' house. One of his first projects was to recover all the lost copperplates as quickly as possible.

reproduce and publish, causing them to lose their value for rival Blaeu.

The map produced by Henricus from the De Witte Zwaan Collection shows a detailed image of the Rhineland and Amstelland. It was common practice at the time to place the coastline to the north on maps of the Netherlands, or parts thereof. The main reason why mapmakers chose to keep north to the right was the available paper size. Atlases were generally landscape books, with the paper being wider than it was high. By placing the coast to the north on the image, the maps simply fit better and more clearly on the paper.