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HUGH
(HUYCH) ALLARD
c.
1645-91
CAREL ALLARD
(son) 1648-1709
The Allard
family ran an active publishing business in Amsterdam in the
latter half of the seventeenth century. Most of their
publications consisted of atlases made up of maps and town plans
by their more famous predecessors, Blaeu, Jansson, de Wit,
Visscher and others. But one of their most attractive and
interesting sheet maps was of New England (Hugo Allard, 1656),
based on Jansson, which included a view of New Amsterdam by C. J.
Visscher.
WILLEM BARENTSZ
(BARENTZOON) c. 1560-97
Barentsz was a
noted pilot who was convinced by the theorists of the day that it
was possible to reach China and India via a North East passage
through the Arctic. On his first voyage in 1594, accompanied by
Jan van Linschoten, he reached Novaya Zemlya but was forced back
by ice. He failed again the following year. On his third voyage
in 1596-97 his ship was trapped in pack ice and, although many of
his crew survived in open boats, Barentsz himself died on the
return voyage. He is noted for his chart book of the
Mediterranean, the first of its kind, which complemented
Waghenaer's charts of the Atlantic coasts, and which is sometimes
found bound up with the later editions of Waghenaer.
PETRUS BERTIUS
(BERT) 1565-1629
Petrus Bertius
grew up in Beveren in Flanders and as a young man traveled widely
in Europe. In company with so many of his compatriots, he moved
to Amsterdam as a refugee from religious persecution and after
completing his studies there he was appointed a professor of
mathematics and librarian at Leyden University. As well as being
a prolific writer on mathematical, historical and theological
subjects he is known as a cartographer for his editions of
Ptolemy's Geographia (based on Mercator's edition of 1578)
and for the miniature atlases detailed below. In 1618 he moved to
Paris and became Official Cosmographer to Louis XIII. He was
related by marriage to Jodocus Hondius and Pieter van den Keere.
WILLEM JANSZOON BLAEU
1571-1638
JOAN BLAEU
(son) 1596-1673
CORNELIS BLAEU
(son) d. c. 1642
At the beginning
of the seventeenth century Amsterdam was becoming one of the
wealthiest trading cities in Europe, the base of the Dutch East
India Company and a center of banking and the diamond trade, its
people noted for their intellectual skills and splendid
craftsmanship.
At this
propitious time in the history of the Northern Provinces, Willem
Janszoon Blaeu, who was born at Alkmaar in 1571 and trained in
astronomy and the sciences by Tycho Brahe, the celebrated Danish
astronomer, founded a business in Amsterdam in 1599 as a globe
and instrument maker. It was not long before the business
expanded, publishing maps, topographical works and books of sea
charts as well as constructing globes. His most notable early
work was a map of Holland (1604), a fine World Map (1605-06) and
Het Licht der Zeevaerdt (The Light of Navigation), a
marine atlas, which went through many editions in different
languages and under a variety of titles. At the same time Blaeu
was planning a major atlas intended to include the most
up-to-date maps of the whole of the known world. But progress on
so vast a project was slow and not until he bought between 30 and
40 plates of the Mercator Atlas from Jodocus Hondius II to add to
his own collection was he able to publish, in 1630, a 60-map
volume with the title Atlantis Appendix. It was another
five years before the first two volumes of his planned world
atlas, Atlas Novus or the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
were issued. About this time he was appointed Hydrographer to the
East India Company.
In 1638 Blaeu
died and the business passed into the hands of his sons, Joan and
Cornelis, who continued and expanded their father's ambitious
plans. After the death of Cornelis, Joan directed the work alone
and the whole series of 6 volumes was eventually completed about
1655. As soon as it was finished he began the preparation of the
even larger work, the Atlas Major, which reached
publication in 1662 in II volumes (later editions in 9-12
volumes) and contained nearly 6oo double-page maps and 3,000
pages of text. This was, and indeed remains, the most magnificent
work of its kind ever produced. Perhaps its geographical content
was not as up-to-date or as accurate as its author could have
wished, but any such deficiencies were more than compensated for
by the fine engraving and coloring, the elaborate cartouches and
pictorial and heraldic detail and especially the splendid
calligraphy.
In 1672 a
disastrous fire destroyed Blaeu's printing house in the
Gravenstraat and a year afterwards Joan Blaeu died. The firm's
surviving stocks of plates and maps were gradually dispersed,
some of the plates being bought by F. de Wit and Schenk and
Valck, before final closure in about 1695.
It ought to be
mentioned here that there is often confusion between the elder
Blaeu and his rival Jan Jansson (Johannes Janssonius). Up to
about 1619 Blaeu often signed his works Guilielmus Janssonius or
Willems Jans Zoon but after that time he seems to have decided on
Guilielmus or G. Blaeu.
JACOB AERTSZ COLOM
1600-73
ARNOLD COLOM
(son) c. 1624-68
Jacob Colom was
a printer, bookseller, chart and globe maker who set out to
challenge the virtual monopoly held by W. J. Blaeu, then the only
chart maker in Amsterdam. His Pilot Guide, De Vyerighe Colom,
published in various formats and languages to meet the demands of
the time, was highly successful and forced Blaeu to revise and
enlarge his existing chart books. In spite of Blaeu's efforts,
Colom's Guide remained popular with seamen for many years and
although the charts were issued in great quantity, they are now
extremely rare.
JOHANNES COVENS
1697-1774
CORNELIS MORTIER
1699-1783
Under the
heading Pieter Mortier we give some details of the extensive
publishing business which he built up in Amsterdam and which,
after his death, was subsequently taken over by his son, the
above-named Cornelis. In 1721 Cornelis married the sister of
Johannes Covens and in the same year he and Johannes entered into
partnership as publishers under the name Covens and Mortier
which, with its successors, became one of the most important
firms in the Dutch map publishing business.
Their prolific
output over the years included reissues of general atlases by
Sanson, Jaillot, Delisle, Visscher, de Wit (whose stock they
acquired) and others (often with re-engraved maps), atlases of
particular countries including Germany, England and Scotland and
others in Europe, pocket atlases, town plans and, from about 1730
onwards, a series under the title Nieuwe Atlas, some
consisting of as many as 900 maps by various cartographers and
publishers.
CORNELIS DANKERTS
THE ELDER 1603-1656
JUSTUS DANKERTS
(son) 1635-1701
The Dankerts
family, of whom the above were the most important, were prominent
print and map sellers active in Amsterdam for nearly a century.
Between the years 1680 and 1700 a number of atlases were produced
with maps bearing the names Justus or Theodorus Dankerts. These
are now very rare and as the title pages and maps are undated it
is difficult, if not impossible, to place any map against any
particular edition. The Dankerts were also noted for production
of splendid wall maps of the world and the continents.
Their stock of
plates was acquired by R. and J. Ottens who used them for
re-issues, having replaced the Dankerts names with their own.
ROMAIN DE HOOGHE
c. 1646-1708
A famous Dutch
artist and engraver who produced a number of magnificent maps
published in various atlases: some of the charts in Pieter
Mortier's Atlas Maritime (part of Le Neptune Francois,
1693) were particularly splendid. For a time de Hooghe was in the
service of King William III in England.
GERARD DE JODE
c. 1509-91
CORNELIS DE JODE
(son) 1568-1600
Gerard de Jode,
born in Nijmegen, was a cartographer, engraver, printer and
publisher in Antwerp, issuing maps from 1555 more or less in the
same period as Ortelius. He was never able to offer very serious
competition to his more businesslike rival although, ironically,
he published Ortelius' famous 8-sheet World Map in 1564. His
major atlas, now extremely rare, could not be published until
1578, eight years after the Theatrum, Ortelius having
obtained a monopoly for that period. The enlarged re-issue by his
son in 1593 is more frequently found. On the death of Cornelis,
the copper plates passed to J. B. Vrients (who bought the
Ortelius plates about the same time) and apparently no further
issue of the atlas was published: however, at least one further
issue of the Polar Map, c.1618, is known.
FREDERICK DE WIT
1630-1706
De Wit was one
of the most prominent and successful map engravers and publishers
in Amsterdam in the period following the decline of the Blaeu and
Jansson establishments, from which he acquired many copper plates
when they were dispersed at auction. His output covered most
aspects of map making: sea charts, world atlases, an atlas of the
Netherlands, 'town books' covering plans of towns and cities in
the Netherlands and Europe, and wall maps. His work, notable for
the beauty of the engraving and coloring, was very popular and
editions were issued many years after his death by Pieter Mortier
and Covens and Mortimer.
HENDRICK DONCKER
c. 1626-99
HENDRICK DONCKER II
(son) c. 1664-c. 1739
For about fifty
years Hendrick Doncker ran a flourishing business in Amsterdam as
a bookseller and publisher of sea atlases and textbooks on
navigation. In a period when so many maps and charts were simply
copied from other publishers, Doncker's charts were his own work
and were noted for their accuracy and constant improvement. Apart
from this work, he cooperated for many years with Pieter Goos and
Anthonie Jacobsz in producing a pilot guide, De Zeespiegel.
Eventually his stock was sold to Johannes van Keulen.
GEMMA FRISIUS
(REINER/REGNERUS) 1508-1555
Of German
extraction, Gemma Frisius became the foremost astronomer,
mathematician and surveyor of his time. He was an influential
figure, not only for his teaching of Mercator at his School of
Geography at Louvain but for his scientific contributions to
practical aspects of cartography. He invented an improved form of
cross-staff for astronomical use and in his book A Method of
delineating places he set out the principle of triangulation
in map making. Later, he was the first to suggest the use of
portable clocks to determine longitude.
ABRAHAM GOOS
fl. 1614-43
PIETER GOOS
(son) c. 1615-75
Abraham Goos was
a noted engraver in Amsterdam who prepared plates for many maps
published in well-known atlases of his time including Speed's A
Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World (1627) and the
1632 edition of Speed's Atlas. He was related to the Hondius
family by whom he was also employed as an engraver. In 1616 he
issued a book of maps, the Nieuw Nederlandtsh Caertboeck
(4to) which was re-issued in 1619 and 1625.
His son, Pieter,
continued and extended his father's business and became one of
the group of well-known engravers of sea charts active in
Amsterdam in the middle years of the seventeenth century. In
common with Colom, Doncker and Jacobsz, he published a pilot
guide, the Zee-Spiegel, basing it on plates obtained from
Jacobsz. This went through many editions in different languages
under the startling titles so popular at the time. In addition to
publishing his Zee-Spiegel in the usual Parts 1 and II
(Europe and Atlantic coasts) and Part III (Mediterranean) he
broke new ground in preparing Parts IV and V, covering charts and
sailing directions for the coasts of the West Indies and West
Africa. The later editions of the Zee Atlas were published
by his widow who eventually sold the publishing rights of the
Atlas and of the Zee-Spiegel to Jacobus Robijn.
HONDIUS FAMILY
The Hondius
Family is among the most important names associated with what
has become known as the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography. The
family business was founded by Jodocus Hondius I (1563-1612) and
after his death was carried on by his two sons, Jodocus Hondius
II and Hendrik Hondius. Jodocus was born in Wakken, the son of
Olivier de Hondt, sheriff and registrar of Wakken and Petronella
d'Havertuyn. His family moved to Ghent when Jodocus was still
very young and by the age of eight he had taken up drawing and
engraving. In 1584, because of the war with Spain and to escape
religious persecution, Jodocus fled to London with his sister
Jacomina, who was also an engraver. Shortly thereafter Jacomina
married the Flemish émigré Pieter van de Berghe,
and Jodocus married Coletta van den Keere, sister of Pieter van
den Keere. These family alliances led to Hondius' introduction to
the leading scientists and geographers of the day and laid the
ground work for the remainder of his illustrious career. In 1588,
he completed the engravings for the English edition of Lucas
Waghenaer's Spieghel der zeevaart (The Mariner's
Mirrour), one of the most elaborately engraved atlases of the
16th century. He then trained with the English cartographers
Richard Hakluyt and Edward Wright, and soon gained an
international reputation. In 1593 he returned to Amsterdam and
established a business specializing in map and globe making. In
1604 Jodocus bought the plates of Mercator's Atlas,
which had fallen behind in competition with Ortelius' popular
atlas. He combined Mercator's original maps with about 40 of his
own more up-to-date maps and from 1606 published enlarged
editions of the Atlas, still under Mercator's name but with his
own name as publisher. These atlases have become known as the
Mercator/Hondius series, with nearly 50 editions published
between 1606 and 1641in several different languages. Due to the
immense popularity of the Atlas, the maps were re-engraved in
miniature form and issued as a pocket Atlas Minor.
Between 1605 and 1610 he engraved the plates for the maps in John
Speed's The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. Shortly
before Jodocus' death in 1612, his daughter Elisabeth married
another prominent publisher, Jan Jansson. The family firm
continued to prosper, managed first by Coletta, then by Hendrik
and Jodocus II, and finally passing on to Jansson. From 1632 the
premises were known as De Wackeren Hondt.
ANTHONIE (THEUNIS) JACOBSZ
c. 1606-50
JACOB JACOBSZ
(LOOTSMAN) (son) d. 1679
Anthonie Jacobsz
founded a printing and publishing business in Amsterdam in which
he specialized in the production of pilot books and sea atlases.
As he died at a comparatively early age, most of the numerous
editions of his works appeared after his death published by his
sons, Jacob and Caspar, who took the name 'Lootsman' (sea pilot)
to distinguish them from another printer of the name Jacobsz.
Following Blaeu
and Colom, Anthonie Jacobsz was the most important compiler of
sea charts in Amsterdam in the first half of the seventeenth
century. In his new ZeeSpiegel issued in 1643 he increased
the number of charts normally included in these books and
enlarged them to folio size, which evidently proved popular.
Editions in many forms appeared until 1715 and they were copied
or reprinted by Pieter Goos, Hendrick Doncker and Jan Jansson,
sometimes in competition with each other but usually in
cooperation with the Lootsman brothers.
JAN JANSSON
1588-1664
Johannes
Janssonius, more commonly known to us as Jan Jansson, was born in
Arnhem where his father was a bookseller and publisher (Jan
Janszoon the Elder). In 1612 he married the daughter of the
cartographer and publisher Jodocus Hondius, and then set up in
business in Amsterdam as a book publisher. In 1616 he published
his first maps of France and Italy and from then onwards he
produced a very large number of maps, perhaps not quite rivaling
those of the Blaeu family but running a very close second in
quantity and quality. From about 1630 to 1638 he was in
partnership with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius, issuing
further editions of the Mercator/Hondius atlases to which his
name was added. On the death of Henricus he took over the
business, expanding the atlas still further, until eventually he
published an 11-volume Atlas Major on a scale similar to
Blaeu's Atlas Major.
The first full
edition of Jansson's English County Maps was published in 1646,
but some years earlier he issued a number of British maps in the
Mercator/Hondius/Jansson series of atlases (1636-44). The maps
were printed from newly engraved plates and are different from
the later 1646 issue and are now rarely seen (see Appendix B for
further details). In general appearance Jansson's maps are very
similar to those of Blaeu and, in fact, were often copied from
them, but they tend to be more flamboyant and, some think, more
decorative.
After Jansson's
death his heirs published a number of maps in an Atlas
Contractus in 1666, and later still many of the plates of his
British maps were acquired by Pieter Schenk and Gerard Valck, who
published them again in 1683 as separate maps.
JOHANNES LOOTS
c. 1665-1726
A mathematical
and nautical instrument maker, Loots also published manuals on
navigation. For a time he was in partnership with an engraver, A
de Winter, and an author of text books on charts, Claes de Vries,
who had ambitions to publish a very large sea atlas of some 200
charts, which was never completed on the scale contemplated. Some
of their charts were sold to Gerard van Keulen and others were
used in a sea atlas published in 1697. Charts by Loots also
appear in a number of other pilot books and sea atlases of the
time.
GERARD MERCATOR
(KREMER) 1512-1594
For nearly sixty
years, during the most important and exciting period in the
history of modern map making, Gerard Mercator was the supreme
cartographer, his name, second only to Ptolemy, synonymous with
the form of map projection still in use today. Although not the
inventor of this type of projection he was the first to apply it
to navigational charts in such a form that compass bearings could
be plotted on charts in straight lines, thereby providing seamen
with a solution to an age-old problem of navigation at sea. His
influence transformed land surveying and his researches and
calculations led him to break away from Ptolemy's conception of
the size and outline of the Continents, drastically reducing the
longitudinal length of Europe and Asia and altering the shape of
the Old World as visualized in the early sixteenth century.
Mercator was
born in Rupelmonde in Flanders and studied in Louvain under Gemma
Frisius, Dutch writer, astronomer and mathematician. He
established himself there as a cartographer and instrument and
globe maker, and when he was twenty-five drew and engraved his
first map (of Palestine) and went on to produce a map of Flanders
(1540) supervising the surveying and completing the drafting and
engraving himself. The excellence of his work brought him the
patronage of Charles V for whom he constructed a globe, but in
spite of his favor with the Emperor he was caught up in the
persecution of Lutheran Protestants and charged with heresy,
fortunately without serious consequences. No doubt the fear of
further persecution influenced his move in 1552 to Duisburg,
where he continued the production of maps, globes and instruments
culminating in large-scale maps of Europe (1554), the British
Isles (1564) and the famous World Map on 18 sheets drawn to his
new projection (1569). All these early maps are exceedingly rare,
some being known by only one copy.
In later life he
devoted himself to his edition of the maps in Ptolemy's
Geographia, reproduced in his own engraving as nearly as
possible in their original form, and to the preparation of his
3-volume collection of maps to which, for the first time, the
word 'Atlas' was applied. The word was chosen, he wrote, 'to
honor the Titan, Atlas, King of Mauritania, a learned
philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer.' The first two parts
of the Atlas were published in 1585 and 1589 and the third, with
the first two making a complete edition, in 1595 the year after
Mercator's death.
Mercator's sons
and grandsons, named above, were all cartographers and made their
contributions in various ways to the great atlas. Rumold, in
particular, was responsible for the complete edition in 1595.
After a second complete edition in 1602, the map plates were
bought in 1604 by Jodocus Hondius who, with his sons, Jodocus II
and Henricus, published enlarged editions which dominated the map
market for the following twenty to thirty years.
ARNOLD MONTANUS
fl. 1671
Published a
notable Atlas of America which was used by John Ogilby as the
basis for his An Accurate Description and Complete History of
America. The maps were extremely decorative and included a
view of New Amsterdam (New York) as it appeared soon after its
foundation.
PETRUS MONTANUS
(Pieter van den Berg) ft. 1606 - d.????
A Dutch
geographer, active in Amsterdam, who worked in association with
his brother-in-law, Jodocus Hondius, for whom he prepared the
text of the Mercator/Hondius Atlas (1606 and later editions). The
map noted below, attributed to Montanus, is the first separately
printed one of Maryland; known as 'Lord Baltimore's Map'. It was
published by Montanus to attract settlers to the colony.
PIERRE MORTIER
1661-1711
Pierre and David
Mortier were brothers of French extraction whose publishing
interests covered a wide field embracing French and English works
as well as Dutch. Pieter was probably trained in the bookselling
business in Paris and David spent many years in England. In fact,
he acquired British nationality and died there in about 1728.
After Pieter's death, his widow continued the business until
their son, Cornelis, was able to take over. Then in 1721,
Cornelis entered into partnership with his brother-in-law,
Johannes Covens, to form the famous name Covens and Mortier, a
firm which continued in existence, with only a slight change of
name, until the middle of the nineteenth century. For details of
their publications see under Covens and Mortier.
ABRAHAM ORTELIUS
1528-1598
Abraham Ortel,
better known as Ortelius, was born in Antwerp and after studying
Greek, Latin and mathematics set up business there with his
sister, as a book dealer and 'painter of maps'. Traveling widely,
especially to the great book fairs, his business prospered and he
established contacts with the literati in many lands. On one such
visit to England, possibly seeking temporary refuge from
religious persecution, he met William Camden whom he is said to
have encouraged in the production of the Britannia.
A turning point
in his career was reached in 1564 with the publication of a World
Map in eight sheets of which only one copy is known. Other
individual maps followed and then - at the suggestion of a friend
- he gathered together a collection of maps from contacts among
European cartographers and had them engraved in uniform size and
issued in 1570 as the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of
the Whole World). Although Lafreri and others in Italy had
published collections of 'modern' maps in book form in earlier
years, the Theatrum was the first uniformly sized,
systematic collection of maps and hence can be called the first
atlas, although that term itself was not used until twenty years
later by Mercator.
The Theatrum,
with most of its maps elegantly engraved by Frans Hogenberg, was
an instant success and appeared in numerous editions in different
languages including addenda issued from time to time
incorporating the latest contemporary knowledge and discoveries.
The final edition appeared in 1612. Unlike many of his
contemporaries Ortelius noted his sources of information and in
the first edition acknowledgment was made to eighty-seven
different cartographers.
Apart from the
modern maps in his major atlas, Ortelius himself compiled a
series of historical maps known as the Parergon Theatri
which appeared from 1579 onwards, sometimes as a separate
publication and sometimes incorporated in the Theatrum.
1570
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum 1570-1612 Between these years the
Theatrum was re-issued in 42 editions with 5 supplements with
text in Latin, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian and
English. The English edition was published in 1606 by John
Norton, the maps being printed in Antwerp and the text added in
London. Three years after Ortelius died in 1598, his heirs
transferred publication rights to Jan Baptiste Vrients who
produced the later editions until he died in 1612
1577-85
Spiegel der Werelt (8vo) Maps from the Theatrum,
reduced in size, engraved by Philip Galle: text by Pieter Heyns.
6 editions with Dutch, French and Latin text. 1588-i 603 Epitome
theatri orbis terrarum (12mo/8v0) 11 further editions of the
smaller maps with an increasing number of maps with text also in
Italian and English (1603). i6oi-i 2 7 further editions with
improved engravings by Arsenius Brothers: text by Michel Coignet
in Latin, French, German, Italian and English (1603). 1598-1724
Theatro del Mondo (4t0/12mo/24mo) 8 editions with Italian
text; plates engraved in Italy.
1579-1606 Parergon Theatri The
number of maps included in the Parergon increased from 4
in 1579 to 43 in 1606 with text in Latin, French, Italian,
German and English (1606) 1624 Re-issued in Antwerp as a
separate publication by Balthasar Moretus. This edition included
a reproduction of the Peutinger table.
JOACHIM OTTENS
1663-1719
REINER OTTENS
(son) 1698-1750
JOSHUA OTTENS
(son) 1704-1765
The family
business of print and map selling was founded by Joachim Ottens
but the active period of map publishing was concentrated in the
years between 1720 and 1750 when the brothers, Reiner and Joshua,
produced enormous collections of maps, some as large as 15
volumes. These, including copies of practically all maps
available at the time, were made up to order and were
magnificently colored. Besides these specially prepared
collections they also issued single-volume atlases with varying
contents as well as pocket atlases.
PETRUS PLANCIUS
1552-1622
Plancius was a
theologian and minister of the Dutch Reformed Church who fled
with many of his compatriots from religious persecution in
Flanders to settle in Amsterdam in 1585. There he became
interested in navigation and cartography and, being fortunate
enough to have access to nautical charts recently brought from
Portugal, he was soon recognized as an expert on the shipping
routes to India. He was interested, too, in the idea of a
NorthEast passage until the failure of Willem Barentsz's third
voyage in 1597 seemed to preclude the possibility of such a
route. In 1602 he was appointed cartographer to the new Dutch
East India Company.
Although
Plancius produced no atlases, his individual maps and charts,
over 100 in all, exercised much influence on the work of other
cartographers at the turn of the century. His very large wall map
of the world dated 1592 was of particular significance.
JACOBUS ROBIJN
1649-c.1707
About 1675,
shortly before the van Keulen publishing business was set up in
Amsterdam, Robijn practiced there as a map 'illuminator' and
chart seller. After a short association with Johannes van Keulen
he acquired publishing rights covering the Zee-Spiegel and
Zee Atlas from the widow of Pieter Goos and used the
plates to produce his own pilot book and sea atlas. Apart from a
small number of plates prepared to his own order, most of
Robijn's work cannot be said to be original. He issued Goos's
charts and those of Roggeveen with a variety of texts by J. and
C. Jacobsz (Lootsman), Arent Roggeveen and even John Seller with
the result that analysis of the various issues cannot easily be
accomplished. Robijn's stock was eventually taken over by
Johannes Loots. The brief details given below should be read in
conjunction with the notes on Pieter Goos and Arent Roggeveen.
ARENT ROGGEVEEN
fl. 1665-79
Roggeveen was a
land surveyor and mathematician by profession, working in
Middelburg where the Dutch East and West India Companies
maintained collections of hydrographic manuscripts and charts,
including Spanish portolans of the West Indies. No doubt through
contacts there Roggeveen became interested in navigation and he
compiled a pilot book of large-scale charts of the West Indies
and parts of the American coasts, with a second volume of the
coasts of West Africa. These were the first such charts printed
in Holland.
PIETER SCHENK
1660-c.1718
Pieter Schenk
was born in Germany but settled in Amsterdam where he became a
pupil of Gerard Valck, the engraver. In 1687, he married Valck's
sister and thereafter the Schenk and Valck families were active
over a long period with a wide range of interests as print
sellers, publishers of books, maps, topographical and
architectural drawings and globe makers. Although the Schenk
family produced some original maps, most of their atlases
consisted of printings from revised and re-worked plates
originally by Jansson, the Visschers, the Sansons and others.
WILLEM CORNELIS SCHOUTEN
1567-1625
JACOB LE MAIRE
d. 1617
The voyage of
Schouten/Le Maire in the years 1615-17 was one of the most
important in the seventeenth century. They were the first to sail
round Cape Horn (named after their home town Hoorn in Holland),
disproving the long held theory that Tierra del Fuego or
L'Ardante ou Flamboyante Colomne was part of a southern
continent.
Subsequent
accounts of the voyage, with maps, were L. Colom's, de la Mer
Mediterannee published by Schouten (1618) and Le Maire
(posthumously, 1662)
GERARD VALCK
c. 1651-1726
LEONARD VALCK
(son) 1675-c. 1755
Gerard Valck and
his son were printers, engravers and globe makers in Amsterdam,
closely linked by marriage with the Schenk family with whom they
also had a long business association in map engraving and
publishing. For further detail see entry under Pieter Schenk.
PIETER VAN DER AA
1659-1733
Records show
that van der Aa, born in Leyden in 1659, made an early start in
life by being apprenticed to a bookseller at the age of nine and
starting on his own in business as a book publisher by the time
he was twenty-three. During the following fifty years he
published an enormous amount of material including atlases and
illustrated works in every shape and size, two of them consisting
of no less than 27 and 28 volumes containing over 3,000 maps and
plates. Most of his maps were not of the first quality and were
certainly not original but they are often very decorative and are
collected for that reason.
PIETER VAN DEN KEERE
(PETRUS KAERIUS) 1571-c. 1646
Pieter van den
Keere was one of a number of refugees who fled from religious
persecution in the Low Countries between the years 1570 and 1
590. He moved to London in 1584 with his sister who married
Jodocus Hondius, also a refugee there, and through Hondius he
undoubtedly learned his skills as an engraver and cartographer.
In the course of a long working life he engraved a large number
of individual maps for prominent cartographers of the day. But he
also produced an Atlas of the Netherlands (1617-22) and county
maps of the British Isles which have become known as Miniature
Speeds, a misnomer which calls for some explanation.
In about 1599 he
engraved plates for 44 maps of the English and Welsh counties,
the regions of Scotland and the Irish provinces. The English maps
were based on Saxton, the Scottish on Ortelius and the Irish on
the famous map by Boazio. These maps were not published at once
in book form but there is evidence that suggests a date of issue
(in Amsterdam) between 1605 and 1610. However at least one
authority believes they existed only in proof form until 1617
when Willem Blaeu issued them with a Latin edition of Camden's
Britannia. At this stage two maps were added, one of the
British Isles and the other of Yorkshire, the latter derived from
Saxton. To confuse things further the title page of this edition
is signed 'Guilielmus noster Janssonius', which is the Latinized
form of Blaeu's name commonly used up to 1619.
At some time
after this the plates came into the possession of Speed's
publishers, George Humble, who in 1627, the year in which he
published a major edition of Speed's Atlas, also issued the Keere
maps as a pocket edition. For these he used the descriptive texts
of the larger Speed maps and thereafter they were known as
Miniature Speeds. In fact, of the 63 maps in the Atlas, 40 were
from the original van den Keere plates, reworked, 16 were reduced
from Speed and 7 were additional. The publication was very
popular and there were further re-issues up to 1676.
JOHANNES VAN KEULEN
1654-1711
GERARD VAN KEULEN
1678-c. 1727
As we have noted
in other biographies in this chapter, the Dutch produced a
remarkable number of enterprising and prolific map and chart
makers but not even the Blaeu and Jansson establishments could
rival the that of the van Keulen family, whose business was
founded in 1680 and continued under their name until 1823 and in
other names until 1885 when it was finally folded and the stock
dispersed at auction. Throughout the history of the family, the
widows of several of the van Keulens played a major part, after
their husbands' deaths, in maintaining the continuity of the
business.
The firm was
founded by Johannes van Keulen who was registered as a bookseller
in Amsterdam in 1678. In 1680 he published the first part of his
Zee Atlas which, over the years, was expanded to 5 volumes
and continued in one form or another until 1734. More ambitious
and with a far longer and more complicated life was his book of
sea charts, the Zee-Fakkel, published in 1681-82 which was
still being printed round the year 1800. A major influence in the
development of the firm was the acquisition in 1693 of the stock
of a rival map publisher, Hendrik Doncker.
Although the
firm was founded by Johannes van Keulen, he was primarily a
publisher. It was his son, Gerard, a talented engraver,
mathematician, and Hydrographer to the East India Company, who
became the mainspring of the business, which not only published
charts but also books on every aspect of geography, navigation
and nautical matters.
JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN
1563-1610
Van Linschoten,
born in Haarlem, is heard of in the service of the Portuguese
Archbishop of Goa where he spent five years between 1583 and
1588. On his return to Holland he produced a history of his
travels (The Itinerario), important for the inclusion of maps
from Portuguese sources, at that time rarely available to Dutch,
or any other, cartographers. The maps (including a world map by
Petrus Plancius) engraved by van Langren, are highly decorative
with large cartouches, the arms of Portugal, compass roses, rhumb
lines and sea monsters. Some are illustrated with views of
prominent places or islands. Linschoten's maps are highly prized
by collectors for their beautiful design.
De Vaugondy, Robert &
family
Gilles
and Didier Robert De Vaugondy were father and son, respectively,
and produced their atlas, globes and maps in concert. In many
cases they did not use the initials of their first names when
signing their maps, so it can be unclear at times who made a
given map. On some maps fils or filio follows the name,
designating its author as the son. In other instances, the
authorship can be determined by the distinctive way each signed
his maps: the father normally used "M.Robert," leaving
off the last name, and the son, "Robert de Vaugondy."
The Atlas Universal [Paris, 1757] was one of the most important
18th century atlases and one of the great achievements of the
French Enlightenment. The Vaugondy's employed strict standards
for including maps in this atlas and in many cases subjected them
to astronomically derived readings for latitude and longitude.
Moreover, 'their frequent use of eighteenth century sources,
often from the 1740s, provided their atlas with up-to-date
information. While their preference was for maps that bad been
surveyed in the field and maps published in the region itself,
they did not hesitate to turn to older sources when more recent
maps were found to be lacking." (Pedley, p. 61) For their
maps of Canada and South America, the Vaugondy's had access to
sources held by the Depot de la Marine, the official French
repository for maritime-related information. Like Ortelius and
Mercator before them, the Vaugondy`s listed the sources of their
maps, which is of incalculable benefit to anyone seeking to
understand not only their maps but also those of the period. "A
feature of the maps of the Atlas Universel which attracted
unanimous praise from critics was the cartouches." (Pedley,
p. 64) A number of artisans worked on their design and engraving;
several cartouches were engraved and signed by the Haussard
sisters. Among the most pictorial cartouches are the four found
on maps showing the postal routes of Great Britain, France,
Germany, Spain and Portugal. They depict postal carriers en route
in richly detailed settings
CLAES JANSZ. VISSCHER
1587-1652
NICOLAES VISSCHER I
1 (son) 1618-1679
NICOLAES VISSCHER II
(grandson) 1649-1702
For nearly a
century, the members of the Visscher family were important art
dealers and map publishers in Amsterdam. The founder of the
business, C. J. Visscher, had premises near to those of Pieter
van den Keere and Jodocus Hondius, whose pupil he may have been.
From about 1620 he designed a number of individual maps,
including one of the British Isles. But his first atlas consisted
of maps printed from plates bought from van den Keere and issued
as they stood with some additions of his own, including
historical scenes of battles and sieges for which he had a high
reputation. Some maps bear the Latinized form of the family name:
Piscator. After Visscher's death his son and grandson, both of
the same name, issued a considerable number of atlases,
constantly revised and brought up to date, but most of them
lacking an index and with varying contents. The widow of
Nicholaes Visscher II carried on the business until it finally
passed into the hands of Pieter Schenk.
CLAES JANSZ. VOOGHT
fl. 1680-96
Not much is
known of Vooght's personal life beyond his own description of
himself as a 'surveyor and teacher of mathematics and the art of
navigation' on which he was a prolific writer. He is noted as the
author of charts in Johannes van Keulen's Zee-Fakkel. On
some editions only his name appears and in consequence, the
Zee-Fakkel is often catalogued under his name.
JAN BAPTIST VRIENTS
1552-1612
Vrients was the
map engraver and publisher in Antwerp who, after the death of
Ortelius in 1598, acquired the publication rights of the
Theatrum. Between 1601 and 1612 he issued a number of
editions which included some of his own maps and he was
responsible for printing the maps for the English edition in
1606. He also published a number of important individual maps and
a small atlas of the Netherlands.
LUCAS JANSZOON WAGHENAER
1534-1598
By the third
quarter of the sixteenth century an ever-increasing volume of the
wealth of the New World and the Indies was reaching Lisbon and
the Spanish ports, there to be transshipped to Northern and
Western Europe. This trade was almost entirely in the hands of
the Dutch so it was logical that one of their pilots should
produce the first set of effective navigational charts. These
were compiled under the title Spiegel der Zeevaerdt, by
Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, a native of Enkhuizen on the Zuider
Zee, an experienced seaman and pilot. His magnificently produced
charts embodying all the latest contemporary knowledge of
navigation and position-finding set a standard which was followed
by others for the next century or more -indeed, some of the
symbols employed are still in use today. The charts in the first
edition, covering the coastlines from Holland to Spain and the
North Sea and Baltic, were engraved by the van Doetecum brothers
and printed by Plantin. Those in the English edition, which was
translated by Sir Anthony Ashley and issued in 1588 - the year of
the Armada - were engraved by de Bry, Hondius, Rutlinger and
Ryther, who also engraved some of Saxton's maps. The charts are
extremely picturesque with elaborate cartouches, ships in full
sail and the sea monsters so commonly used as decoration in maps
of the period. Place names are given on the coasts but
comparatively few are shown inland; cliffs on the coastline are
drawn in elevation; navigational landmarks and hazards,
anchorages, soundings and tidal details are indicated and the
scale is shown in English, Spanish and Dutch leagues. Altogether
some of the most handsome maps ever produced.
The charts
became so universally popular that their name, anglicized to
'Waggoner', came into use in English as a generic term for sea
charts of all kinds.
CORNELIS WYTFLIET
fl. 1597 - d.????
Little is known
of Wytfliet except that he was a native of Brabant, but there is
no doubt about the importance of his only atlas, which was the
first one printed to deal exclusively with America. Although its
title indicated it to be a 'supplement to Ptolemy', Part 1
covered the history of the discovery of America and its geography
and natural history and Part II consisted entirely of
contemporary maps of America and a world map based on Mercator.
Another Page of
Prominent Cartographers, Mapmakers, and Engravers
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