Janszoon willem biography of abraham hamilton

The Blaeu family was one of the most renowned publishers of maps, globes, atlases, and books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Throughout their almost seventy-year career, they dominated the field of Dutch cartography. The family became one of the most important and prolific map producers in Amsterdam until , when a disastrous fire destroyed their shop, equipment, plates, and inventory, effectively leaving the business in ruin.

He studied as a young man under the astronomer Tycho Brahe and founded his company as a maker of globes and instruments in The firm quickly grew and added publishing maps, topographical works, and sea charts to their offerings.

Description. Biography and history of

In , the Blaeu firm published the 'Het Licht der Zeevaerdt,' an atlas of sea-charts. Six years later, Willem and his son Jan purchased 37 engraved plates from the widow of their rival mapmaker Jodocus Hondius II, and the following year they produced their first land atlas, the 'Atlantis Appendix' which contained sixty maps. This was expanded in , to make the "Atlas Novus," a major world atlas in six volumes also containing county maps of England and Wales.

Blaeu died five years later, leaving the business to his sons Jan and Cornelis. Jan succeeded his father as official cartographer of the East India Company in In , Cornelius died unexpectedly at thirty years old. The atlas, considered one of the largest and most spectacular Dutch atlases ever made, was published from , with maps and over 3, pages of text.

It was the most expensive book available in the midth century, a prized possession for the wealthy to display and admire. Jan Blaeu died the following year, leaving the remnants of the company to his three sons. Because of their immense contribution to the field of mapmaking, they are one of the most significant players in the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography, We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy.