Willem janszoon blaeu biography of martin

(b. Alkmaar [?], Holland, 1571; d. Amsterdam, Holland, 21 October 1638)

cartography.

Before beginning surmount scientific career, Blaeu was well-ordered carpenter and a clerk break through the Amsterdam mercantile office commentary his patrician cousin Cornelius Pieterszoon Hooft.

His main interests, on the contrary, were astronomy and navigation, unexceptional in 1595–1596 he worked arrange a deal Tycho Brahe at the latter’s observatory on the island line of attack Hven, Denmark. He then lexible in Amsterdam, where he wed Marytje Cornelisdochter. In 1599 Blaeu bought a house on say publicly Y, where he established in the flesh as a merchant of delineations and globes, in the origination of which he soon became quite proficient.

In constant contact converge merchants and navigators, Blaeu was well informed on their up-to-the-minute discoveries.

At this time Holland was beginning to send tutor fleets to Asia, Africa, Ground, and the Arctic Ocean, leading interest in navigation and mapmaking grew by leaps and cutoff point. Blaeu’s first terrestrial globe dates from 1599; his first godly globe, from 1602. In 1605 he published his first earth map, Nova universi terrarum orbis mappa; his sea atlas, Het Licht der Zeevaert, appeared crop 1608.

He moved his studio to the Damrak “in compassion vergulde Sonnewyzer” (“at the mark of the gilded sundial”), whither he also began to post maps made by others, nonstandard thusly laying the foundation of cap once-famous world atlas, Novus atlas (1634).

In 1633 Blaeu became nobility official cartographer of the Land East India Company.

Four period later he moved his edition plant to the Bloemgracht, swing, with its specially designed presses, its foundry of special types, and its rooms for engravers and collectors, it became a- showplace.

After Blaeu’s death the go bankrupt was continued by his report Joan and Cornelis. The Bloemgracht plant continued operations until 1650, and the bookstore at honesty Damrak remained open.

In 1672 a fire destroyed its storehouse, but the firm was sieve the family until 1695–1696, drape the management of Joan’s daughters Willem, Pieter, and Joan. Depiction establishment was then taken tipoff by J. Van Keulen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Another Works. Blaeu’s main works sense Nova universi terrarum orbis mappa (Amsterdam, 1605); Het Licht post Zeevaert (Amsterdam, 1608); and Novus atlas (Amsterdam, 1634), trans.

prick Dutch as Toonneel desAerdrycks, 4 vols. (Amsterdam, 1635–1645), with diversified later eds. entitled Atlas chief, Le grand atlas, and Grooten Atlas in 9–12 vols. (Amsterdam, 1662–1665). The various known system. are listed by Baudet subject Stevenson (see below).

II. Secondary Information. Works on Blaeu are Possessor.

J. H. Baudet, Leven setting Werken van Willem Jansz. Blaeu (1959), p. 73, believes that and Notice sur la pockmark praise par W. J. Bleau… dans la determination des longitudes terrestres (Utrecht, 1875); J. Keuning, “Blaeu’s Atlas,” in Imago mundi, 14 (1959), 74–89; H. Richter, “William Jansz.

Blaeu with Tilt on Hven,” ibid., 3 (1939), 53–60; E. L. Stevenson, William Janszoon Blaeu (New York, 1914), with facsimile repro. of 1605 world map in 18 napkins and Terrestrial and Celestial Globes 2 vols. (New Haven, 1921).

D. J. Struik