Willem janszoon biography

18th century cartography
Blaeu family
Willem blaeu map

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Places in the World: Treasures from the Venable Collection

The son of a herring merchant, Willem Janszoon Blaeu went to the island of Ven to study under the noted astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). Brahe’s tutelage effectively amounted to an apprenticeship: between six and twelve young men at a time would act as his assistants and refine their skills in the related disciplines of mathematics, astronomy, geography, cartography, and instrument making. Blaeu and Brahe’s friendship, often cited in biographies of Blaeu (but rarely in those of Brahe) has likely been exaggerated, but Brahe would later recommend Blaeu’s globemaking skills. Blaeu returned to Amsterdam and established himself as a successful printer, cartographer, globemaker, and instrument maker. He applied his astronomical training to more accurately measure the circumference of the Earth and wrote books aimed at improving navigation. Towards the end of his life, he was the official cartographer of the powerful Dutch East India Company. Beyond the fields of cartography and astronomy, he additionally invented the “Dutch

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Blaeu, Willem Janszoon (1571 - October 18, 1638)

Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571 - October 18, 1638), also known as Guillaume Blaeu and Guiljelmus Janssonius Caesius, was a Dutch cartographer, globemaker, and astronomer active in Amsterdam during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Blaeu was born 'Willem Janszoon' in Alkmaar, North Holland to a prosperous herring packing and trading family of Dutch Reformist faith. As a young man, he was sent to Amsterdam to apprentice in the family business, but he found the herring trade dull and instead worked for his cousin 'Hooft' as a carpenter and clerk. In 1595, he traveled to the small Swedish island of Hven to study astronomy under the Danish Enlightenment polymath Tycho Brahe. For six months he studied astronomy, cartography, instrument making, globe making, and geodesy. He returned to Alkmaar in 1596 to marry and for the birth of his first son, Johannes (Joan) Blaeu (1596 – 1673). Shortly thereafter, in 1598 or 1599, he relocated his family to Amsterdam where he founded the a firm as globe and instrument makers. Many of his earliest i

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Mapping the City: A Stranger's Guide

Bibliography

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Keuning, Johannes. “Blaeu’s ‘Atlas’”. Imago Mundi. Vol 14 (1959) pp. 74-89.

Koeman, C. and Blaeu, Willem Janszoon. “Life and Works of Willem Janszoon Blaeu. New Contributions to the Study of Blaeu Made in the Last Hundred Years”. Imago Mundi. Vol 26. (1972): 9-16.

Krogt, Peter van der. “Amsterdam Atlas Production in the 1630s: A Bibliographer’s Nightmare.” Imago Mundi, Vol 48. (1996): 149-160.

Stevenson, Edward Luther. Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Including a Consideration of their Value