Jan Janssonius

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Janssonius (1588, Arnhem – buried Jul 11, 1664, Amsterdam) (born Jan Janszoon, in English usually Jan Jansson) was a Dutch cartographer who lived and worked in Amsterdam in the 17th century.

Janssonius was born in Arnhem, the son of Jan Janszoon the Elder, a publisher and bookseller. In 1612 he married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy. In 1623 Janssonius owned a bookstore in Frankfurt am Main, later also in Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva and Lyon. Elisabeth Hondius died in 1627 and he remarried one Elisabeth Carlier in 1629. In the 1630s he formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius, and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius.

Under the leadership of Janssonius the Hondius Atlas was steadily enlarged. Renamed "Atlas Novus", it had three volumes in 1638, one fully dedicated to Italy. 1646 a fourth volume came out with "English County Maps", a year after a similar issue by Willem Blaeu. Janssons maps are similar to those of Blaeu, and he is often accused of copying from his rival, but many of his maps predate those of Blaeu and/or covered different regions. By 1660, at which point the atlas bore the approprate name "Atlas Major", there were 11 volumes, containing the work of about a hundred credited authors and engravers. It included a description of "most of the cities of the world" (Townatlas), of the waterworld (Atlas Maritimus in 33 maps), and of the Ancient World (60 maps). The eleventh volume was the Atlas of the Heavens by Andreas Cellarius. Editions were printed in Dutch, Latin, French, and a few times in German.

After Jansson's death, the publishing company was continued by his son-in law, Johannes van Waesbergen. The London bookseller Moses Pitt attempted publication of the Atlas Major in English, but ran out of resources after the fourth volume in 1683.

His works include:

• Sueciæ, Norvegiæ et Daniæ Nova Tabula, Amsterdam ca. 1652. Hand colored engraving, 47*55cm.
• Tabula exactissima Regnorum Sueciæ et Norvegiæ (1636) which replaced Hondius II 1613
• Episcopatum Stavangriensis, Bergensis et Asloiensis Amsterdam 1636 – 1642 Contemporary hand colored engraving, 40*49cm. The first map to show the Oslo fjord by name. This nice map shows Southern Norway with the Stavanger bishopric and the adjoining area of the Bergen and Oslo bishoprics.