Frederik de Wit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nova Orbis Tabula in Lucem Edita (1662) by Frederik de Wit

Frederik de Wit (also seen as Frederic, Frederick, Frederico, Fredericus de Witt) can refer to any of three members of a family of Dutch engravers, cartographers and publishers.

Frederik de Wit (1610 or 1616 - 1698), the company founder
Frederik de Wit (1630, Gouda - 1706, Amsterdam), the son of the founder
Frederik de Wit, the grandson of the founder

[edit] Frederik de Wit (1610/1616 - 1698), the company founder

In 1648, during the height of the Dutch Golden Age, De Wit opened a printing office in Amsterdam under the name "De Witte Pascaert" which was also the name of his house on the Kalverstraat.

Sometime before 1649 De Wit engraved all of the street maps for the cities of Rijsel and Doornik that appeared in the richly illustrated Flandria Illustrata by the Flemish historian, Antonius Sanderus.

The first map that was both engraved and dated by De Wit was that of Denmark in 1659. His world maps, Nova Orbis Tabula in Lucem Edita (approx. 46 x 55 cm) and Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula (a composite wall map approx. 140 x 190 cm) appeared around 1660.

His atlases (Atlas, Atlas Minor, Atlas Maior, and an atlas of Belgium) began to appear around 1670 and included anywhere from 17 to 190 maps each. In 1675 De Wit released a nautical atlas. His atlas of the Low Countries was named Nieuw Kaertboeck van de XVII Nederlandse Provinciën and contained 20 to 25 maps. De Wit's city map books first started appearing in 1695. Besides atlases, he published 124 land maps and 27 sea maps on separate sheets.

Dating De Wit's atlases and city map books is difficult because no dates were recorded on the maps and their dates of publication extended over many years.

[edit] Frederik de Wit (1630 - 1706), the son

Through his marriage to Maria van der Waag in 1661, he obtained the rights of Amsterdam citizenship and was able to become a member of the Guild of Saint Luke three years later. Frederik de Wit (the son) and Frederik de Wit (the grandson) produced a total of 130 of their own maps.

The De Wit's firm was shut down after the son's death in 1706 and most of its copper plates were sold to Pieter Mortier (1661–1711), a geographer, copper engraver, printer and publisher from Amsterdam. After Mortier’s death, his firm eventually passed to the ownership of his son, Cornelis Mortier and Johannes Covens I who together founded Covens & Mortier on November 20, 1721. Covens & Mortier grew to become one of the largest cartography publishing houses of the 18th century.