Biographies of Some of the More Famous Cartographers

William Camden (1551-1623) was an English historian and antiquary who devoted himself to the study of the antiquities of Britain, travelling round the country visiting sites.  The results of his work were brought together in the Britannia, first published in 1586 then much reissued and augmented over the following two centuries.  However, one of the few criticisms levelled at the 186 first edition of this work was the absence of maps.

This failing was remedied in the sixth edition of 1607 for which maps were commissioned from William Kip and William Hole.  Drawing on the surveys of Christopher Saxton, John Norden and the Anonymous/William Smith series, they produced a series of 57 maps.  The maps are clearly engraved, often with decorative cartouches displaying ships and sea monsters.  These maps form an attractive and popular series.  A number are the earliest individual maps of some counties that can be obtained - although the maps are predated by those of the Saxton atlas, first published in 1579 and now very rare, Saxton frequently combined counties on one sheet, rather than mapping them separately and Kip and Hole did.

Three editions of the Kip and Hole maps may be found; the first is identifiable by Latin verso text, the second (1610) lacks text while the third (1637) displays an engraved plate number.  Such was the popularity of the Britannia with its history and nature of the English and Welsh counties, that the work was re-published under the editorship of Edmund Gibson in 1695 (and then 1722, c.1730, 1753 and 1772) with maps by Robert Morden.  Richard Gough (1735-1809), the celebrated English collector and onetime Director of the Society of Antiquaries, also edited a 1789 edition of the Britannia  with maps by John Cary.

The frequency with which the Britannia was re-printed and the number of editions, under different editors, with maps by different mapmakers bears testament to the success and popularity of the work.

Jodocus Hondius I(1563-1612) was one of the foremost map engravers of his day; he worked for many Dutch publishers and was also employed by the English map- and print-sellers, Sudbury and Humble, to engrave the maps for John Speed’s “The Theatre Of The Empire Of Great Britaine”, published in 1612. Hondius married Coletta van den Keere (sister of Pieter van de Keere – also heavily involved in the map trade) thus strengthening his links with the map world at this time.

Having settled in the relatively stable Amsterdam, Hondius bought the copperplates of Mercator’s “Atlas Sive Cosmographicae ...” at the auction of Gerard Jr.’s effects in 1604. He added another forty maps, including new maps of the continents and important regional maps of the Americas, before publishing a new edition of the “Atlas ...” in 1606 that was in direct competition with Ortelius’ “Theatrum”. As many of Hondius’ maps were more up-to-date, the Mercator-Hondius “Atlas ...” effectively superseded Ortelius’ “Theatrum”.

Jodocus also had the plates of the “Atlas ...” reduced at this time in order to publish them in the “Atlas Minor” that first appeared in 1607. Cornelis Clasz and Johannes Janssonius of Arnhem (the elder Janssonius) were the publishers involved in this ‘miniature’ endeavour.

On Jodocus’ death in 1612 his widow, Coletta van den Keere, continued the business. In the same year his daughter Elisabeth married Joannes Janssonius who was also to be involved with the family business and the publishing of the “Atlas ...” at this time.

Henricus and Jodocus II were sons of Jodocus I. From 1619 the “Atlas ...” was published under the Henricus Hondius imprint. Henricus appears to have been heavily involved in the “Atlas ...” from 1619 until 1633 when his brother-in-law’s name and imprint, that of Johannes Janssonius, also started appearing on the “Atlas ...” After 1636 the name of the “Atlas ...” was changed to “Atlas Novus” with Janssonius being responsible, in the main, for its publication.

Jodocus II set up his own premises and published a number of individual maps of his own as well as the Bertius atlas, “Tabularaum Geographicarum” in 1618. Jodocus II died in 1629 and his own stock of printing plates passed to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, a competitor of all the Hondius family, and these plates formed the backbone of the first terrestrial Blaeu atlases. From 1630 onwards Blaeu issued the “Atlas Appendix “and other atlases, which were a direct challenge to the Hondius activity at this time.


Sources:
I.C.Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici Volume II, pp.136-145.

Edward Hasted was born in London in 1732., the son of Edward Hasted of Hawley in Kent. The younger Hasted was to devote over forty years of his life to his passionate interest in the history and geography of Kent. He published the first volume of his "History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent", in Canterbury in 1778. Little did he know, or indeed his subscribers, that the work was not to be completed for another twenty-one years. The second volume appeared in 1782, the third in 1790 and the final volume in 1799. This massive undertaking earned Hasted the accolade of being “the historian of Kent”.

Hasted’s maps of the Hundreds are the first detailed delineation of the county with the exception of Andrew and Drury’s twenty-five sheet map of Kent, published in London in 1769, upon which Hasted largely based his maps.

The term ‘Hundred’ dates back to Anglo-Saxon times and Kent’s peculiar system of land and social administration. The community was made up of ‘tithes’ (a ten household unit), which was responsible to the ‘Hundred Court’ (normally consisting of ten ‘thithes’), and ‘lathes’ (into which the Hundreds were grouped), there being five lathes in Kent. The tithes were responsible for the behaviour of their individual members and the lathes responsible for providing the King with food and men when required.
 

Georg Braun (1541-1622) and Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590) were co-publishers of the monumental Civitates Orbis Terrarum, “the earliest systematic city atlas” (Koeman), published from 1572 onwards.  Designed as a companion to Ortelius’ world atlas the Theatrum, this enormous work, which was expanded to six volumes by 1617 incorporating over 500 plans and views, must be viewed as one of the most ambitious book producing ventures of all time, and certainly, with Ortelius’ Theatrum and Blaeu’s Atlas Maior among the greatest achievements in the history of cartography.

Braun compiled the accompanying text, printed on the reverse of the engraved sheets, while the plans were engraved by Hogenberg, who had also prepared some of the maps for Ortelius’ Theatrum.  Hogenberg used generally up-to-date and accurate maps, surveys and reports from local sources to compile this collection of plans and bird’s-eye views of all the major towns of Europe, some African, Middle Eastern and Indian towns, and the New World cities of Mexico and Cusco.  One of the major contributors was Georg (or Joris) Hoefnagel, who supplied some 63 manuscript drawings, the vast majority from personal observation.

It is to Hogenberg’s credit that, despite the many different sources from which this vast collection of plans was assembled, he managed to create a sense of uniformity among the completed engravings.  While this has much to do with his own style, he also relied on a standard formula, inserting appropriate coats of arms and, in the foreground, attractive drawings of inhabitants of the region, in local costume.

CAMDEN'S BRITANNIA: William KIP & William HOLE

William Camden (1551-1623) was an English historian and antiquary who devoted himself to the study of the antiquities of Britain, travelling round the country visiting sites. The results of his work were brought together in the "Britannia", first published in 1586 then much reissued and augmented over the following two centuries. However, one of the few criticisms levelled at the 186 first edition of this work was the absence of maps.

This failing was remedied in the sixth edition of 1607 for which maps were commissioned from William Kip and William Hole. Drawing on the surveys of Christopher Saxton, John Norden and the Anonymous/William Smith series, they produced a series of 57 maps. The maps are clearly engraved, often with decorative cartouches displaying ships and sea monsters. These maps form an attractive and popular series. A number are the earliest individual maps of some counties that can be obtained - although the maps are predated by those of the Saxton atlas, first published in 1579 and now very rare, Saxton frequently combined counties on one sheet, rather than mapping them separately and Kip and Hole did.

Three editions of the Kip and Hole maps may be found; the first is identifiable by Latin verso text, the second (1610) lacks text while the third (1637) displays an engraved plate number.

Such was the popularity of the "Britannia" with its history and nature of the English and Welsh counties, that the work was re-published under the editorship of Edmund Gibson in 1695 (and then 1722, c.1730, 1753 and 1772) with maps by Robert Morden. Richard Gough (1735-1809), the celebrated English collector and onetime Director of the Society of Antiquaries, also edited a 1789 edition of the "Britannia" with maps by John Cary.

The frequency with which the "Britannia" was re-printed and the number of editions, under different editors, with maps by different mapmakers bears testament to the success and popularity of the work.

Hachette et Cie. were renowned publishers of Paris. Louis Christophe Francois Hachette (180-1864) established a publishing house in August 1826 with the stock he acquired from Jacques Francois Bredif. He was joined by George (1828-1892) and the firm is still in existence today, known for atlases and travel guides as well as more general reference books. The firm began at Rue Pierre Sarazin in 1826 and then moved to larger premises and has been known at a number of addresses in Paris.

 

George Humble (d.1640) was a publisher and bookseller in London. He was the nephew and partner of John Sudbury, with whom he published John Speed’s “Theatre Of The Empire Of Great Britaine” in 1612 and 1614-1616. Humble also published editions of the atlas alone until 1631.

Humble also published the so-called “miniature Speed” from 1627 onwards. Pieter van den Keere (1571-1646) was an active Dutch engraver best known in England for his collection of pocket-sized maps of the British Isles, assembled in about 1605, perhaps as part of a larger series of miniature atlases of the world. For some reason van den Keere seems not to have completed the world atlas and the printing plates passed to Willem Blaeu by 1617, when he published the atlas. This too seems not to have been a success, and the plates were subsequently sold to the Humble circa 1620.

Prior to publication Humble had those plates which showed separate counties re-engraved with the title translated into English, and a plate number added. The atlas is more commonly known as the “miniature-Speed” and was frequently reprinted, from 1627 onwards, to coincide with folio editions of Speed’s maps. In this way, the Humble family hoped to satisfy demand from those people who wished to acquire a county atlas, but who could not afford the very much more expensive folio atlas. These miniature maps are among the earliest of all series of county maps and yet, because of the commercial success achieved, are readily available to the modern collector as a fascinating record of early Stuart England.
 

Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) came to London from Bohemia in about 1636 and produced maps, as well as a huge number of topographic and illustrative works, views and frontispieces.

Hollar often used etching for map production – a technique not regularly employed for maps by other engravers at the time. Hollar’s engraving skills had been learnt in Frankfurt under the tutelage of Matthaus Merian. However, he spent most of his working life in London and the capital city proved an important subject in his work.

Hollar’s (1607-77) Long View of London from Bankside appeared in 1647 and is one of his most famous works. The Long View was sketched between 1636 and 1644 but was not immediately published. As a royalist Hollar went into exile (in Antwerp) from England during and after the civil war from 1644-52 and he took his huge archive of drawings with him. The plates were thus etched in Antwerp and it was published by Cornelis Danckers in 1647. The view’s accuracy is unprecedented and is a most important record of our knowledge of London before the Great Fire of 1666.

Hollar was also appointed Iconographer to the King in 1660and some of his other map works include “The Kingdome Of England & Principality Of Wales Exactly Described” (the so-call Quartermaster’s Map) that was published by Thomas Jenner in 1644, a map of England published by Francis Eglesfield in 1644, a map of Ireland in conjunction with Stent and Overton in 1669, and one of “Hungaria” in 1664 with Stent and Overton again, amongst others.

Hollar’s huge output totals some 2740 plate numbers, of which his maps formed a relatively small but important part. Almost complete collections of Hollar's work are kept in the British Museum and the print room at Windsor Castle. His oeuvre was first catalogued in 1745 (2nd ed. 1759) by George Vertue. The prints were subsequently catalogued in 1853 by Gustav Parthey and in 1982 by Richard Pennington.
 

Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) started his career in Amsterdam as an apprentice with the Danckerts family before returning to Nuremberg to establish himself in business in 1702. The firm quickly became the principal geographical publishers in Germany and in 1715 Homann was appointed Geographer to the Holy Roman Emperor and he was also a member of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences. His publications included the “Neuer Atlas Ueber Die Gantze Welt ...” in 1707-. The “Grosser Atlas ...” of 1716- and the “Atlas Novus Terrarum Orbis Imperioa” in c.1720, as well as many others. Johann died in 1724 and was succeeded by his son Johann Christoph who died in 1730. After his death the firm took the name Homann’s Heirs and continued thereafter until 1813. Publications with the Homann’s Heirs’ imprint included the “Grosser Atlas” in 1731, Doppelmays’r “Atlas Coelestis ...” in 1742 and the “Atlas Geographicus Maior ...” in 1753-, amongst others. Throughout this entire period the firm were the leading map publishers in Germany, employing a number of very important cartographers

Alexander Hogg (fl.1778-1805) was a publisher and bookseller in London. He was responsible for a number of atlases, travel books including a volume edited by George William Anderson entitled “A New, Authentic,Aand Complete Collection Of Voyages Round The World Undertaken And Performed By Royal Authority”. This was published in 80 weekly parts 1784-85. This book was published at a time when important cartographical discoveries were being made, specifically in the Pacific. However, Hogg’s works and output in general were wide ranging and included such items as George H. Miller’s “The NewAnd Universal System Of Geography” in 1782, George Augustus Walpoole’s “The New British Traveller” in 1784 (with maps engraved by T.Conder) and “The New And Complete English Traveller” in 1794, amongst many other works.

 

The Heywoods were a Manchester family whose members rose from humble origins to become well-known publishers in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Using the new process of lithography they were able to mass produce inexpensive educational material and make it available for the first time to the whole publication. Most of the cartographic output was derived from the work of others and titles included “The Travelling Atlas”, “The Tourist’s Atlas”, “John Heywood’s County Atlas Of England And Wales” and “J.Heywood’s British Empire Atlas”, amongst many others. Heywood publications were also available through London partners Simpkin, Marshall & Co

John Harrison's atlas "Maps Of The English Counties" appeared in just two editions of 1791 and 1792. Many of the maps have earlier dates in their imprints reflecting the date of the completion of the draught and engraving by Haywood (sometimes Heywood) and Sudlow. Although lacking decorative embellishments, these attractive and interesting maps reflect the transition from the elaborate works of the mid-eighteenth century to the more sterile works of the next.

 

Georg Braun (1541-1622) and Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590) were co-publishers of the monumental Civitates Orbis Terrarum, “the earliest systematic city atlas” (Koeman), published from 1572 onwards.  Designed as a companion to Ortelius’ world atlas the Theatrum, this enormous work, which was expanded to six volumes by 1617 incorporating over 500 plans and views, must be viewed as one of the most ambitious book producing ventures of all time, and certainly, with Ortelius’ Theatrum and Blaeu’s Atlas Maior among the greatest achievements in the history of cartography.

Braun compiled the accompanying text, printed on the reverse of the engraved sheets, while the plans were engraved by Hogenberg, who had also prepared some of the maps for Ortelius’ Theatrum.  Hogenberg used generally up-to-date and accurate maps, surveys and reports from local sources to compile this collection of plans and bird’s-eye views of all the major towns of Europe, some African, Middle Eastern and Indian towns, and the New World cities of Mexico and Cusco.  One of the major contributors was Georg (or Joris) Hoefnagel, who supplied some 63 manuscript drawings, the vast majority from personal observation.

It is to Hogenberg’s credit that, despite the many different sources from which this vast collection of plans was assembled, he managed to create a sense of uniformity among the completed engravings.  While this has much to do with his own style, he also relied on a standard formula, inserting appropriate coats of arms and, in the foreground, attractive drawings of inhabitants of the region, in local costume.