Biographies of Some of the More Famous Cartographers

John Seller (c.1630-1697) was an instrument maker, publisher and mapmaker, now best known as the first Englishman to endeavour to compete with the Dutch in the production and publication of sea-charts.

Seller acquired the printing plates from Jan Jansson’s “Light Der Zee-vaert”, originally engraved in 1620, substituted English titles and then re-published them. For this he was appointed Hydrographer to King Charles II in 1671 - a mark of the king’s concern that domestic chart-making be encouraged and protected, rather than as recognition of work well done.

Seller then embarked on the publication of the English Pilot, a rutter in several volumes, each devoted to a different region of the world, issued from 1671/2 onwards. In 1675, Seller started to issue the “Atlas Maritimus”, a composite sea-atlas of the world, comparable in intent with the work of Dutch publishers such as Jansson and de Wit. Seller’s maps are often derivative, and the closest association is with de Wit’s charts. In fairness to Seller, it should be said that he had neither the personal wealth nor the patronage to finance anything more ambitious, and his career several times foundered on the verge of bankruptcy. Equally, where he had better information available he was quick to incorporate it, and his charts of the English possessions in the Americas are superior to anything else of the period.

In financially trying circumstances, one strategy Seller resorted to was to issue miniature versions of his folio atlases. This allowed him to utilise assembled geographical materials and to approach the substantial group of people unable to afford folio atlases – a method as pioneered by Ortelius. The “New System of Geography” was advertised in 1684 and was one such miniature atlas. Many of Seller’s atlases, both folio and miniature, were very composite in nature, so it is not surprising bound collections often had no formal title-page. While these miniature atlases seem to have sold well, their size, and seeming lack of presence, have meant that their survival rate compares unfavourably with folio atlases, hence their rarity today.

Nicolas Sanson (1600-1667) is generally acknowledged as the founder of the great French school of geographers and cartographers that supplanted the Dutch as the leading European map-makers. His work was acclaimed for its geographical accuracy and high standard of engraving. As a consequence, his many maps received a wide diffusion. His career marks the start of the process by which Paris superseded Amsterdam as the centre of European map production.

Nicolas studied Ancient History as a young man, and this awoke in him an interest in classical geography. His first map, of ancient Gaul was made in 1618, when he was only 18. Sanson had three sons, Nicolas (1626-1648), Guillaume (d.1703) and Adrien (d.1708), and a grandson Pierre Moullard-Sanson (d.1730), all of whom were involved in the family’s map-making activities.

After Sanson settled in Paris his work came to the attention of King Louis XIII, who eventually appointed Sanson Geographe Ordinaire du Roi, one of whose duties was to tutor the King in geography. Sanson published some 300 maps in his career, though his first most famous atlas, the folio “Cartes Generales De Toutes Les Parties Du Monde” was not published until 1658. Sanson also prepared a series of quarto atlases of the different continents. These scarce atlases are more frequently encountered in the Dutch piracy, engraved by Anthony d’Winter, first published in 1683.

The Sanson atlases are rarely found with a standard set of maps; the practice seems to have been that additional, or revised, plates would be inserted as available. After Sanson’s death the business was continued by his two surviving sons and grandson, in partnership with, and later superseded by Alexis Hubert Jaillot.
 

John Senex (c.1678-1740) was one of the leading English map-makers of the first part of the eighteenth century. He first came to prominence as an engraver - John Lawson’s map of the Carolinas (1709) is just one important map that he engraved. However, Senex’s ambition was much broader than engraving, although he continued to work as an engraver throughout his career.

In about 1710 Senex began preparation of a large folio atlas, with the maps engraved on two sheets joined, in partnership with John Maxwell and Charles Price. Although the partnership was not a success, the atlas was re-issued into the 1750s by Senex and his successors. One problem with the atlas was that the large format required the sheets to be folded three times - the folds were very prone to tearing or splitting, and individual maps are consequently not often found in very good condition.

Atlases composed of two-sheet maps were a popular genre at this time, but the volumes also proved unwieldy. In response Senex published a folio volume in 1721, the “New General Atlas”, which contained single sheet maps of the world. This volume was a success and achieved a wide circulation. In 1728, in recognition of his contribution to specialist scientific journals, Senex was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the first English map-maker to be so honoured.
 

Francois [Francesco] Santini was a Venetian map maker who re-issued the works of Robert de Vaugondy, Homann’s Heirs and De L’Isle. At this time, cartography in Italy was at a rather low ebb, so Santini, essentially a publisher rather than a map-maker modelled his work on two of the leading practitioners of cartography in Europe, the French map-makers Gilles and Didier Robert de Vaugondy. Their “Atlas Universel” was first published in 1758, and was much re-issued thereafter. The atlas was a commercial and cartographic success, with widespread influence on map-makers throughout Europe, most notably on Santini, who commissioned a new set of plates,  published in 1776, being almost exact copies of the original French maps.

Besides the Homanns, the other great German publishers of the eighteenth century were the Seutter family. Mattheus Seutter the elder (1678-1757) was apprenticed to Johann Baptist Homann in 1697 in Nuremberg, but left to settle in Augsburg where he established his own business publishing atlases, including the “Atlas Geographicus” (1725) and “Grosser Atlas” (circa 1735). Seutter’s style was heavily influenced by Homann, with distinctive similarities appearing in his maps. He was joined in the business by his son, Albrecht (1722-1762), who continued the firm in partnership with Tobias Conrad Lotter (1717-1777) on his father’s death.

Jacob Savry was an engraver of Amsterdam known predominantly for his four maps of Palestine and the Near East, as well as a plan of Jerusalem that was published in 1647 and used in a number of Dutch bibles from this period.

Charles Smith was a stationer, publisher and mapseller, working in the Strand from about 1800 onwards. He is perhaps best known for “Smith’s New English Atlas Being A Complete Set of County Maps “. The maps from this county atlas set a new standard for their presentation and execution –a wealth of cartographic detail has been compressed into the folio sheet. The maps we engraved by Jones and Smith. These maps justly met with great commercial success being re-issued in both atlas form and as folding maps into the 1860s.

Justly called “the Father of English Cartography”, Christopher Saxton (ca.1542-1606) compiled the first printed atlas of England and Wales, one of the earliest printed national atlases of any country.

More remarkable is that the atlas was compiled from completely new and original survey work, carried out by Saxton himself, between about 1573 and 1578. The maps were engraved, and probably sold, as they became available, while the completed atlas was issued from 1579 onwards. The atlas contained a general map, and 34 maps of the counties. Unfortunately, unlike later map-makers, Saxton often combined two or more counties in one map, without any apparent reason. For example, the Welsh county of Pembroke was given separate coverage, while the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Middlesex were all combined onto one sheet, at a vastly reduced scale.

Saxton’s maps were used as sources by many later map-makers, including Kip and Hole’s maps for Camden’s “Britannia” (1607), and by John Speed (1611-2). Indirectly, their influence lasted into the 1750s, and was finally ended by the Bowen and Kitchin maps from the “Large English Atlas”.

Directly, however, the original Saxton plates continued in use into the 1760s, much revised by subsequent owners, but fundamentally the same maps. The most commonly encountered re-issues are those by Philip Lea, circa 1689 and circa 1694, and by George Willdey, circa 1732. The main difference between the original issues and Lea’s examples are the additions of town plans in blank areas of the map, and roads, extra names and other details within the maps themselves.
 

Robert Sayer (d.1794) was one of the leading map-publishers working in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, with a prolific output of individual maps and atlases. Sayer acquired the stock of two prominent publishers, that of the Overton family in 1747, and of Thomas Jefferys in 1776 and 1771, and these acquisitions gave him the nucleus to form a wide-ranging stock of prints, maps, charts and books. However, he appears to have been a better map-maker than businessman, for in 1774, Sayer entered into partnership with John Bennett, which injected fresh vitality into Sayer’s output, most notably in maps relating to the Americas, and more particularly the Revolutionary War. The partnership ended in 1786, and Sayer continued alone, but by 1790, illness forced him to ake on two ‘assistants in trade’, Robert Laurie and James Whittle, who succeeded him after his death.

The Society For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge was founded by John, Earl Russell, and Henry Brougham, later Lord Chancellor of England in 1827. The Society’s main purpose was to encourage universal literacy by publishing numbers of books of good quality that would be affordable to the poor. Perhaps the grandest of their publications was their atlas, originally entitled “Maps Of The Society For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge”, first issued by Baldwin and Cradock, and then re-issued by other publishers, latterly Edward Stanford.

The Schenk family, with co-publishers, the Valks, were among the most prolific and best known publishers of eighteenth century Amsterdam, issuing prints, maps, books and atlases. Their work was invariably finely presented though was primarily reissued from other map-makers’ printing plates, including Visscher, De Wit, Jansson and others. However, their work demonstrates the precision and elegance associated with maps and engravings produced in this important cartographical period.

Edward Stanford (1827-1904) was a publisher, engraver and founder of ‘Geographical Establishment’ located at 6 Charing Cross. He went on to take over the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1857 and issued the “Family Atlas” (1857-75) and the “London Atlas” (1882), amongst other items.

Stanford maps tend to combine geographical accuracy and function with a clarity of presentation.

Edward was succeeded by his son Edward, the younger, and the firm Stanford’s is still in existence today.
 

John Stow’s “Survey Of London” was first published in 1598-9 with subsequent editions thereafter. However, it is the fifth and sixth editions of 1720 and 1754 respectively, and the ward plans of the City of London contained therein, that are often of particular interest today. Stow’s ward plans provide some of the most attractive and detailed maps of the City and its parts.

Reverend John Strype was responsible for the collection of materials for the text of these editions and the publishers of the new fifth edition wanted to ensure the maps were engraved by skilled engravers, possibly Sutton Nicholls and Johannes Kip. Strype explains in his prefce to the “Survey ...” that revision had been necessary because the maps were based on ‘a careful survey made of London and Westminster, divers Years ago by Mr Lybornn and Mr Bloome’.

Maps from Strype’s first edition can be distinguished from those of his second edition as the former have the binders’ instructions appearing in the top right hand corner of each plate and the latter have publishing details at the bottom. The name of Richard Blome has been carefully erased from the plate in these fifth and sixth editions.
 

Heinrich Scherer (1628-1704) was a Jesuit, geographer and professor of mathematics in Munich. His “Atlas Novus”, published in eight volumes 1702-1710, for which he is perhaps best known was an unusual publication, featuring maps of all areas of the known world, indicating their religious tendencies with an emphasis on promulgating the Catholic Church and faith.

John Stow’s “Survey Of London” was first published in 1598-9 with subsequent editions thereafter. However, it is the fifth and sixth editions of 1720 and 1754 respectively, and the ward plans of the City of London contained therein, that are often of particular interest today. Stow’s ward plans provide some of the most attractive and detailed maps of the City and its parts.

Reverend John Strype was responsible for the collection of materials for the text of these editions and the publishers of the new fifth edition wanted to ensure the maps were engraved by skilled engravers, possibly Sutton Nicholls and Johannes Kip. Strype explains in his prefce to the “Survey ...” that revision had been necessary because the maps were based on ‘a careful survey made of London and Westminster, divers Years ago by Mr Lybornn and Mr Bloome’.

Maps from Strype’s first edition can be distinguished from those of his second edition as the former have the binders’ instructions appearing in the top right hand corner of each plate and the latter have publishing details at the bottom. The name of Richard Blome has been carefully erased from the plate in these fifth and sixth editions.

Franz Anton Schraembl (1751-1803) was one of the leading Viennese publishers of the period with such works as “Allgemeiner Deutscher Atlas Aller Länder” and the “Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas”. His atlases were some of the most important and up-to-date compilations of this period of discovery. Schraembl’s work helped introduce the journeys of Captain Cook to a European audience.

William Strahan was a publisher based at New St. Shoe Lane, London, for much of his working career. He was responsible for the 1753 edition of Camden’s monumental “Britannia” as well as Cook’s “Voyages” in association with fellow publisher Robert Cadell, published from 1773-1777.

Richard William Seale (d.1785, fl.1732-1772) was a well-known engraver and draughtsman working in London. His work is often encountered in the maps from Tindal’s continuation of “Rapin’s History Of England” (1744-1777). The atlas primarily contains maps depicting the military actions fought by the English during the campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession, notably in the Low Countries, but also in Spain, and was also supplemented by a series of contemporary maps, of the countries of the British Isles, and parts of the wider world. Seale also contributed to a large number of other books, magazines and atlases of the period – the “London Magazine” and the “Universal Magazine”.

John Speed (1552-1629) is arguably the most famous English cartographer of any period, as a result of his atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. The individual maps are the best known and among the most sought-after of all county maps.  The maps themselves were derived from the best and most up- to-date sources available. However, Speed also made innovations of his own - introducing town plans on many of the maps, including county boundaries on almost all maps and also the coats of arms of local Earls and Dukes as well the Royal arms. The overall effect is to produce very decorative, attractive and informative maps. 

View maps by John Speed