NETHERLANDS

The publishing house Visscher

The House Publishing Visscher was founded in the early seventeenth century by the founder Claes Jansz (1587-1652), after an apprenticeship with probable Jodocus Hondius. Since 1620 he produced maps dissolved in northern Europe, on which appears sometimes Piscator Latinized version of his name.

In the thirties he published his first atlas, or Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum, which was merely a remake of the Barents Caert Thresor Langenes (Middelburg, ca 1598), with a few innovative additions.

At his death the house came under the control of his son Nicolaes (1618-1679), author of Atlas contractus Orbis Terrarum, published in various editions between 1656 and 1679, and Lower Germany in fifty cards of 1677. The activity continued with his son Nicolaes II (1649-1702), author of Atlas Minor in 1682 and Atlas Maior in 1702, and went on for several years under the direction of his widow Elizabeth until, in 1726, the company was detected by AH De Leth .

Crete ( Heraklion ). No Visscher, 1648

Engraving watercolor, mm. 510 x 415. Graphic scale in Italian miles and Dutch. Bottom right, in cartouche decorated with cherubs, "Insula / Candia / elms / Crete / N Bowel ex. / 1648.
In the map reproduced here is the singular view of the city of Heraklion, with the lively representation of a naval battle, according to the unique artistic tradition of the house Visscher.
(Athens, Olkos Editions)

Utrecht Research Program in the History of Cartography : a glossary of atlases and pilot books published in Holland until the end of the nineteenth century, variously located in the world