Johannes Janssonius

Place: Arnhem

Born: 1588

Death: 1664

Biography:

Johannes Janssonius, also known as Jan Jansson, was a Dutch cartographer and publisher born in Arnhem, Netherlands in 1588. He was the son of a printer and bookseller. In 1612, he married into the cartographically prominent Hondius family of Amsterdam. Janssonius produced his first maps in 1616 of France and Italy. He owned bookstores in several cities including Frankfurt am Main, Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva, and Lyon. He formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Henricus Hondius and together they published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. Janssonius enlarged the Hondius Atlas and renamed it Atlas Novus, which had three volumes in 1638 and four volumes in 1646. By 1660, the atlas bore the appropriate name 'Atlas Major' and contained the work of about a hundred credited authors and engravers. Janssonius' 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. Janssonius died in Amsterdam in 1664.