Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571 - 1638)

Field(s) of interest: Scientific instruments | cartography
Gender: male

Born: Uitgeest, 1571
Died: Amsterdam, 1638

Biography:
Willem Jansz. Blaeu was a scientific instrument and globe maker, publisher, and printer in Amsterdam. He was born in Uitgeest, or nearby Alkmaar. In 1594, Blaeu left for Denmark, where he became an apprentice and assistant to the astronomer Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven. Here Blaeu learned to make scientific instruments, globes and maps. In 1596, he returned to Amsterdam and founded his publishing and printing house. He produced globes, surveying instruments, charts and maps. In 1605, Blaeu's business 'In de Vergulde Sonnewijser', was Op het Water bij de Oude Brug, in Amsterdam. Up to 1621 he published under the name Willem Jansz or Guiljelmus Janssionius Alcmariensis. From 1621 on, he used the family name Blaeu (or the Latin Caesius). Forbidden (Catholic) books were published under the pseudonym Cornelis van Egmond, the name of his agent in Cologne. In 1633, Willem was appointed cartographer to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1637 he expanded his business and moved to the Bloemgracht where he started his work on the Atlas Novus, which was completed and published by his son after his death, in 1638. His son Joan, who had joined the company in 1631, continued his father's work from that moment on.
Blaeu married Maritgen Cornelis in 1596; the couple had seven children, the eldest was Joan.
Blaeu published works from Snellius, Metius, Vossius, Roemer Visscher en Hooft. He made astronomical and surveying instruments for Metius (an astronomer's cross-staff, in 1607) and Snellius (several Tychonic quadrants)..

Collections: Museum Boerhaave, Leiden; Universiteitsmuseum, Utrecht; Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam; Maritiem Museum, Rotterdam; Museum Flehite Amersfoort.


Occupations:
Cartographer, instrument maker and publisher: ~1599 - 1638 (Amsterdam)

Sources:
Keuning, J.& M. Donkersloot, W.J. Blaeu; a biography and history (Amsterdam 1973).

Losman, A. & I. Sigurdsson, Äldre vetenskapliga Instrument på Skokloster : Scientific Instruments of the 16th-18th centuries at Skokloster Castle (Uppsala 1975).

Sticker, B., Documenta astronomica (Hamburg 1964), 35-36.

Keuning, J. 'Hulpmiddelen bij de datering van verschillende uitgaven van W. J. Blaeu', in: Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig genootschap 57, no. 5 (1940), 707-721.

Krogt, P.C.J. van der, Globi Neerlandici (Utrecht 1993).

Coester, A. & E. Gerland, Beschreibung der Sammlung astronomischer, geodätischer und physikalischer Apparate im Königlichen Museum zu Cassel (Cassel 1878), 15 & 19.

Donkersloot-de Vrij, M., Drie generaties Blaeu (Amsterdam/Zutphen 1992).

Baudet, P.J.H., Leven en werken van Willem Jansz Blaeu (Utrecht 1871).

Rooseboom, M., Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der instrumentmakerskunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden (Leiden 1950).

Beek, L., 'Roemruchte Blaeus', Professioneel profiel 45 (1983), 8-11.

Koeman, C., Atlantes Neerlandici. Bibliography of terrestrial, maritime, and celestial atlases and pilot books, published in the Netherlandsup to 1880, dl. IV (Amsterdam 1970), 27-112.

Berkel, Klaas van, ‘Willem Jansz Blaeu’, in idem, History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands (Amsterdam 1999) 417-418

Netten, Djoeke van De uitgever Willem Jansz Blaeu in de geleerde wereld van zijn tijd (1571-1638). (Zutphen, 2013).