1578 De Jode / Gastaldi Map of Southeast Asia

Gerard De Jode (1516 or 17 - February 5, 1591) was a Dutch publisher, engraver and cartographer active in Antwerp in the mid-to-late 16th century.  De Jode was born in Nijmegen.  Following a period as an apprentice and journeyman, (about which nothing comes down to us), he was admitted as a free master to Antwerp's artists' Guild of Saint Luke in 1547. He received the right to publish in that city in 1551. Henceforth he worked as a publisher and printseller in that city - although records also refer to him as a bookseller, art seller, map painter, engraver, and plate printer. He became one of Antwerp's most successful and prolific printers: he built up a large and varied stock of more than 1,200 prints and maps, and in addition to his own children maintained a shop and was taking on apprentices as early as 1549. De Jode's shop was home to many of Antwerp's best engravers, including the famous Van Doetecum brothers.

His publication in 1579 of the Thesaurus sacrarumhistoriarum veteris testamenti set the standard for over a century of Biblical illustration. His cartographic work began with the printing of other mapmakers' work (for example Gastaldi's map of the world in 1555, Jacob van Deventer's map of Brabant in 1558, and Ortelius' eight sheet map of the world in 1564.) He is best known for his 1578 atlas Speculum Orbis Terrarum. Despite the excellence of this work, it performed poorly due to the overwhelming competition posed by Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, which had already been eight years in publication. Between the Theatrum's popularity (and Ortelius' superior political connections, employed successfully in a vigorous defense of his license and monopoly on the work) De Jode's atlas was never a strong seller. Gerard printed only one edition of the work, compared to something on the order of forty of the Ortelius atlas. Gerard de Jode planned an enlarged edition, but died before it could be finished. His son Cornelis de Jode completed the labor, publishing the Speculum Orbis Terrae in 1593. This edition, too, of the Speculum failed to compete with Ortelius' powerhouse. On top of that, much of the De Jodes' stock was actively purchased and destroyed by Ortelius and his executors in order to remove it from the market. Thus, oneresult of De Jode's ill-starred competition with Ortelius is that while most of Ortelius' maps are relatively ubiquitous on the market, all of De Jode's maps are rare, and sought after by the discerning collector. More by this mapmaker...

Giocomo Gastaldi (c. 1500 - October, 1566) was an Italian astronomer, cartographer, and engineer active in the second half of the 16th century. Gastaldi (sometimes referred to as Jacopo or Iacobo) began his career as an engineer, serving the Venetian Republic in that capacity until the fourth decade of the sixteenth century. During this time he traveled extensively, building a large library relating to voyages and exploration. From about 1544 he turned his attention to mapmaking, working extensively with Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Nicolo Bascarini, and Giovanbattista Pedrezano, as well ask taking private commission for, among others, Venice's Council of Ten. He is credited with the fresco maps of Asia and Africa still extent in the map room of the Doge's Palace. Gastaldi was also one of the first cartographers to embrace copper plate over woodblock engraving, marking and important development in the history of cartography. His 1548 edition of Ptolemy's Geographia was the first to be printed in a vernacular; it was the first to be printed in copperplate. As with his Swiss/German contemporary Münster, Gastaldi;'s work contained many maps depicting newly discovered regions for the first time, including the first map to focus on the East Coast of North America, and the first modern map of the Indian Peninsula. His works provided the source for the vast majority of the Venetian and Roman map publishers of the 1560s and 70s, and would continue to provide an outsize influence on the early maps of Ortelius, De Jode, and Mercator. Learn More...

Johannes van Doetecum I (1528/32 - 1605, also spelled Duetecom, Duetecum, van Doetechum) was the patriarch of a Durch family of etchers and engravers, originally from Deventer. With his brother Lucas (died c. 1589), Johannes moved to Antwerp where they would work for a variety of publishers, inclufing Hieronymus Cock and Gerard de Jode. Their oeuvre included etched landscapes and ornamental work, but they are perhaps best known for the maps they produced not only for De Jode but also for Lucas Waghenaer, Petrus Plancius, and Linschoten. Learn More...