Jan Jansson or Johannes Janssonius (1588 - 1664) was born in Arnhem, Holland. He was the son of a printer and bookseller and in 1612 married into the cartographically prominent Hondius family. Following his marriage he moved to Amsterdam where he worked as a book publisher. It was not until 1616 that Jansson produced his first maps, most of which were heavily influenced by Blaeu. In the mid 1630s Jansson partnered with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius, to produce his important work, the eleven volume Atlas Major. About this time, Jansson's name also begins to appear on Hondius reissues of notable Mercator/Hondius atlases. Jansson's last major work was his issue of the 1646 full edition of Jansson's English Country Maps. Following Jansson's death in 1664 the company was taken over by Jansson's brother-in-law Johannes Waesberger. Waesberger adopted the name of Jansonius and published a new Atlas Contractus in two volumes with Jansson's other son-in-law Elizée Weyerstraet with the imprint 'Joannis Janssonii haeredes' in 1666. These maps also refer to the firm of Janssonius-Waesbergius. The name of Moses Pitt, an English map publisher, was added to the Janssonius-Waesbergius imprint for maps printed in England for use in Pitt's English Atlas. More by this mapmaker...

Henricus Hondius II (1597 – August 16, 1651) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. The son of the cartographer Jodocus Hondius, Henricus took over the business after father died in 1612, co-ran the business with his brother Jodocus II. In 1628 Henricus partnered with Jan Janssonius and together they continued the business, with Jansson’s name appearing on the Atlasas co-publisher after 1633. Eventually, about 50 editions of the Atlas were released in the main European languages. In the Islamic world, the atlas was partially translated by the Turkish scholar Katip Çelebi. The series is sometimes called the 'Mercator/Hondius/Jansson' series because of Jansson's later contributions. Learn More...

William Baffin (c. 1584 – January 23, 1622) was an English navigator, explorer and cartographer. His efforts to discover a Northwest Passage would earn his fame, largely resulting from his discovery of the bay that bears his name. He is also known for having produced excellent surveys of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf on behalf of the East India Company, and his collaboration on the most influential map of Northern India to be produced in the seventeenth century. Nothing is known of his early life. Samuel Purchas hailed Baffin as a 'learned-unlearned Mariner and Mathematician... wanting art of words,' conjuring a working sailor whose grasp of survey and drafting came of long experience and not education. He first appears in the historical record in 1612 as chief pilot on Captain James Hall's fourth expedition to Greenland; in the following two years he would serve as in the Muscovy Company whaling fleet around Spitzbergen. In 1615 he was hired by the Company of Merchants of London, Discoverers of the North-West Passage' and sailed as pilot under Captain Robert Bylot, who explored Hudson Strait in search of a Northwest Passage. Baffin's surveys were found to be accurate, confirmed by the explorer Parry in 1821. Returning to the Hudson Strait in 1616 he passed west of Greenland up the Davis Strait, discovering the large bay now known as Baffin's Bay and reaching the furthest point in North America explored by a European until the voyage of Inglefield in 1852. Following his efforts to find a Northwest Passage, he served the East India Company as master's mate aboard the ship Anne Royal. His travels to India between 1617 and 1619 would result in his vaunted surveys of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and his superb map of the Mughal Empire produced in collaboration with Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe. In 1620, he sailed east again, taking part in a naval battle with a combined Portuguese and Dutch fleet which would see his captain killed. Baffin was shot and killed in 1622, as part of a joint effort with Persia to take Portuguese fortresses on Qeshm and Hormuz. Learn More...

Sir Thomas Roe (c. 1581 – November 6, 1644) was an English scholar, politician and diplomat, who served as England's ambassador to the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. He was born in Essex, son of Sir Robert Rowe and his wife Elinor Jermy. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1593, at the age of twelve. In 1597 he became esquire to Queen Elizabeth, and would be knighted by James I in 1604. He became friends with Henry, Prince of Wales, who in 1610 would send him on a mission to the West Indies, during which he would attempt to find El Dorado, at that time believed to be in the vicinity of the Lake Parime in South America. Between 1616 and 1619, at the behest of the East India Company, King James sent Roe to India as ambassador to the Agra court of the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir. A gracious guest, Roe arrived with a large supply of red wine, with the apparent result that he became a favourite of Jahangir and may have been his drinking partner. Roe thus successfully secured permission for the East India Company to establish a factory at Surat, giving The Company a key early foothold in India. Roe made an effort to assemble geographical data of the Mughal Empire, the interior of which was virtually unknown to Europeans. During his 1919 voyage home, he collaborated with the ship's master William Baffin in producing what would be the most influential map of that empire to be produced in the 17th century. Later, he would become ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, negotiating privileges for English merchants and in one instance making treaty with Algeria in order to free captives of the piratical kingdom. During his time in Constantinople, he was able to acquire a wealth of rare manuscripts which he would present to the King, and to the Bodleian Library. He would go on to serve as a diplomat during the Thirty Years War, arranging treaties between Sweden and Poland, Danzig and Denmark. In later years, he would sponsor arctic explorer Luke Fox, and would eventually become a privy councillor and was elected MP. Between 1641 and 1642 he would be appointed ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire, taking part in peace conferences at Hamburg, Regensburg and Vienna. Learn More...