Arnoldus Montanus (c. 1625 - 1683) was a Dutch scholar, publisher, schoolmaster and author active in Amsterdam during the latter half of the 17th century. Montanus is a Latinized form of van den Berg or van Bergen. He studied theology at Leiden University and was ordained a minister in 1653. In 1667 he became headmaster of the Latin School of Schoonhoven, where he died in 1683. Most of Montanus's work was published in conjunction with engraver Jacob van Meurs and focused on travel narratives to Asia and the Americas. His most famous book, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld, contains what is arguably the first view of New York City, the New Amsterdam. His other works offer up some of the earliest known descriptions of China and Japan. Much of Montanus' work was translated and published in English by John Ogilby. More by this mapmaker...

Jodocus Hondius II (1594 – 1629) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. The elder son of the cartographer Jodocus Hondius, Jodocus took over the business after father died in 1612, co-running the business with his brother Henricus II. He was an accomplished engraver, to the extent that upon his death Willem Blaeu would purchase thirty-four of Hondius' plates to be included in his new atlases. Learn More...

Hessel Gerritsz (1581 – September 4, 1632) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer, and publisher active in Amsterdam during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, among the most preeminent Dutch geographers of the 17th century. He was born in Assum, a town in northern Holland in 1581. As a young man he relocated to Alkmaar to accept an apprenticeship with Willem Jansz Blaeu (1571-1638). He followed Blaeu to Amsterdam shortly afterwards. By 1610 he has his own press, but remained close to Blaeu, who published many of his maps. In October of 1617 he was appointed the first official cartographer of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East Indian Company) or VOC. This strategic position offered him unprecedented access to the most advanced and far-reaching cartographic data of the Dutch Golden Age. Unlike many cartographers of his period, Gerritsz was more than a simple scholar and showed a true fascination with the world and eagerness to learn more of the world he was mapping in a practical manner. In 1628 he joined a voyage to the New World which resulted in the production of his seminal maps, published by Joannes de Laet in his 1630 Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien; these would be aggressively copied by both the Blaeu and Hondius houses, and long represented the standard followed in the mapping of the new world. Among his other prominent works are a world map of 1612, a 1613 map of Russia by the brilliant Russian prince Fyodor II Borisovich Godunov (1589 – 1605), a 1618 map of the pacific that includes the first mapping of Australia, and an influential 1630 map of Florida. Gerritsz died in 1632. His position with the VOC, along with many of his printing plates, were taken over by Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Learn More...