Abraham Ortelius was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer. He is recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Along with Gemma Frisius and Gerardus Mercator, Ortelius is generally considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography and geography. He was a notable figure of this school in its golden age and an important geographer of Spain during the age of discovery. The publication of his atlas in 1570 is often considered as the official beginning of the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. He was the first person proposing that the continents were joined before drifting to their present positions.
The Island of California refers to a long-held global misconception, dating from the 16th century, that the Baja California peninsula was not part of mainland North America but rather a large island separated from the continent by a strait now known as the Gulf of California.
Raleigh Ashlin Skelton is best known for his work on the history of cartography and particularly his attempts to prove the authenticity of the Vinland map.
Robert Morden was an English bookseller, publisher, and mapmaker, globemaker and engraver. He was among the first successful commercial map makers.
Georg Braun was a German topo-geographer. From 1572 to 1617, he edited the Civitates orbis terrarum, which contains 546 prospects, bird's-eye views and maps of cities from all around the world. He was the principal editor of the work, he acquired the tables, hired the artists, and wrote the texts. He died as an octogenarian in 1622, as the only survivor of the original team to witness the publication of volume VI in 1617.
Sidney Hall (1788?–1831) was a British engraver and cartographer well known and popular for his early nineteenth century atlases containing maps of the United Kingdom and of the ancient world reproduced from Hall's engravings. Hall made engravings for a number of international atlases at a time when cartography and atlases were very popular. He also engraved a series of cards for the various constellations, published c.1825 in a boxed set called Urania's Mirror.
Picturesque Europe was a lavishly illustrated set of books published by D. Appleton & Co. in the mid-1870s based on their phenomenally successful Picturesque America. An edited form was reprinted in Europe by Cassell & Co. The books depicted nature and tourist haunts in Europe, with text descriptions and numerous steel and wood engravings. J.W. Whymper was among the engravers and directed the other artists on the project.
George Lily was an English Roman Catholic priest, humanist scholar, biographer, topographer and cartographer.
Eusebius Andrews, December 1606 to 22 August 1650, was a London lawyer and Royalist during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, executed for his part in a 1650 plot to restore Charles II of England. A prominent supporter of the Crown since the early 1630s, he was a determined conspirator who organised a number of Royalist risings in Cambridgeshire between 1642 and 1650.
Justus Danckerts I was a Dutch engraver and print publisher who along with other members of the Danckerts family created one of the leading Dutch geographical map and atlas publishing houses.
The Beudeker Collection is a collection of maps and views of the Netherlands and Belgium in the British Library, created by the Dutch merchant Christoffel Beudeker.
John Gibson was an English cartographer, geographer, draughtsman and engraver.
Ronald Vere Tooley was an English map dealer, an authority on early maps and cartographers, a noted compiler of catalogues on maps, cartography and antiquarian books, author of Maps and Map-makers, and founder of the Map Collectors' Circle which published a series of monographs on historical cartography in the period 1963-1975. He is considered the founder of the antiquarian map trade.
Melchior Tavernier was a French engraver, printmaker and print publisher.
Selina Hall (1780?–1853) was a British engraver and printer in London who prepared maps for several well-known works including John Gorton's A Topographical Dictionary, Charles Black's 1840 General Atlas and several Chapman & Hall publications.
Ann Lea, sometimes "Anne", (1661–1728) was a British lithographer, map and globe seller and publisher in London. She prepared maps for several works including Christopher Saxton's The Traveller's Guide being the best map of the Kingdom of England and Principality of Wales and Robert Morden's A new mapp of the West-Indies, or the islands of America 1702.
John Farmer was an American educator and cartographer.
George Willdey (1676–1737) was a British engraver and optical instrument maker. Willdey made engravings for a number of mapmakers. His shop sold maps, optical instruments, toys, china, glass, and earthenware.
Joel Gascoyne was an English nautical chartmaker, land cartographer and surveyor who set new standards of accuracy and pioneered large scale county maps. After achieving repute in the Thames school of chartmakers, he switched careers and became one of the leading surveyors of his day and a maker of land maps. He is best known for his maps of the colonial Province of Carolina, of the county of Cornwall, and the early 18th-century Parish of Stepney, precursor of today's East End of London. Gascoyne's distinctive style of chart and map-drawing was characterised by the use of bold and imaginative cartouches.
