a Dutch cartographer and globe-maker who established a family dynasty of three generations in those professions. He was born in Gelderland but moved to the Southern Netherlands and later to Amsterdam, where his sons Arnoldus and Henricus were born. From about 1586 Jacob and his son Arnold produced globes, both terrestrial and celestial, the first ever produc...

a Dutch cartographer and globe-maker who established a family dynasty of three generations in those professions. He was born in Gelderland but moved to the Southern Netherlands and later to Amsterdam, where his sons Arnoldus and Henricus were born. From about 1586 Jacob and his son Arnold produced globes, both terrestrial and celestial, the first ever produced in the northern Low Countries. Over the next fifty years, the van Langrens continued to revise and improve their engravings; Petrus Plancius collaborated on the 1589 edition. In 1592, the States General granted the Van Langren family a monopoly in the production of globes, which led to quarrels with Jodocus Hondius. Jacob died in Alkmaar in 1610, where he is buried in the Grote Kerk. His grandson Michael van Langren was also a cartographer.

an astronomer and cartographer of the Low Countries in the service of the Spanish Monarchy. Arnold moved with his family, which included his sons Jacob and Michael, from Amsterdam to Antwerp around the year 1609, during the truce between the Spanish crown and the States General. From the Spanish administration he got the title of "Sphérographe de leurs Alte...

an astronomer and cartographer of the Low Countries in the service of the Spanish Monarchy. Arnold moved with his family, which included his sons Jacob and Michael, from Amsterdam to Antwerp around the year 1609, during the truce between the Spanish crown and the States General. From the Spanish administration he got the title of "Sphérographe de leurs Altesses" and was awarded a grant of 300 livres towards the expense of his move. Michael van Langren did not receive a university education. He became a cartographer and engineer. He would serve as the Royal Cosmographer and Mathematician to King Philip IV of Spain, and was helped in his work by the patronage of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain.

an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Afro-Eurasians. Colloquially referred to as the New World, this second super con...

an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Afro-Eurasians. Colloquially referred to as the New World, this second super continent came to be termed "America", deriving its name from Americus, the Latin version of Vespucci's first name. Explored eastern South US coast, Caribbean