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Abraham Goos (c.1590-1643) was an Amsterdam engraver, mapseller, cartographer and publisher and father to Pieter Goos (161501675), who also assumed his father’s professions. Abraham’s family links to the map trade were undeniable – he was the nephew of Pieter van den Keere and Collette van den Keere (who married Jodocus Hondius).

Abraham worked with many of the members of his extended family as well as Johannes Jansonnius. He published globes with Pieter van den Keere and also engraved Americae Nova Descriptio for him. He also replaced the worn plate for ‘The Kingdom Of England’ in John Speed’s “Theatre Of The Empire Of Great Britaine” for the 1632 and subsequent editions.

Pieter Goos, Abraham’s son and successor, was perhaps the most active member of the family. In 1650 he acquired the plates to Jacobsz’s mariner’s guide, “De Lichtende Columne Ofte Zee-Spiegel”. Pieter re-issued this work in numerous editions and also produced English editions in 1667, 1668, 1669 and 1670 – the many editions of this work prove its popularity with the consumer public and the charts are recognisable today as being of a high standard.

Pieter’s other works were also maritime based and also often extended to numerous editions in several languages. The “Zee-Atlas Ofte Water-Wereld” by Pieter Goos was first published in 1666 – many of the charts were based on those of Hendrik Doncker and the concept for a sea atlas was not original. However, this work was also well received by the public.


Source:
I.C.Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici Volume IV, pp.192-217.

Giacomo Gastaldi (c.1500-1566) was an Italian astronomer, cartographer and engineer from Villafranca in Piedmont. Little is known of him until he arrived in Venice and was granted a privilege by the Venetian senate in 1539 for the printing of a perpetual calendar.

Gastaldi’s position in Venice placed him at the centre of an important world-trading centre at this time. The Republic would have been host to many travellers, providing and stimulating Gastaldi with up-to-date reports of their discoveries and findings. While in Venice, Gastaldi met Giovanni Battista Ramusio who was working on his “Navigationi et Viaggi” and was also secretary to the senate, thus beginning their association. Venice was a focal point of Italian cartographic activity in this period, with Gastaldi and Ramusio placed at its epicentre.

Gastaldi’s first geographical work was a map of Germany, dated 1542, for a new edition of Ptolemy’s “Geographia”, although this work was not actually published until 1548. Gastaldi also worked on a number of maps at this time that were used as sources for other mapmakers’ work – Ortelius and De Jode’s maps of Sicily, for example, are based on Gastaldi. Other mapmakers to use his work included Camocio, Bertelli, Forlani and Luchini, amongst others – thus Gastaldi can be associated with the Lafreri school of mapmakers.

Some of Gastaldi’s most well-known and sought-after works include his world map that was first published in 1546 entitled “Nova Totius Orbis Descriptio”, the woodcut maps for the aforementioned “Navigationi et Viaggi” by Ramusio, as well as many other maps covering a variety of geographical areas.

Often encountered are Girolamo Ruscelli’s maps from his new translation of Ptolemy’s “Geographia” that was first published in 1561 – the maps contained therein are enlargements of the maps that Gastaldi had produced for his 1548 edition of the “Geographia”.


Sources:
Robert W. Karrow Jr., Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and Their Maps, pp.216-249.
Sotheby’s, The Wardington Library Part One:A-K, pp.165-196.

Christopher (or perhaps Charles – either way 1786-1855) and James (or perhaps John) Greenwood were one of the last private firms to undertake the large-scale mapping of England and Wales, producing many fine multi-sheet county maps from their own survey work. There seems to be some confusion as to the first names of the brothers Greenwood – Tooley, Chubb and Rodger each offer different alternatives. For consistency, we shall adopt Christopher and James.

Christopher Greenwood was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and his first map publication was of his own county and was based on his own survey work. He moved to London in 1818 and his partnership with his brother began in 1821 – the imprint C.&J.Greenwood was to appear on both the large-scale and atlas publications of the Greenwoods.

From the first English county atlas in 1579 until the middle of the eighteenth century, few maps were printed that attempted to show, on a large-scale, more than the basic details of towns, villages, roads and prominent physical features. Maps of just a handful of counties, or their parts, were available at scales of one-inch-to-the-mile or greater, but even the most detailed county atlas of the period could not provide the information required by an expanding and increasingly sophisticated market-place.

The result of this failing was that in 1759 the body that is now the Royal Society of Arts announced a prize of £1000 to be awarded for an original survey at a scale of one-inch-to-the-mile. The first recipient of the award was Benjamin Donn whose map of Devon, completed in 1765, had taken five and a half years to produce. Maps of many counties followed with twelve further publications benefiting from the award. Coinciding with these privately produced surveys, the Board of Ordnance had begun surveying the country and in 1801 its first map, albeit of an individual county - Kent, was published. By 1840 maps of nearly all England had been published at a scale of one-inch-to-the-mile. However, the advent of the national survey did not entirely negate the work of the independent map publisher and one of the most prominent firms of the period was that of Christopher and John Greenwood.

The Greenwoods' intention was for a series of maps of the whole country at a one inch scale and, although this was not achieved, their output includes superb maps that were finely drafted and elegantly engraved. Eventually, they could not compete with the officially funded publications of the Ordnance Survey, and were unable to complete their one-inch-to-the-mile project.

Instead, they published a beautifully engraved “Atlas of the Counties of England” with the maps decorated with large vignette views of prominent buildings of the county. Some of the maps were issued uncoloured, but most are frequently found in attractive, full-wash colour across the body of the map. These maps were engraved on steel, a more durable medium than copper, and appeared around 1830.


Sources:
Martin Norgate, Checklist Of Hampshire Maps, Greenwood.
Batten & Bennett, The Printed Maps of Devon, pp.194-197.