Nicolaus Visscher (also spelled Nicolas, Nicolaes) was the third generation of a prominent mapmaking family active at the height of the golden age of Dutch cartography. The Visschers were known throughout Europe for the accuracy of their maps and the innovative ornamentation of their works. The founder of the business, C.J. Visscher, was a contemporary of other well-known Dutch mapmakers, such as Pieter van den Keere and Jodocus Hondius. After he died, his son, Nicolaus Visscher I, carried on the business. He was known for his use of patriotic ornamentation in support of the 80-year struggle to win Dutch independence from Spain. The business then passed to his son, Nicolaus Visscher II, who published a large number of atlases and sustained the firm’s reputation for incorporating the most recently available geographic information and for using high-quality engraving. Notable in this “new and entirely accurate map of the world” are the pictorial relief symbols and surrounding ornamentation, the separation of the eastern and western hemispheres into circles, and the use of two separate spheres to represent the polar regions. At the death of Nicolaus II in 1702, his wife Elizabeth kept the business going until her death in 1726.
<br>World maps
Visscher, Nicolaes (1649-1702)
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<ul><li>Gallery: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wdl.org/en/item/179/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/179/</a></li></ul>