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Jacob van Langren (c. 1525 – 27 July 1610) was a Dutch cartographer and globe-maker who established a family dynasty of three generations in those professions.

Biography

He was born in Gelderland but moved to the Southern Netherlands and later to Amsterdam, where his sons Arnold and Hendrik 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.

Notes

1. The name appears under a wide variety of forms. His first name was sometimes latinized as Jacobus even in Dutch. His last name is sometimes latinized as Langrenus or given as Langren, Langelaer, or Van Langelaar. His middle name is variously given as Floris, Floriz, Florens, Florentius, Floresz, Floreisz, Florissoon, and Floriszoon. He was also sometimes distinguished as Jacobus Florentius Ultrajectensis or Jacobus Florens Trajectensis, both meaning "from Utrecht".

References

1. J. Keuning, "The van Langren family", Imago Mundi 13 1956:101-09; P. van der Krogt, Globi neerlandici: the production of globes in the Low Countries Utrecht 1993.
2. M. Friendly, "The First (Known) Statistical Graph: Michael Florent van Langren and the 'secret' of Longitude" 2010.
3. P. C. J. van der Krogt, Globi Neerlandici: the production of globes in the Low Countries, HES, 1993, p. 90

• 1520s births
• 1610 deaths
• 16th-century Dutch cartographers
• 17th-century Dutch cartographers
• People from Gelderland
• Globe makers