17th and 18th Century Copperplate Engraved Maps : Cartographers

Willem Janszoon Blaeu was born 1571 in Alkmaar. He was trained from 1594 to 1596 by the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. In 1633 he was appointed as mapmaker for the Dutch East India Company. His most famous work was the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus of 1635. After Blaeu's death in 1638 his sons Joan and Cornelis continued the business and finished the Atlas Novus.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin was born 1703 in Paris. He worked over fifty years for the Dépot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine. He was appointed Ingénieur hydrographe de la Marine in 1741. Later he became Hydrographe du Roi and a member of the Royal Society in London. He died 1772 in Versailles.

Gilles Robert de Vaugondy (1688–1766), and his son, Didier Robert de Vaugondy (c.1723–1786), were cartographers in France during the 18th century. In 1757, Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy published The Atlas Universel, one of the most important atlases of the 18th century. To produce the atlas, the Vaugondys integrated older sources with more modern surveyed maps.

The Robert de Vaugondys were descended from the Nicolas Sanson family through Sanson's grandson, Pierre Moulard-Sanson. From him, they inherited much of Sanson's cartographic material

Rigobert Bonne (6 October 1727 – 2 September 1794) was a French cartographer, widely considered to be one of the most important cartographers of the late 18th century.

In 1773 Bonne succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as Royal Cartographer to France in the office of the Hydrographer at the Depôt de la Marine. Working in his official capacity, Bonne compiled some of the most detailed and accurate maps of the period.

Philipp Clüver (born 1580, Danzig [now Gdańsk], Pol.—died Dec. 31, 1622, Leiden, Neth.) was a German geographer, a principal figure in the revival of geographic learning in Europe and the founder of historical geography.