Johannes Janssonius (1588, Arnhem – buried July 11, 1664, Amsterdam) (born Jan
Janszoon, in English also Jan Jansson) was a Dutch cartographer and publisher who
lived and worked in Amsterdam in the 17th century.and Janssonius was born in
Arnhem, the son of Jan Janszoon the Elder, a publisher and bookseller. In 1612 he
married Elisabeth de Hondt, the daughter of Jodocus Hondius. He produced his first
maps in 1616 of France and Italy. In 1623 Janssonius owned a bookstore in Frankfurt
am Main, later also in Danzig, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Königsberg, Geneva
and Lyon. His wife Elisabeth died in 1627 and he married Elisabeth Carlier in 1629.
He formed a partnership with his brother in law Henricus Hondius, and together they
published atlases as Mercator/Hondius/Janssonius. Under the leadership of Janssonius
the Hondius Atlas was steadily enlarged. Renamed Atlas Novus, it had three volumes
in 1638, one fully dedicated to Italy. In 1646, a fourth volume came out with "English
County Maps", a year after a similar issue by Joan Blaeu. Janssonius' maps are similar
to those of Blaeu, and he is often accused of copying from his rival, but many of his
maps predate those of Blaeu and/or covered different regions. By 1660, at which point
the atlas bore the appropriate name "Atlas Major", there were 11 volumes, containing
the work of about a hundred credited authors and engravers. It included a description
of "most of the cities of the world" (Townatlas), of the waterworld (Atlas Maritimus in
33 maps), and of the Ancient World (60 maps). The eleventh volume was titled Atlas of
the Heavens (a type of celestial cartography) by Andreas Cellarius. Editions were printed
in Dutch, Latin, French, and a few times in German. After Janssonius's death, the publishing
company was continued by his son-in law, Johannes van Waesbergen. The London bookseller
Moses Pitt attempted publication of the Atlas Major in English, but ran out of resources after
the fourth volume in 1683.