Vlaanderen – .. Comitatus Flandriae (..).; F. de Wit / Covens & Mortier – 1725 ca.

Frederik de Wit (1630-1706)

Frederik de Wit was a Dutch engraver, printer and publisher from Gouda. He settled in Amsterdam around 1648 in “De Witte Pascaert”. The first maps engraved and dated by De Wit were nautical charts from 1654. The world map Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula was published around 1660, a composite wall map of approximately 140 x 190 cm. The dating of De Wit’s maps, atlases and city books is difficult. The year was not mentioned on most cards and the editions covered many years. The atlases began to appear around 1670. The atlas of the Netherlands was called Nieuw Kaertboeck of the XVII Dutch Provinces and counted more than 20 maps. The town books appeared on the market around 1695. They were also printed with copper plates by Blaeu and Janssonius. After his death, De Wit’s copperplates were sold to Pieter Mortier, Petrus Schenck and the Ottens brothers.

Pieter Mortier (1661-1711) / Covens & Mortier

Pieter Mortier was an 18th-century mapmaker and engraver, who was born in Leiden, the son of a political refugee from France. He travelled to Paris in 1681-1685, then returned to Amsterdam where he operated as a bookseller from 1685 until 1711. Pieter Mortier deserves our praise for his initiative in the renewal of atlas-cartography in Amsterdam in the late 17th century. It was he who realized that the maps used for the atlasses of the Janssonius Heirs, of Nic. Visscher, of Danckerts, et al., were out of date. His knowlegdge of modern French carthography led him to the copying of the maps of  Sanson, pulblished in Paris by Jaillot since 1681. He won the privilege in 1690 of publishing maps and atlases by French publishers in Amsterdam for the Dutch market. His son Cornelis Mortier (1699-1783) founded the famous publishing house Covens & Mortier (1721-1866) together with Johannes Covens I (1697-1774). Covens & Mortier became one of the most important Dutch carthograpic publicing houses in the 18th century.

Pieter Mortier (1661-1711) was een 18e-eeuwse kaartenmaker en graveur, geboren in Leiden als zoon van een politiek vluchteling uit Frankrijk. Hij reisde in 1681-1685 naar Parijs en keerde daarna terug naar Amsterdam, waar hij van 1685 tot 1711 werkzaam was als boekverkoper. In 1690 verkreeg hij het voorrecht om kaarten en atlassen van Franse uitgevers in Amsterdam uit te geven voor de Nederlandse markt. Zijn zoon Cornelis Mortier (1699-1783) richtte samen met Johannes Covens I (1697-1774) het beroemde uitgevershuis Covens & Mortier (1721-1866) op. Covens & Mortier was één van de belangrijkste Nederlandse cartografische uitgeverijen uit de 18de eeuw.