Joannes De Laet

Johannes De Laet's Nieuwe Wereldt ofte Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien was the second earliest compilation of maps to focus on America, after Cornelis Wyfliet's work of 1597. The map brought to the public the finely executed maps of Hessel Gerritsz. Gerritsz (1581-1632) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher, who is considered by some to have been "unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century." (Johannes Keuning "Hessel Gerritsz" (1949) Imago Mundi Vol. 6, pp. 46-66).