Hessel Gerritsz

Hessel Gerritsz (c. 1581 in Assum, North Holland – buried 4 September 1632 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some “unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century”

He started in Alkmaar as an apprentice to Willem Jansz Blaeu, who was ten years his elder. Gerritsz moved with Blaeu’s workshop to Amsterdam, where he married Geertje Gijsberts of Alkmaar in 1607. They had eight children. Geertje would die before 1624, when Hessel remarried. By 1610 he had a printing workshop on his own. Many of his engravings and maps made it into the atlases of Blaeu, Janssonius, and others.

Gerritsz produced a world map in 1612 that included the discoveries of Queirós and specifically indicated “Austrialia del Espiritu Santo”, now known to be Vanuatu, but for long thought to be part of the “South land”. The map was very influential on Dutch and French representations of the South Pacific in the 17th and 18th centuries, and was together with Queirós' publications influential in establishing the name “Australia”. In 1613, Gerritsz wrote and published a “History of the land named Spitsbergen”, describing the discovery, early voyages and whaling activities on these islands. This volume also showcases Gerritsz's considerable talents as an engraver (see for example his depiction of a walrus with its calf). The same year, he edited a map of Russia prepared by the future Feodor II of Russia as tsarevich, and re-edited it in 1614 with some additions and corrections; it was reproduced by the Blaeu firm until 1665. Another example of an engraving is his often reproduced 1619 posthumous portrait of the playwright Bredero.

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