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Claes Janszoon Visscher (1587 – 19 June 1652) was aDutch Golden Agedraughtsman, engraver, mapmaker, and publisher. He was the founder of the successful Visscher family mapmaking business. The firm that he established in Amsterdam would be passed down his generations until it was sold toPeter Schenk.[1]
Visscher, who was born and died inAmsterdam, was also known as Nicolas Joannes Piscator[2] or Nicolas Joannis Visscher II, after his father who livedc. 1550–1612.[3] He learned the art of etching and printing from his father, and helped grow the family printing and mapmaking business to one of the largest in his time. It was a family business; his sonNicolaes Visscher I (1618–1679), and his grandsonNicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702) were also mapmakers in Amsterdam on theKalverstraat.[4] The times were with the Visschers for other reasons; due to the Protestant reformation, the older Bibles with their "Roman Catholic" illustrations were seen as outdated andapocryphal, but to liven up the new Protestant Bibles for the less well-read clergy, the Visschers produced illustrated maps and even landscapes of theplaces in the Bible. This became a very successful family business, with collaboration with many respected draughtsmen of the day. Anew translation of the Bible was underway in the Netherlands, and until then, the new German translation done byJohannes Piscator, published in 1602–1604, was translated into Dutch.[5] Though probably not a relative, his Bible translation was accepted by the Dutch Staten-General in 1602, which only lent more publicity and authenticity to the "Fisher" name.
He first established his company in Amsterdam within a district known for publishing maps, the area saw fellow contemporary mapmakers such asJodocus Hondius andPieter van den Keere. There is also a belief that Hondius might have apprenticed Visscher.[1]
The trademark of the Visschers was a fisherman, as he often published under the name Piscator. In his maps, a small fisherman would be strategically placed somewhere near water.[1] If the subject was a landscape without a stream or pond, then often a figure walking with a fishing rod can be seen. Their map plates were reused for a century by other printers who unknowingly copied the entire plates, including the tell-tale fishermen. Observant scholars are thus able to trace the provenance of Bibles, maps, and landscapes from these signs.
Aside from Bibles, Claes Visscher II primarily etched and published landscapes, portraits, and maps. He etched over 200 plates and his maps included elaborate original borders. Visscher died in 1652.[6] He was a publisher of prints byEsaias van de Velde, andDavid Vinckboons, and was a big influence onRoelant Roghman[7] and on his sister Geertruyd.[8]
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