Map of Cuba and Jamaica from Wytfliet's Descriptionis Ptolemaicæ augmentum (1597)
Wytfliet's map of New Spain

Cornelius Wytfliet or Cornelis van Wytfliet (died around 1597) was a geographer from Leuven in the Habsburg Netherlands, best known for producing the first atlas of the Americas.[1]

Life

Cornelius was the son of Catherine Huybrechts and her husband, Gregorius Wytfliet, who was advocate fiscal of Leuven University from 1557 to 1594.[2]

After graduating Licentiate in Laws from the University of Leuven, Wytfliet moved to Brussels and became secretary to the Council of Brabant. He died in or shortly after 1597, when his Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum (a work adding new discoveries to Ptolemy's description of the world) was published.[2]

Works

References

  1. ^ Patricia Cohen (26 Jun 2012). "Swedes Find Stolen Atlas in New York". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b Herman Vander Linden, "Wytfliet, Corneille", Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 27 (Brussels, 1938), 426-427.
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