Isaak de Graaff (1668 – 5 September 1743) was a Dutch map maker. He was born in Amsterdam, the son of Abraham de Graaf and Susanna Pietersz Eppingh. His father was in the service of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

from 1679 until his death in 1714, during which time he authored several standards texts of navigation. Thus Isaak grew up with a good grounding with the principles of

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

and

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...

. In 1691, he received a commission to produce ah Atlas of Africa and Asia for the Dutch East India Company, which could then be used by their governing council when considering policy. After this was completed in 1705, he was appointed their official cartographer until his death in 1743. Isaac de Graaf married Sanderina de Brauw in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

in 1708. They set up home on the

Brouwersgracht The Brouwersgracht is a canal in Amsterdam that connects the Singel with the Singelgracht. The canal marks the northwestern border of the Grachtengordel (canal belt). Between the Prinsengracht and the Singelgracht the Brouwersgracht forms the ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

de Graaf map discovered

In 2015 following the discovery of the wreck of the '' Diemermeer '', further research revealed that one of de Graaf's maps was found in the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. This map was the original ship’s navigational map, an example of a navigational aid of which very few survive. The map was drawn by de Graaf in 1735, shortly before the ship was built. The last voyage of the ship is recorded on the map.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graaff, Isaak de 1668 births 1743 deaths 17th-century Dutch cartographers 18th-century Dutch cartographers Scientists from Amsterdam