Pieter Goos (1616–1675) was a Dutch

cartographer Cartography (; from , '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 imagined reality) can ...

, copperplate engraver, publisher and bookseller. He was the son of Abraham Goos (1590–1643), also a cartographer and map seller. From 1666, Pieter Goos published a number of well produced

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

es. He was the first to map

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an States and territories of Australia#External territories, Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean comprising the island of the same name. It is about south o ...

, which he labelled "Mony" in his map of the East Indies, published in his 1666 ''Zee-Atlas'' (Sea Atlas). His ''Atlas ofte Water-Weereld'' (Atlas or Water World) has been cited as one of the best maritime atlases of its time. Another of his fine works was the ''Oost Indien'' (East Indies) map published in 1680.

Early life

Goos was born in 1616 into a cartographer's family in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. His father, Abraham, was an established cartographer having published globes as well as land and sea maps at

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. His mother was Stijntgen Theunisdr de Ram. In Antwerp, his father had associated with Jodocus Hondius and Johannes Janssonius. Goos followed in his footsteps, first creating

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

books and then moving into global sea atlases to assist navigation. His son, Henrik, followed in the family tradition of cartography and publishing. Goos operated from Amsterdam, which was the focal point of cartography (as Antwerp was affected by war) and also trade during the seventeenth century. The Dutch maps were very detailed, colourful and attractive.

Career

Pilot books, which contained a large number of navigation charts, were published by many authors, including Goos. He had a notarized agreement with two others, Jacob Lootsman and Hendrick Doncker, to publish pilot books for navigation along the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast, also covering easterly and westerly navigational routes. These were called the Dutch pilot books and remained valid for the period from 1643 to 1680. Goos was also instrumental in publishing the first pilot book for coastlines outside

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. A further improvement over the pilot books in Dutch cartography was the publication of sea atlases covering the whole world. Initiated in 1659 by Doncker, the approach was also adopted by Goos from 1666. One of his larger works is named ''le grand & nouveau miroir ou flambeau de la mer'' (1662). In the same year, Goos published "The Lighting Colomne or Sea-Mirrour", which not only contained nautical charts, but also "a brief instruction of the art of navigation". The maps of Goos and Gerard van Keulen were used exclusively during the eighteenth century until 1740. They were, however, found to have deficiencies such as the location of

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

s, grand banks and islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with inaccuracies of as much as 44 leagues on the reduced Goos maps. Goos' famous world map titled ''Atlas ofte Water-Weereld'' was in two parts, one for each hemisphere. The colourful presentation included the two poles. His maritime maps encompassed not only Europe,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

but also the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

and the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. The ''Zee Atlas'' covered the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

, the

and the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

as well as the Indian and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

s. He also published regional maps covering the coastal areas of all the continents, facilitating navigation by including details of sandbars, sea depths and the islands near the coast. A particular feature of the Goos maps was that they were embellished with "large descriptive

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s" supplemented with sketches of ships, compass cards, and wind roses. His sea atlas of 1666, one of the most complete maritime atlases in existence in the second half of the seventeenth century, contained a frontispiece which featured ships in combat. Printed on thick paper with gilding, people bought the colourful maps just to decorate their offices and homes. At least one of Goos' atlases was published by his widow.

Gallery

File:1658 Wassende v Nierop.jpg, 1658 Paskaart Europa: Pieter Goos File:1660 66 Marsdiep Mase Goos.jpg, 1660 De Texel Stroom & De Mase: Pieter Goos File:1666 Orbis Terrarum Goos.jpg, 1666 Orbis Terrarum (World Map): Pieter Goos File:1666 Nieu Nederlandt Goos.jpg, 1666 Nieu Nederlandt (New Netherland): Pieter Goos File:MapEastIndian-PieterGoos.jpg, map of south Asia, southwest Asia, Australia, and the Indian Ocean

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goos, Pieter 1616 births 1675 deaths Engravers from Amsterdam 17th-century Dutch cartographers 17th-century engravers