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Petrus Plancius

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Petrus Plancius

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Also known as Plancio, Pieter Platevoet

Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer and clergyman

OverviewAI-generated

Petrus Plancius, also known by his native name Pieter Platevoet, was a male Dutch astronomer, cartographer, theologian, and cleric. Born in Dranouter in 1552, he held citizenship in the Dutch Republic and Belgium. He worked in Amsterdam, where he served as an employee of the Dutch East India Company. His field of work included theology, and he adhered to Protestantism.

Plancius died in Amsterdam on 15 May 1622. His works are held in collections at the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, Skokloster Castle, Museum aan de Stroom, and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. One of his notable works is *La mappemonde de Petrus Plancius*. He is described in sources such as the *Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie* and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

Synthesized by Vinony from 33 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Europeana Sparql, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1552
Died
1622
Works
1

Top works

  • La mappemonde de Petrus Plancius

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Sweden
Active from
1973-12-19

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Key facts

Born
Pieter Platevoet , 1552, Dranouter , Habsburg Netherlands
Died
15 May 1622 (1622-05-15) (aged 69–70)
Known for
Contributions to Netherlandish cartography and the mapping of southern constellations
Fields
Astronomy , cartography , theology
Institutions
Dutch Reformed Church

via Wikipedia infobox

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Petrus Plancius, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Petrus Plancius ( Dutch: [ˈpeːtrʏs ˈplɑŋkijʏs]; born Pieter Platevoet [ˈpitər ˈplaːtəvut]; 1552 – 15 May 1622) was a Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer and clergyman. Born in Dranouter, now in Heuvelland, West Flanders, he studied theology in Germany and England. At the age of 24 he became a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church.

Plancius fled from Brussels to Amsterdam to avoid religious persecution by the Inquisition after the city fell into Spanish hands in 1585. In Amsterdam he became interested in navigation and cartography and, having access to nautical charts recently brought from Portugal, he was soon recognized as an expert on safe maritime routes to India and the nearby "spice islands". This enabled colonies and port trade in both, including what would become the Dutch East Indies, named after the Dutch East India Company set up in 1602.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Petrus Plancius” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.