Petrus Plancius (1552 - 1622)

Plancius was a Flemish minister of the Reformed Church, an astronomer and cartographer. He studied theology in Germany and England. He fled Brussels for Amsterdam because of fear of religious prosecution by the Inquisition after the city fell into Spanish hands in 1585. There he became interested in navigation and cartography and, he was one of the first to appreciate the significance of earlier Portuguese charts and became the expert on the charting of the sea routes to the Indies. He was an advocate of a North East passage.

In 1602 he was appointed official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company.