SÖK KARTOGRAFER, GRAVÖRER M.FL.

HAMMER, CHRISTOPHER BLIX.

1720-1804. Född och död i Gran.
Norsk ämbetsman och naturhistoriker. Började 1738 att studera och läste olika ämnen under ett antal år. 1750 blev han anställd av den stora bok- och kartsamlaren greve Joh. L. Holstein för att måla grevskapet Ledreborg vid Roskilde. 1752 utnämnd till generalkonduktör vid Akershus stift. Han hade titeln kansliråd, senare justitieråd. Medlem av 'Det kgl. Videnskabers Selskab' i Trondheim och 'Det kgl. danske Landhusholdningsselskab'. - Av hans författarskap, som framförallt omfattar naturhistoriska avhandlingar, kan nämnas 'Indbydelse til de Norske Karter', en uppfodring att sända honom kartor och dokument som stöd för ett påtänkt norskt kartverk (1766), samt 'Subscriptions Plan Till En Norsk Atlas eller Land-Beskrivelse over Kongeriget Norge' (1773). Detta verk blev emellertid aldrig utgivet. Sina samlingar, däribland en betydande kartsamling, och en stor del av sin förmögenhet testamenterade han till 'Videnskabsselskabet' i Trondheim.

Bland arbeten.
Subscriptions Plan Till En Norsk Atlas eller Land-Beskrivelse over Kongeriget Norge.
Indbydelse til de Norske Karter.

Ehrencron.

NICOLAUS GERMANUS.

Often called 'Donis' from a misapprehension of the title 'Donnus' or 'Donus' an abbreviated form of 'Dominus.
A fifteenth-century cartographer, place of birth, and date of birth and death unknown. The first allusion to him of authentic date is an injunction of Duke Borso d'Este (15 March, 1466) to his referendary and privy counselor, Ludovico Casella, at Ferrara, to have the 'Cosmographia of Don Nicolò' thoroughly examined and then to determine a recompense for it. The duke, on the thirtieth of the same month, called upon his treasurers for 100 florins in gold 'to remit as a mark of his appreciation to Donnus Nicolaus Germanus for his excellent book entitled 'Cosmographia''. On 8 April, 1466, the duke again drew thirty golden florins to present to the Rev. Nicolaus, who 'in addition to that excellent Cosmography' (ultra illud excellens Cosmographie opus) had dedicated to the duke a calendar made to cover many years to come ('librum tacuini multorum annorum'). The 'Cosmographia' as preserved in the Biblioth...

FISCHER, Nicolaus Germanus in Entdeckungen der Normannen in Amerika (Freiburg, 1902), 75-90, 113 sqq. (Eng. tr., London, 1903), 72-86, 108 sqq.

HEITMAN, JOHAN HANSSON.

1664-1740. Född i Trondheim, död i Köpenhamn.
Norsk skeppare, författare och kartograf. Han tillbringade sin ungdom i Nordland i Norge där han drev jordbruk och affärer. Kom till Bergen där han lärde sig navigation. Fick snart rykte om sig som en framstående sjöman med stora kunskaper om norska kusten. Vice ståthållaren Fr. Gabel gav honom i uppdrag att kartlägga den norska kusten. I flera år sysselsatte han sig med detta. Kartverket blev aldrig utgivet. Kartan över Oslofjorden blev emellertid upptagen i van Keulens atlas, och det är också troligt att hans originalteckningar ligger till grund för andra holländska sjökort som kom ut under den tiden. Heitmann var i övrigt en allsidig man. Ett tag var han bosatt i Christiania (Oslo) som 'mathematicus'. Utgav där en andaktsbok och en psalmbok för sjömän. Efter hans död kom en meteorologisk skrift, 'Physiske Betaenkninger over Solens Varme, Luftens Skarpe Kuld og Nord-Lyset' (1741) ut och året därpå: 'Eenfoldige Betaenkninger over den Julianske og Gregorianske Calender'. Han lade här fram ett förslag till en ...
Bland arbeten.
Physiske Betaenkninger over Solens Varme, Luftens Skarpe Kuld og Nord-Lyset.
Eenfoldige Betaenkninger over den Julianske og Gregorianske Calender.

N. biogr. leks.

Amiral Häggs flaggkarta. - Stockholm 1888.

von Lieven - C. H. Tersmeden ca 1900.

NICOLAUS GERMANUS.

Often called 'Donis' from a misapprehension of the title 'Donnus' or 'Donus' an abbreviated form of 'Dominus.
A fifteenth-century cartographer, place of birth, and date of birth and death unknown. The first allusion to him of authentic date is an injunction of Duke Borso d'Este (15 March, 1466) to his referendary and privy counselor, Ludovico Casella, at Ferrara, to have the 'Cosmographia of Don Nicolò' thoroughly examined and then to determine a recompense for it. The duke, on the thirtieth of the same month, called upon his treasurers for 100 florins in gold 'to remit as a mark of his appreciation to Donnus Nicolaus Germanus for his excellent book entitled 'Cosmographia''. On 8 April, 1466, the duke again drew thirty golden florins to present to the Rev. Nicolaus, who 'in addition to that excellent Cosmography' (ultra illud excellens Cosmographie opus) had dedicated to the duke a calendar made to cover many years to come ('librum tacuini multorum annorum'). The 'Cosmographia' as preserved in the Bibliotheca Estensis at Modena comprises a Latin translation of the Geography of Ptolemy with maps. The version of the geographical text is substantially the same as that dedicated in 1410 to Pope Alexander V by Jacopo Angelo, a Florentine. In the execution of the maps, however, Nicolaus, instead of adhering to the flat projection of Ptolemy, chose what is known as the 'Donis-projection', because first worked out by him, in which the parallels of latitude are equi- distant, but the meridians are made to converge towards the pole. He likewise introduced new modes in delineating the outlines of countries and oceans, mountains and lakes, as well as in the choice of cartographic proportions. He reduced the awkward size to one which was convenient for use; the obscure and often unattractive mode of presentation he replaced by one both tasteful and easily intelligible; he endeavored to revise obsolete maps in accordance with later information and to supplement them with new maps. While his first recension embraced only the twenty-seven maps of Ptolemy (one map of the world, ten special maps of Europe, four of Africa, twelve of Asia), the second comprised thirty (including in addition modern maps of Spain, Italy, and the Northern countries: Sweden, Norway, and Greenland). The last-named enlarged recension he dedicated as priest to Pope Paul II (1464-71). He dedicated to the same pontiff his third recension, containing thirty-two maps, adding modern maps of France and the Holy Land. The works of the German cartographer were of great value in diffusing the knowledges of Ptolemy's Geography. The first recension, probably the very copy in the Lenox Library (New York), is the basis of the Roman editions of Ptolemy bearing the dates 1478, 1490, and 1507; on the third, certainly the copy preserved in Wolfegg Castle, are based the Ulm editions of 1482 and 1486. By combining the Roman and Ulm editions Waldseemüller produced the maps of Ptolemy in the Strasburg edition of 1513, which was frequently copied. The modern map of the Northern countries, made by Claudius Clavus, which Nicolaus embodied in his second recension of Ptolemy, was perhaps the source of the Zeni map which had such far-reaching influence, and likewise of the maritime charts of the Canerio and Cantino type. The revised map of the Northern countries in the third recension of Nicolaus, which placed Greenland north of the Scandinavian Peninsula, was a powerful factor in cartography for a century, especially as Waldseemuller gave the preference to this representation in his world and wall map of 1507, 'the baptismal certificate of America'. Because of these and other services to geography and cartography, as for example, by the revision of Buondelmonte's 'Insularium', it would be desirable to have it established whether Nicolaus was really, as I conjecture, a Benedictine father of the Badia at Florence.
(FISCHER, Nicolaus Germanus in Entdeckungen der Normannen in Amerika (Freiburg, 1902), 75-90, 113 sqq. (Eng. tr., London, 1903), 72-86, 108 sqq.)

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