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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 Republic and Belgian citizen. He worked as an astronomer, cartographer, theologian, and cleric. His primary field of work was theology, and he adhered to Protestantism. Plancius was employed by the Dutch East India Company.

He was born in Dranouter and died in Amsterdam on 1622-05-15. He worked in Amsterdam and spoke Dutch, which was also his native language. His works are held in the collections of the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, Skokloster Castle, Museum aan de Stroom, and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. He is described in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie and the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

Synthesized by Vinony from 18 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Europeana Sparql. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

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

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Petrus
Gender
male
Citizenship
Belgium
Place of birth
Dranouter
Place of death
Amsterdam
Occupation
engraver
Languages spoken
Dutch
Native language
Dutch
Field of work
theology
Image
Petrus Plancius.jpg
Work location
Amsterdam
Show 6 more facts
Commons category
Petrus Plancius
date of birth
1522-00-00
date of death
1622-05-15
name in native language
Pieter Platevoet
has works in the collection
Het Scheepvaartmuseum
Commons Creator page
Petrus Plancius
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

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.