Dankerts, Cornelis the elder.
Biografiska uppgifter:1603-56
JUSTUS DANKERTS (son) 1635-1701
The Dankerts family, of whom the above were the most important, was very large and ramifying having had a lot of members who were active in engraving on an artistic level. In this short view, however, we are dealing mainly with those who took part in the atlas production.
The family’s roots can be traced back to Cornelis Danckerts (1536-1595), a carpenter in Amsterdam. From his marriage with Lijsbet Cornelisdr two sons are known: Cornelis Danckerts de Rij (1561-1634) and Danckert Cornelisz (ca. 1580-1625). Cornelis and his descendants called themselves Danckerts de Rij. Danckerts Cornelisz who is at the root of the line we are now interested in was first a skipper then a stone merchant. He married Lijstbeth Jansdr, shortly after the turn of the century. Several members of his branch were well-known engravers-etchers, mapmakers and printsellers (Keuning, 1955). Danckert Cornelisz had two sons: Cornelis Danckerts (1603-1656) and Dancker Danckerts (1614-?).
Cornelis the elder brother established himself as an engraver, map- and artprint producer, printer and publisher in Amsterdam in the early 1630s. His shop was flourishing under his, the father’s and his sons’ and grandsons’ direction in the second half of the 17th century as far as 1717 when the grandson Cornelis died. (Hereafter for distinguishing Cornelis the firm’s founder and Cornelis, the grandson, Cornelis (I) and Cornelis (II) will be used, respectively.) Cornelis (I) was an eminent engraver producing a number of single-sheet maps and wall maps. Besides his own publications, he was working for reknown personalities of the time such as the famous John Speed (1552-1629), historian and mapmaker, ”the father of the English atlases” or for Petrus Bertius (1565-1629), the illustrious geography professor at Leiden University (Tooley, 1979).
At Cornelis (I)’ death (1656), the elder son, Dancker (1634-1666) took the shop over then at his early passing the younger brother Justus (1635-1701) who had been a stone merchant succeded his brother in direction of the firm. (As distinguishing marks (I) will be used at Justus, the father’s name and (II) at the son’s.) The Danckerts family’s map producing and -publishing office had its apogee at the time of Justus (I) and of his three sons Theodorus (I) (1663-1727), Cornelis (II) (1664-1717) and Justus (II) (?-1692).
Between 1669-1701 their shop was run in the ”Calverstraet in the Danckbaerheyt” (Danckbaerheyt=Thankfulness). Cornelis (II) married Geertrui Magnus, the daughter of a famous contemporary Amsterdam bookbinder, Albert Magnus and moved into the house of Magnus’ widow on the ”Nieuwendijk in de Atlas”. (Albert Magnus had died some years before.) Thus after 1696 two print shops of the Danckerts were being run in Amsterdam and from that time onwards on different publications, also on maps and on atlas’ title- and index-pages, Cornelis (II) used this new address.
The Danckerts’s firm’s closing down was gradually taking place. The first harder breaking could be caused by the general depression in 1713 when Justus (I)’ heirs decided to sell a part of the map and atlas stock with lots of copperplates. The final, full stopping occured at the time of the last surviving brother, Theodorus (I) in 1727 when the remaining estate was also sold. The copperplates of the maps were bought by Reiner and Josua Ottens, first-rate Amsterdam map- and atlas publishers in the first part of the 18th century. Following the general custom of the time, the Ottens erased the Danckerts names and addresses replacing them with their own
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