Johannes van Keulen

Johannes van Keulen, map of the Northern sea. Unknown date (ca. 1680). A version is kept at the

Johannes van Keulen (1654 in Deventer – 1715 in Amsterdam) was a 17th-century Dutch cartographer. He published the influential nautical atlas the Zee-Atlas and the pilot guide Zee-Fakkel (meaning Sea-Torch in English).

Early life Johannes van Keulen was born in 1654 in the Dutch Republic. He was baptised on 8 January 1654 in Amsterdam.

In 1680, he obtained a patent from the States of Holland and West Friesland granting him the exclusive right to print and publish maritime atlases and navigation manuals.

Van Keulen built a firm that became one of the leading producers of navigational works in the Dutch Republic, supplying charts and sailing directions used by mariners across European and overseas routes. The work was illustrated by Jan Luyken. Published between 1681 and 1684, the five-volume Zee-Fakkel contained more than 130 new charts and brought van Keulen wide recognition as a publisher of nautical atlases. On her death, her son, Gerard Hulst van Keulen (1733–1801) occupied himself with the last editions of the Zee-Fakkel. The business prospered until 1885 when it was finally liquidated after operating successfully for more than two centuries.