Gerard DE JODE

1509 - 1591

Gerard de Jode was born in Nijmegen in 1509 and died in Antwerp in 1591. Little is known about his family background and education. In 1547, he was admitted to Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke as a printer, establishing his role in the city's booming publishing trade. De Jode founded a multi-generational dynasty of engravers, cartographers, and publishers. His son, Cornelis de Jode, was trained directly by him and continued the family printmaking business, while his grandson, Pieter de Jode I, and subsequent descendants became prominent artists and printmakers in Antwerp.

Operating as a cartographer, engraver, and publisher in Antwerp, De Jode was a direct contemporary and business rival of Abraham Ortelius. His major technical contribution lay in his high-quality engraving and printing of maps drafted by prominent contemporary geographers, such as Giacomo Gastaldi and Jacob van Deventer. His milestone publication is the atlas Speculum Orbis Terrarum ("Mirror of the World"), printed in 1578. The commercial success of this work was significantly hindered because Ortelius secured a monopoly privilege that delayed De Jode's publication by several years, allowing Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum to dominate the market. Following Gerard de Jode's death in 1591, his stock and printing plates passed to his son Cornelis, who published an expanded, second edition of the atlas under the title Speculum Orbis Terrae in 1593.

Gerard de Jode is remembered as a master printmaker and independent publisher whose technical execution produced some of the finest maps of the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography, despite being commercially overshadowed by his primary rival.