northern europe
Jan (Joan) Willemsz. Blaeu was a Dutch cartographer, publisher and judge.
Jan was born into the family of the cartographer and publisher Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638). He studied in Leiden, where he earned a doctorate in law, and in Padua. He then began to assist his father, who was engaged in the manufacture of globes and maps. After his father's death, Jan, together with his brother Cornelius, continued his work, and succeeded him as cartographer for the Dutch East India Company.
In 1651 Blaeu was elected to the Amsterdam city council and later appointed as a judge. At the same time, he was engaged in his publishing business: he continued to publish volumes of Atlas novus, which contained maps of English counties and, for the first time, an atlas of Scotland, as well as one volume of maps of the Far East.
Blaeu did not have time to complete his most ambitious project, but it made him famous as the author of the famous 11-volume Dutch atlas. Based on his previous maps, Blaeu created the Great Atlas (Atlas Maior) - it contained nearly 600 maps and a total of 3,000 pages of Latin text - and was published in 1662. Blaeu's maps were groundbreaking for their time because they were created in accordance with the heliocentric theories of Nicolaus Copernicus.
In 1672, a great fire in Amsterdam destroyed Blaeu's workshop, and the cartographer died a year later, apparently never recovering from this stroke of fate.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu was a Dutch cartographer and map publisher.
Willem studied astronomy and cartography under the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and even discovered the variable star P Swan in 1600. A little later Blaeu settled in Amsterdam, where he began making globes and also began producing land and sea maps, including a 1605 world map. In 1629 he managed to acquire the printing plates of the cartographer Jodok Hondius, with which he published his own atlas.
In 1633, Willem Blaeu was appointed cartographer of the Dutch Republic, as well as the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. Blau built up a large collection of maps and conducted an extensive publishing business. After Willem's death, his sons Jan Blaeu (1596-1673) and Cornelius Blaeu successfully continued his work. But in 1672, during a fire in Amsterdam, Blaeu's workshop was destroyed, and the company founded by Willem Blaeu ceased to exist in 1698.
![[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]](/assets/image/picture_4084566/95c2b/lahwoc3u4qf9a2monehopf8hrdgtqqfscop5zvi2iyvpfee2ozgaz9zixwfubjc1719907174jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)]](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_4084566/95c2b/lahwoc3u4qf9a2monehopf8hrdgtqqfscop5zvi2iyvpfee2ozgaz9zixwfubjc1719907174jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde - Irish writer, poet, philosopher and playwright, a bright representative of the literature of the Victorian period.
Oscar's parents were fond of literature and history, gave their son an excellent education. After graduating from Oxford University, Oscar moved to London, where he quickly entered the circle of secular society. His first book, a collection of poems, was published in 1881. Over the next year, the aspiring writer traveled across America with lectures on art. Then he traveled to France, where he met key figures of French literature of the time - Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Emile Zola and others. Returning to his homeland, Oscar married, thanks to which his children's fairy tales appeared. His popularity grew rapidly, his work was favorably reviewed by Bernard Shaw.
Next, "The Crime of Lord Arthur Seville", "The Canterville Ghost", "The Sphinx without a riddle" were written. In 1890 Oscar Wilde wrote the novel "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", which was considered immoral in high society, but it brought the author the greatest fame. This novel is still considered a classic of world literature to this day. In the early 1890s Oscar Wilde wrote comedy plays "Lady Windermere's Fan", "A Woman Not Worth Watching", "An Ideal Husband" and "How Important It Is to Be Serious". In them, the author shows himself a master of witty dialog. During his life, Wilde wrote nine plays, one novel, many poems, stories and essays.
Bright and full life of a successful and talented writer ended when he met Lord Alfred Douglas. For this scandalous connection with the man, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison. After leaving prison, he settled in France under an assumed name, abandoned by everyone. He wrote his last work, the autobiographical "Ballad of Reading Prison" two years before his death at the age of 46.
![[FOSTER, George (fl. 1735-1740)] – Robert SAYER (1735-1794).](/assets/image/picture_4084812/eead4/rh5-akqejyjmaug43ncvjup-kaf74qit0wesbihrffucjgdpjhfhqhahybonknkw1719908507jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![[FOSTER, George (fl. 1735-1740)] – Robert SAYER (1735-1794).](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_4084812/eead4/rh5-akqejyjmaug43ncvjup-kaf74qit0wesbihrffucjgdpjhfhqhahybonknkw1719908507jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Hartmann Schedel was a German humanist, medical scientist, historian and chronicler.
Schedel was the first to compile a world chronicle, the so-called Visual History of the Earth from the Creation of the World to the 1490s, known as Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel's World Chronicle). It was published in 1493 in Nuremberg. About 600 woodcuts for this book were created by the artists and engravers Michael Wolgemuth (1434-1519) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). The illustrations depict biblical scenes, family trees, portraits of famous personalities, and fairy tale or legendary creatures. However, the main ones here were maps of the world, Germany and Central Europe.
Hartmann Schedel was one of the first cartographers to use machine printing. He was also a renowned collector of books, artworks and engravings by old masters.
Hartmann Schedel was a German humanist, medical scientist, historian and chronicler.
Schedel was the first to compile a world chronicle, the so-called Visual History of the Earth from the Creation of the World to the 1490s, known as Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel's World Chronicle). It was published in 1493 in Nuremberg. About 600 woodcuts for this book were created by the artists and engravers Michael Wolgemuth (1434-1519) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). The illustrations depict biblical scenes, family trees, portraits of famous personalities, and fairy tale or legendary creatures. However, the main ones here were maps of the world, Germany and Central Europe.
Hartmann Schedel was one of the first cartographers to use machine printing. He was also a renowned collector of books, artworks and engravings by old masters.
Francesco Petrarca was an Italian poet, the founder of European humanism, and one of the greatest figures of the Italian Proto-Renaissance.
Petrarca studied at the University of Montpellier, then at the University of Bologna, in 1330 entered the service of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna as a chaplain. Then he made various pilgrimages, in 1353 settled in Milan at the court of Archbishop Giovanni Visconti, and carried out important diplomatic missions. Petrarca spent the last years of his life in the village of Arquà near Padua.
Since 1337 Petrarca began to write literary works: these were historical poems in Latin and lyric poems in Italian. In 1327 Francesco saw Laura for the first time, undivided love for which was the main source of his poetry. Laura was for him an object of adoration and pure platonic love. Despite the fact that they saw each other only a few times and were not really acquainted, Petrarca carried this feeling through his life.
Passionate about ancient culture, Petrarch deciphered and commented on the manuscripts of Cicero, Quintilian and others. He opposed medieval scholasticism interest in the earthly purpose of man, argued that the nobility of man depends not on the nobility of origin, but on his virtue. Petrarca highly valued the mind and creative abilities of man, and these humanistic ideas found vivid expression in his lyrics, revealing the inner world of man. Petrarca's work laid the foundation for the formation of Italian humanism. He also dreamed of the unification of Italy, the revival of the former greatness of Rome.
Francesco Petrarca had one of the richest libraries of his time, where ancient Roman writers, poets, historians, philosophers were represented. He was one of the brightest representatives of the culture of the Renaissance. Petrarca's works are characterized by perfection of form and musicality of verse, which played a significant role in the development of European poetry. Among his works are the poem "Africa" about the Second Punic War in Latin, allegorical pastoral eclogues "Bucolics" (1346/1357), a book of songs "My Italy", "Noble Spirit", sonnets, etc.
