Juan Bautista Labanna

JUAN BAUTISTA LABANNA (Lisbon, c. 1550-Madrid, 1624)
Engraved map of Aragon from the 17th century.
Published in Amsterdam by Hendrik Hondius II.
Soiling, damp stains, cracks, creases and some tears.
Measurements: 48 x 56 cm .
Juan Bautista Labanna (Lisbon, c. 1550-Madrid, 1624) was a Portuguese cartographer, mathematician and geographer in the service of the kings of Spain Philip II and Philip III. Of Judeo-Converse origin, nothing is known about his early life and the studies he is said to have pursued in Lisbon and Rome, where he was sent by the Portuguese King Don Sebastián. In 1582 Philip II commissioned him to teach mathematics at the Academy of Mathematics that he intended to set up in Madrid together with Juan de Herrera. Five years later he appointed him royal engineer and in 1596, while teaching mathematics in Lisbon to pilots and navigators, his chief cosmographer. Among his collaborators at the Academy of Mathematics were Antonio Mancelli and Pedro Teixeira Albernaz, with whom he worked on various cartographic works. In 1610 he was commissioned by the Diputación del Reino de Aragón to draw up a map of the kingdom, on which he worked until April 1611, travelling around the region, a task that was then continued by the Jesuit Pablo de Rajas, in accordance with Labanna's instructions. It was the latter who completed the work in 1615 and published it in 1620. A year earlier he had been appointed chronicler of the kingdom of Portugal.
Hendrik Hondius II (Amsterdam, 1597- 1651) . Dutch cartographer, publisher and engraver. Member of a family of engravers and publishers. On the death of his father in 1612 he took over his workshop, together with his mother and his brother Jodocus II. In 1621 he opened his own firm in his native city and in 1628 he entered into partnership with the cartographer Jan Janssonius. Among his works is the edition of Gerardus Mercator's world map of 1569. He produced engravings inspired by works by Bruegel, particularly portraits and landscapes. Among them is Finis coronat opus ("the end crowns the work"), a copper engraving of 1626 in the vanitas genre.