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, wrinkles 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-Converso origin, it is not known everything related to his early life and his studies, it is said, in Lisbon and Rome, where he was sent by the Portuguese king Don Sebastian. Philip II commissioned him in 1582 to teach mathematics at the Academy of Mathematics that he intended to organize 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 major 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, touring the region, a work that was then continued by the Jesuit Pablo de Rajas, in accordance with Labanna's instructions. It was this one who concluded the work in 1615, being published 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 hometown 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 made engravings inspired by works by Bruegel, especially portraits and landscapes. Among them is Finis coronat opus ("the end crowns the work"), a copper engraving of 1626 of the vanitas genre.