Around 1566, Jacobus van Deventer was charged by the King of Spain and ruler of the Habsburg empire that included the Netherlands to create maps of all the major cities in the country. This was shortly before the outbreak of the Eighty Years War, which started when several noblemen abjured the King as their overlord to form the independent Republic of the United Netherlands.  Maps of Jacobus van Deventer can be found in collections of different archives in the Netherlands and Spain. Among the … [Read more...]