Mapmaking is a cultural expression evidenced in different forms in any human community over time and space: From fourth century BC (400 BC) China to nineteenth century Europe, maps have been a medium that materialized or translated man's relationship to the world around it; as Harley puts it “There are few aspects of human action and thought that have not been mapped at one time or another” (Harley, 1991).
He had two sons, Johannes and Cornelis Blaeu, who continued their father's mapmaking and publishing business after his death in 1638.