Gerard de Jode was a cartographer, engraver and publisher who lived and worked in Antwerp during the 16th century. He was born in Nijmegen and died in Antwerp. In 1547 he was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke, and began his work as a publisher/printseller. He often printed the works of other cartographers including Gastaldi's map of the world in 1555, Jacob van Deventer's

Jacob van Deventer (cartographer)

Jacob Roelofs van Deventer was a Dutch cartographer of the Renaissance. He is today best known for his work in systematically cartographing all Dutch towns and cities of his time.- Biography :...

 map of Brabant

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...

 in 1558, Ortelius' eight sheet map of the world in 1564, and maps by Bartholomeus Musinus, Fernando Alvares Seco.

His most outstanding work is a two volume atlas Speculum Orbis Terrarum published in 1578. It was aimed at competing with another atlas, Theatrum by Ortelius, published eight years earlier in 1570. The competing atlas had become so popular by the time he finally published his own atlas however, that his version never sold well, despite his outstanding reputation. Only about a dozen examples have survived.

Gerard de Jode made plans for another enlarged edition, which was uncompleted at his death in 1591. His son Cornelis de Jode

Cornelis de Jode

Cornelis de Jode was a cartographer, engraver and publisher from Antwerp. He was the son of Gerard de Jode, also a cartographer. Cornelis studied science at Academy of Douai...

 took over and published the Speculum Orbis Terrae

Speculum Orbis Terrae

Speculum Orbis Terrae , was an atlas published by Cornelis de Jode in Antwerp 1593. The atlas was largely a continuation of his father's unfinished works at his death in 1591. Contemporary scholars consider many of de Jode's maps to be superior both in detail and style to those of the competing...

 in 1593. This never sold well either. Scholars consider many of de Jode's maps to be superior to those of Ortelius, both in detail and style.

Speculum Orbis Terrarum was once the object of an attempted theft from the Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, and is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books...

, by rare map thief E. Forbes Smiley III. Smiley was caught and arrested after a library staff member found his X-Acto knife

X-acto

X-Acto is a brand name for a variety of cutting tools and office products owned by Elmer's Products, Inc. Cutting tools include hobby and utility knives, saws, carving tools and many small-scale precision knives used for crafts and other applications....

on the floor.