Petrus Plancius

Petrus Plancius (1552 to 1622), born Pieter Platevoet in Dranouter in West Flanders, was a Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer and clergyman. He studied theology in Germany and England, Latinized his name as scholars of the time did, and at 24 became a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. He fled from Brussels to Amsterdam in 1585 to escape persecution by the Inquisition after the city fell to Spain. In Amsterdam he turned to navigation and cartography, and with access to nautical charts recently brought from Portugal he was soon recognised as an expert on safe sea routes to India and the spice islands, which helped lay the ground for the Dutch East Indies and the Dutch East India Company of 1602. He saw strong potential in the little mapped Arctic Sea and believed in a Northeast Passage until Willem Barentsz third voyage failed in 1597.