Johannes de Ram

(1648 - 1693)

Identified as an engraver after his marriage to Maria van Zutphen in 1682, de Ram acquired the globe-producing factory of Johannes van Ceulen (1635-89) (NB NOT van Keulen!). In turn, van Ceulen had acquired, under license, the Blaeu family globes, gores, and copperplates for them. When he died in 1689 much of the debt remained unpaid, and the Blaeu’s sued for the balance to be paid out of proceeds of de Ram’s sales. De Ram died in 1693, and his widow married Jacob de la Feuille (1668 – 1719), who made use of the Blaeu stock and de Ram’s other cartographic plates, often removing de Ram’s name from the imprint and adding his own.

De Ram did publish enough maps for his own very rare atlas, 1685-88. A title-page and a double-hemisphere world map were engraved by Jacob Harrewyn especially for it. However his maps generally appear in composite atlases of the period.