Nicolaus van Aelst explained

Nicolaus van Aelst (c. 1526 – 19 July 1613)^[1] was a Flemish engraver and perhaps painter, and a resident of Rome.

Life

Van Aelst was born in Brussels. At an early age he established himself at Rome, where from 1550 to 1612 he carried out a considerable commerce in prints.

The names of the painter, and the engraver of the plates, executed for his collection, were frequently omitted, and his own inserted, with the word formis, to denote that he was the publisher. Many of the plates had previously been issued by other publishers. He printed several plates that had previously been owned by Antonio Salamanca, which Van Aelst may have acquired from Salamanca's heir, Francesco Salamanca.^[1] There is, however, evidence that he produced some work as an engraver himself, as on several plates the word fecit, or sculpsit, is added to his name. Carl Heinrich von Heineken mentions a set of twelve plates of birds engraved by him.^[2]

He died in Rome on 19 July 1613^[1]

Further reading

• Lorizzo. Loredana. Nicolas van Aelst's Will and a List of his Plates. Print Quarterly. March 2014. XXXI. 1. 3–20.

External links

• Map of the Holy Land and Jerusalem by Aelst, ca. 1590 Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, the National Library of Israel

Notes and References

1. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, Copyright in the Renaissance: prints and the privilegio in sixteenth-century Venice and Rome, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2004,, p. 272
2. Bryan 1886–1889 1886–1889