Michael van Langren, a medieval map maker, belonged to the family of Dutch cartographers. He was the youngest member of the family, which has the reputation of producing many renowned mathematicians, cartographers, globe makers and astronomers. Every member of Van Langren family retained the middle name Florentius. He was a Catholic by religion.
His Achievements
Michael Florentius van Langren was an engineer and cartographer. It is noteworthy that he did not receive any university education. He worked as the Mathematician and Royal Cosmographer to the King of Spain. He determined the longitude by studying the position of the moon. He was accredited to devise the map of the Moon. Michal van Langren is said to have produced a map on the full moon which also depicted thirty different phases of the Moon. Most of the names assigned by him were accepted, as they were related to the Spanish royal court. He is also said to have observed the comet of 1652 and publish his deductions based on his observations.
Michael is known to have prepared the plans for the port situated near Dunkirk and for the