Isaac Commelin was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 historian.

Life

He wrote Lives of the Stadtholders William I

William the Silent

William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...

 and Maurice

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange,...

and Beginning and Ending of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

, as well as other basic works in the fields of geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, cosmography

Cosmography

Cosmography is the science that maps the general features of the universe, describing both heaven and Earth...

 and astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, discovery and travel. He was the father of Jan Commelin

Jan Commelin

Jan Commelin , also known as Jan Commelijn or Johannes Commelinus, was the son of Isaac Commelin a historian; his brother Casparus was a bookseller and newspaper publisher. Jan a botanist became a professor of botany when many plants were imported from the Cape and Ceylon and a new system had to be...

 and the grandfather of Caspar Commelin.
He served as Regent of the Huiszitten House in Amsterdam, together with Ferdinand Bol

Ferdinand Bol

Ferdinand Bol was a Dutch artist, etcher, and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, and single figures in exotic finery.The street Ferdinand Bolstraat in Amsterdam was...

, where their portraits were painted in a regentenstuk in 1675 by Pieter van Anraedt

Pieter van Anraedt

Pieter van Anraedt was a Dutch Golden Age painter of history scenes. He was an artist of great merit, nonwithstanding which very few of the circumstances of his life are known.-Biography:...

. Anraedt painted his portrait again separately in 1675, and this second portrait looks very similar to an earlier regentenstuk painted by Bol himself in 1657 of the Huiszitten House regents (Commelin has whiskers in both paintings).

Works

• Hollandsch Placcaatboek. Amsterdam, 1644
• Begin ende voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche Geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie : Vervatende de voornaemste reysen, by de inwoonderen der selver provincien derwaerts gedaen..., Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius, 1646
• Wilhelm En Maurits van Nassau, Princen van Orangien, Haer Leven en Bedrijf, Of 't Begin en Voortgang der Nederlandsche Oorlogen : Vervatende een Vaerachtigh Verhael Aller Belegheringen ende Victorien, Daer de Ho. Mog. Heeren Staten der Vereenighde Nederlanden, onder hun wijse Regeeringe te Water en te Lande, door Godes zegen mede verrijckt zijn ; Met verscheyde Koopere Figueren verciert ; En door een Lief-hebber der Historien uyt verscheyde Schriften te samen ghestelt, Amsterdam, 1651
• Beschriyvinge van Amsterdam, haar eerste oorspronk uyt den huyze der Heeren van Aemstel en Aemstellant; met en verhaal van haar leven en dappere krijgsdaden. Uyt verscheyde oude en nieuwe Hollandtsche kronijcken, beschrijvingen, brieven, willekeuren, etc. by een vergadert, Amsterdam, M. Wz. Doornick, 1665