Philipp Clüver

Philipp Clüver (also Klüwer, Cluwer, or Cluvier, Latinized as Philippus Cluverius and Philippi Cluverii) (1580 – 31 December 1622) was an Early Modern German geographer and historian.

After spending some time at the Polish court of Sigismund III Vasa, he began the study of law at the University of Leiden (Dutch Republic), but soon he turned his attention to history and geography, which were then taught there by Joseph Scaliger.

[1] Clüver was an antiquary, who was given a special appointment at Leiden as geographer and put in charge of the university's library, but his life's project, it developed, was a general study of the geography of Antiquity, based not only on classical literary sources, but – and this was his contribution – supplemented by wide travels and local inspections.

Clüver's first work, in 1611, concerning the lower reaches of the Rhine and its tribal inhabitants in Roman times (Commentarius de tribus Rheni alveis, et ostiis; item.

His Introductio in universam geographiam, totally 6 parts, (published posthumously from 1624) was the first comprehensive modern geography,[2] and became a standard geographical textbook.