Tirion, Isaak

tirion

Isaak Tirion was a Dutch publisher in Amsterdam. Born in Utrecht, Tirion quickly published pamphlets, historical works, and most importantly, maps and atlases. 

Isaac Tirion came to Amsterdam ca. 1725, where we find his name for the first time in the records of the booksellers guild, May 1727. The act of his betrothal is dated 22 June 1730. He married Johanna Fries of Haarlem.  After his wife's death, he remarried on 12 July 1737 Johanna Koster of Alkmaar. In 1742, he bought the house on the Kalverstraat where Hendrik Wetstein, the well-known bookseller, had lived earlier. (This house belonged to Clement de Jonghe, the famous art seller, during 1680-1692.) 

On the Kalverstraat, Isaac Tirion published several important books, many of which are still in demand for their interesting contents and excellent illustrations. 


De Tegenwoordige staat der Vereenigde Nederlanden, produced between 1739-1772;  is a series that contains a significant number of maps and town plans. In 1760, he published Wagenaar's famous history of Amsterdam. Isaac Tirion then belonged to the board of the booksellers guild. 

A medal was struck with his effigy while he was in that capacity. (State medal room. See K. & S., p. 1531). 

After a successful life, he died in 1765 and was buried in the Wester Church on 12 October. His wife continued the shop for ca. ten years. The house was sold to the bookseller Pieter de Hengst in 1793. 

Most of the maps are based on De l'Isle, as some of them state. The Nieuwe en Beknopte Handatlas. Tirion must have published the first edition with 34 maps before 1740. He produced eight atlases in multiple editions in his long career, some of which were published posthumously until about 1784.

More reading : P. van der Brick & J.Werner (eds), 'Gesneden en gedruckt in de Kalverstraat', Utrecht 1989, p.43