Johannes de Laet (or Latin Latius ), born in 1581 with Antwerp and died in December 15th 1649 with Leyde, is a geographer Dutch.

Wire of a commercial rich person, it devotes his life to the Théologie and the geography, and becomes famous for its descriptions of country like the France (1629), the Spain (1629), the Belgium (1630), the Turkey (1630) and the Portugal (1642).

He was opposed to Hugo de Groot (or Grotius) (1583-1645) about the origin of the Amerindian S.

He worked on behalf of the Dutch Compagnie of the Western Indies, and it is him which recommended Georg Markgraf for the forwarding of discovered coasts of the Brésil in 1638. After the death of this last in 1648, it recovers the notes of Markgraf devoted to the Oiseau X, succeeds in deciphering the code which it used, and publishes them in the fifth volume of Historia naturalis Brasiliae , accompanied by 55 figures.

After the characteristic died of Johannes de Laet, Willem Piso rewrites all the part devoted to the Natural history and makes disappear the name from Georg Markgraf of the later editions.