WORLD MAP PREPARED BY ORTELIUS FULL
WORLD MAP PREPARED BY ORTELIUS SERIES

The importance of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum for geographical knowledge in the last quarter of the sixteenth century is difficult to overemphasize. The Parergon can be called a truly original work of Ortelius, who drew the maps based on his research. Later editions included Additamenta (additions), resulting in Ortelius' historical atlas, the Parergon, mostly bound together with the atlas. This first edition contained seventy maps on fifty-three sheets. It was one of the most expensive books ever published. He completed the atlas in 1569, and in May of 1570, the Theatrum was available for sale.

WORLD MAP PREPARED BY ORTELIUS FULL

In 1568 the production of individual maps for his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was already in full swing. In 1565 he published a map of Egypt and a map of the Holy Land, a large map of Asia followed. The inspiration for this map may well have been Gastaldi's large world map. In 1564 he published his first map, a large and ambitious world wall map.

In addition, he travelled a lot and visited Italy and France, made contacts everywhere with scholars and editors, and maintained extensive correspondence with them. Luke as an 'illuminator of maps.' Besides colouring maps, Ortelius was a dealer in antiques, coins, maps, and books, with the book and map trade gradually becoming his primary occupation.īusiness went well because his means permitted him to start an extensive collection of medals, coins, antiques, and a library of many volumes. He learned Latin and studied Greek and mathematics.Ībraham and his sisters Anne and Elizabeth took up map colouring. The maker of the 'first atlas', the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570), was born on 4 April 1527 into an old Antwerp family. The oval world map used previously has been updated in two major respects: South America now assumes the correct shape, and the Solomon Isles are marked for the first time. This map has four medallions in the corners with classical texts two from Cicero and two from Seneca. Late in life, he also aided Welser in his edition of the Peutinger Table (1598).Ortelius' third and last world map.

WORLD MAP PREPARED BY ORTELIUS SERIES

In 1584 he issued his Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, a Parergon (a series of maps illustrating ancient history, sacred and secular). In 1578 he laid the basis of a critical treatment of ancient geography with his Synonymia geographica (issued by the Plantin press at Antwerp and republished as Thesaurus geographicus in 1596). In 1575 he was appointed geographer to the king of Spain, Philip II, on the recommendation of Arias Montanus, who vouched for his orthodoxy (his family, as early as 1535, had fallen under suspicion of Protestantism).

In 1573, Ortelius published seventeen supplementary maps under the title of Additamentum Theatri Orbis Terrarum. Most of the maps in Ortelius' Theatrum were drawn from the works of a number of other mapmakers from around the world a list of 87 authors is given by Ortelius himself Later editions would also be issued in Spanish and English by Ortelius’ successors, Vrients and Plantin, the former adding a number of maps to the atlas, the final edition of which was issued in 1612. By the time of his death in 1598, a total of 25 editions were published including editions in Latin, Italian, German, French, and Dutch. On May 20, 1570, Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum first appeared in an edition of 70 maps. Ortelius also published a map of Egypt in 1565, a plan of Brittenburg Castle on the coast of the Netherlands, and a map of Asia, prior to 1570. The only extant copy of this great map is in the library of the University of Basel. In 1564 he completed his “ mappemonde', an eight-sheet map of the world. From that point forward, he devoted himself to the compilation of his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), which would become the first modern atlas. In 1560, while traveling with Gerard Mercator to Trier, Lorraine, and Poitiers, he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator’s influence, towards a career as a scientific geographer. His early career was as a business man, and most of his journeys before 1560, were for commercial purposes. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp guild of St Luke as afsetter van Karten. Ortelius started his career as a map colorist. African Islands, including Madagascar (68)Ībraham Ortelius is perhaps the best known and most frequently collected of all sixteenth-century mapmakers.

World map prepared by ortelius