![]() ![]() Between 16 it was published by Johann Baptist Vrients, who added a variety of fine maps including the very decorative large plates of England and Wales, and of Ireland. Amongst this latter category, the maps added in the 1580's and 90's of the world, the Americas, China, the Pacific, Japan, Peru and Florida, and Iceland are important historically and justly famous.The maps themselves are finely engraved, often very decorative and generally found with text on the reverse.Īfter Ortelius' death in 1598 the atlas continued to be printed and published by the Plantin Press. Marcel Van Den Broecke, whose fascinating work on Ortelius and his maps is often quoted, estimates that around 7300 complete atlases were published using a total of 234 copperplates, either replacements or reworkings as plates became out-dated, worn, or as new information became available. Over 30 different editions, with text in Latin, French, Dutch, German, Italian, English or Spanish, testify to the popularity and esteem attributed to the work. It was also an immediate commercial success, being reprinted four times in 1570. The atlas achieved instant fame as "the world's first regularly produced atlas" (Skelton), being the first atlas with maps prepared to a uniform format. Having already become probably the greatest cartographic bibliographer of the period, Ortelius was able to prepare 53 map sheets based on the most up-to-date information, which were engraved by Frans Hogenberg, and first published in 1570. At this time, Ortelius also began preparing his greatest project, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. It also contained the first accurate European map of Japan.From about 1560, possibly as a result of his friendship with Mercator, Ortelius began to produce maps - an eight sheet world map being the earliest. It was also the first to make the maps uniform in style and scale and, unusually, the individual maps were not issued for sale beforehand, as Ortelius thought of them as a coherent whole. Although collections of maps had been bound together in the past, this was made according to principles laid down by its editor rather than a customer. ![]() He then began his magnum opus, Theatrum orbis terrarum, the first atlas in the modern sense of the world. He moved into the publishing side of the business in 1561, after he assembled a collection of maps of Europe for his patron Gillis Hooftman, and three years later he produced his own eight sheet world map, Typus orbis terrarum. He dealt in maps and books to supplement his income, and met Gerard Mercator at the Frankfurt book fair in 1554. He lived with his sister Anna, who was also a map colourist one of his clients specifically requested an atlas coloured by her. He began his career as a map colourist, enrolling in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1547, and appearing in the books of the Plantin publishing house in 1558 as a “peintre des cartes”. Show moreĪbraham Ortelius was a cartographer and publisher, and the first person to publish an atlas as we now know it. The present example is the first state of the map, appearing in the 1595 Latin edition. Between 15, it was issued in 31 editions and seven languages. At the time of its publication, it was the most expensive book ever produced. Ortelius’ ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ is widely regarded as the first modern atlas. This map and the Hondius and Le Clerc rare map of 1589 (known only in the 1602 edition) have a curious and not fully understood relationship as to which is truly the first map of the Pacific, although because no example of the 1589 Hondius-Le Clerc has been discovered, this map retains primacy. The treatment of America and most notably the Northwest Coast is reminiscent of Hondius’ America. The map reflects a much smaller body of water than the true size of the Pacific. This was the first map to focus on the Pacific Ocean. The Solomons, or Melanesia, are located, as are some of the islands of Micronesia. Among other notable features, it is detached from Terra Australis. New Guinea appears very different to Ortelius’ world map of 1588, suggesting he may have drawn additional information from an unrecorded voyage. An odd ‘Isla de Plata’ appears above Japan. Ortelius shows the Moluccas and the Philippines, already the site of considerable Dutch activity and a misshapen Japan. It is based upon Gerard Mercator’s world map of 1569, with details from 25 Portuguese manuscript maps of Bartolomeo de Lasso which Plancius obtained and later used for his own world map. The Maris Pacifici map was first issued in 1590. ![]()
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