This map was made by Francois De Belleforest and it is based upon the cartography of Gastaldi and Gerard Mercator’s highly important 1569 wall map. First issued in 1570 and expanded over the next forty two years to this final Vrients edition of Ortelius’ masterwork, the Theatrum revolutionized the presentation of maps to an increasingly educated classes of Renaissance Europe and became the standard from which most cartographic works of the period were copied.Įach of the five maps offered here were the standards for their time, drawn from the most important wall maps produced by Mercator, Ortelius and other leading European mapmakers and represented the completion of the shift of importance from the Italian mapmakers of the mid-16th Century (the so-called Lafreri School of mapmakers), to the Low Countries, marking the beginning of the Golden Age of Dutch Cartography. Ortelius’ Theatrum was perhaps the single most influential set of maps published in the 16th Century. Over thirty editions of this Epitome were published in different languages.Ortelius: his World – Continents maps A Unique set from the same French atlas 1598Įarly matching set of maps of the World and Continents, from Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern World Atlas, 1598. In 1577, engraver Philip Galle and poet-translator Pieter Heyns published the first pocket-sized edition of the Theatrum, the Epitome. The number of map sheets grew from 53 in 1570 to 167 in 1612 in the last edition. Editions were published in Dutch, German, French, Spanish, English, and Italian. Some 24 editions appeared during Ortelius's lifetime and another ten after his death in 1598. Nothing was like it until Mercator's atlas appeared twenty-five years later. 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. 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. These new maps had latitude and longitude markings. Michel Coignet provided the text, and Ambrosius and Ferdinand Arsenius cut a new series of copperplates. In 1601 Johannes Keerbergen produced a competitive version of the successful miniature Ortelius atlas.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |