The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, created by Ortelius, was the first world atlas ever published. At the time, Mercator was the most renowned geographer of his day, primarily due to the publication of his world map in 1569 which was revolutionary in its nature as a map to enable navigation of the world’s oceans. Chief among these relationships was his friendship with Gerardus Mercator. As part of these travels, he formed strong contacts with other European cartographers who influenced his career path away from engraving and towards scientific cartography. Ortelius travelled extensively within Europe, with recorded visits to the Seventeen Provinces (now the Netherlands, Belgium, Northern France and Luxembourg), France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and the UK. Abraham Ortelius, 1579, Wikimedia Commons It is fitting that his interests covered not only the revolutions in the scientific geography of which he was a primary innovator but also historical geography: his early works include detailed maps of ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. Interestingly, Ortelius may also be the first person in history to have formally presented the basic theory of continental drift in his discussion of the ‘matching’ coastlines of Africa, Europe, and South America. Over his lifetime he worked as an engraver, geographer, cartographer and book trader but he is most well known as the creator of the first world atlas – the first edition of which was published in 1570. Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)įrom Antwerp, Brussels, Ortelius was part of the world-renowned Dutch-Flemish school of cartographers. These were the first attempts at mapping the known world in its entirety which demonstrate a balance between striving for accurate cartography and presenting the wondrous elements of the distant world. Along the bottom of the map there is an apt quote by Cicero which says in translation, 'Who can consider human affairs to be great, when he comprehends the eternity and vastness of the entire world?.In St John’s College Library’s Special Collections there are four copies of Ortelius’s world atlases. At the time the map was published the Americas were seen to counterbalance Europe and Africa, thus the southern hemisphere must have a land mass to counterbalance all of Asia.Ī frigate plies the Pacific at full sail, and a number of fanciful sea monster/creatures frolic in various parts of the high seas. Much of the southern hemisphere is filled by an enormous continent called Terra Australis, which, according to Aristotle’s theory of balance, had long been speculated on as filling a space to keep the globe in balance. For example, Troy of Iliad fame is depicted in ‘Natolia’ in almost its precise geographic position, while China’s Great Wall is absent. Many famous places are noted and many are omitted. While the Caspian Sea (Mar de Bachu) is incorrectly oriented, both it and the Black Sea are depicted. Most of Europe, Africa and Asia are depicted in almost modern form, with countless place names which have not changed over the centuries. The Andes chain of mountains is fairly accurately depicted, running almost the entire length of the continent. Due in part to the inclusion of the Amazon and De Plata river systems, along with a number of names such as Lima, Cusco and Caracas, South America is fairly familiar despite its bulging west coast. Southwestern and Central America are dotted with settlements and place names familiar today, such as Los Angelos and even the Galapagos Islands, which are shown very close to their actual geographic location. The geography of the Pacific Northwest is primarily based on reports of various mythical kingdoms and even reference to places named by Marco Polo, a clear indication of the confusion amongst cartographers of the time regarding the precise geographical relationship between Asia and North America. Many place names north of Mexico correspond to indigenous Indian place names as they had been noted by De Soto and Coronado. Nova Francia is also named even though Champlain had not yet been born at the time the map was first published, and there is no trace of the Great Lakes. The Mississippi River does not appear on the map, while at the same time, the northeast reveals the discoveries made by Verrazzano and Cartier, with the St. Although the continent had been explored to some extent by the Spanish in the early decades of the 16th century, much of what they discovered and charted is not depicted by Ortelius. Much of the geography of North America is speculative. It is centered on the Atlantic Ocean and covers the entire world from the North to the South Pole. This is a fine print reproduction of a most important map of the world that appeared in the 1570 first edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius.
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