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Abraham Ortelius is perhaps the best known and most frequently collected of all sixteenth-century mapmakers. Ortelius started his career as a map colorist. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp guild of St Luke as afsetter van Karten. His early career was as a business man, and most of his journeys before 1560, were for commercial purposes. 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. 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 1564 he completed his “mappemonde", an eight-sheet map of the world. The only extant copy of this great map is in the library of the University of Basel. 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.

On May 20, 1570, Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum first appeared in an edition of 70 maps. By the time of his death in 1598, a total of 25 editions were published including editions in Latin, Italian, German, French, and Dutch. 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. 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

In 1573, Ortelius published seventeen supplementary maps under the title of Additamentum Theatri Orbis Terrarum. 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 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 1584 he issued his Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, a Parergon (a series of maps illustrating ancient history, sacred and secular). Late in life, he also aided Welser in his edition of the Peutinger Table (1598).

Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1608 circa
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
82512
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 31.25 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
99252
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1609
Size:
19 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100533
Place/Date:
Venice / 1667
Size:
4 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
85316
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1595
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
90189
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1608
Size:
22.5 x 17 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
75016
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1585
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
93877
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1606
Size:
20 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
71000
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1609
Size:
19 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100508
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1618 - 1630 circa
Size:
19 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
80521
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1617 - 1641 circa
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
81996
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1570
Size:
16.25 x 11.25 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
94771

Archived

Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
21979
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1602 circa
Size:
5.5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
36597gm
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
18.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
41339
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
50068
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1590 circa
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
50148
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6020
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
18 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
1039
Place/Date:
Brescia / 1598
Size:
4 x 3 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
15378
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5935
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
20 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
6842
Place/Date:
Brescia / 1598
Size:
4 x 3 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
18574
Place/Date:
Brescia / 1598
Size:
4 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
18698
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
10.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
19177
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
19741
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
19742
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
20719
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
19 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
21943
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
22007
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1595 circa
Size:
4 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
26277
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601 circa
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
36666
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1581
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
46302
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1581
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
46236
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1580
Size:
20 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
61472
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1581
Size:
7.75 x 12 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
61479
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1581 circa
Size:
15 x 9 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
65679
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1598
Size:
18 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
22627
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1573
Size:
19 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
34430ac
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
1066
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
20 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5949
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
19 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG-
Stock#:
7847
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
18.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG-
Stock#:
7848
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1570
Size:
19.5 x 15 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
9914
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
4.5 x 3 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
18750
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
19082
Place/Date:
/ 1601
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
18803
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
9 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
20390
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1601
Size:
5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
20720
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
22141
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
17.5 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
22958
Place/Date:
Venice / 1655 circa
Size:
5.5 x 4 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
25377
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1592
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
32487