Europae

Abraham Ortelius had been working in the book and map trade for decades when he conceived his radical new approach to showcasing cartography. His vision was to produce a carefully curated bound collection of maps, all of the same size and style, placed in a careful sequence to take the reader through a tour of the known world. Each of these maps would have short, descriptive printed summaries on their reverse. The first edition of this new book was issued in 1570 and changed the way the general public perceived maps. It contained 53 maps and Ortelius named it the “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”, translated as 'the Theatre of the World'.

The work was an immediate success; in the final count, there were no less than forty-six editions of the Theatrum from the first in 1570 to the last in 1612. In 1588, Ortelius added a sheet showing the titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders, inspired by his friend Gerhard Mercator who planned to produce his own book of maps with this design in 1595. This new edition immediately became known as an “Atlas”, thus crediting Ortelius with the creation of what has become the definition for a bound collection of maps.

Many of the major unique selling points of the Theatrum were its use of the most current geographical sources, their variety, and the continuous addition, revision, augmentation and editing of the work.

This map of Europe is slightly unusual. In his listing of sources, Ortelius cites a large variety of eminent figures for this map. Scandinavia is based on the wall map of Bishop Olaus Magnus issued in 1539. The mapping of the north Atlantic mainly Iceland, Greenland and the surrounding mythical islands such as “Brazil” are based on Mercator’s monumental 1569 map of the world, the first on Mercator’s Projection; the depiction of the British Isles is also based on Mercator’s map of 1564 while eastern Europe is based on the cartography of the English merchant adventurer Anthony Jenkinson. Southeast Europe is based on Giacomo Gastaldi’s map of Asia published in 1559. The unusual aspect comes in its lack of revisions or updates. Unlike many of the maps in the Theatrum, it showed very little change in the whole printing history of the atlas. There was a small correction of a spelling mistake on a Spanish place name, and the nomenclature of “Africae Pars” was changed from Roman to cursive script in 1584. In comparison to some of the extreme revisions of several other maps in the work, this was minor.

While it is not as decorative as some of the other maps in the atlas, it does feature a delicate cartouche on the upper left, showing the mythical Greek princess Europa being borne on the back of the God Zeus, in the shape of a bull. It also bears the distinction of showing the only figurative cartouche on Ortelius’s four maps of the continents.

All of Ortelius’s maps are important but this piece is the first atlas map of Europe and the most widely distributed cartographic depiction of the continent in the late 16th and early 17th century. Original hand colour. Latin text on verso (image available on request).