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This decorative late map presents three regional maps of southern France, showcasing the regions of Gallia Narbonensis (Languedoc and Provence), the Duchy of Savoy, and the County of Venaissin.
The upper-left map, labeled "Gallia Narbonensis", represents the coastline of southern France along the Mediterranean Sea (Mare Gallicum), covering parts of Languedoc and Provence. Major cities such as Narbonne, Montpellier, and Marseille are identified, along with significant rivers and ports. A decorative sailing ship in the Mediterranean emphasizes the maritime trade and naval importance of the region. The area depicted corresponds to Roman Gallia Narbonensis, a province of the Roman Empire, which later became a vital trade and cultural center in medieval France.
The lower-left map illustrates the Duchy of Savoy ("Sabaudiae Ducatus"), a politically significant region bordering France, Switzerland, and Italy. The map highlights mountainous terrain, including the Alps, and key towns such as Chambéry, Annecy, and Montmélian. The duchy played a crucial role in European diplomacy, trade, and military conflicts throughout the early modern period, as it controlled key Alpine passes and trade routes connecting France and Italy. The decorative cartouche at the bottom reinforces the importance of this territory.
The right-side map, labeled "Venaissini Comitatus Nova Descriptio", provides a detailed depiction of the County of Venaissin, a historical Papal territory in southern France. This region was controlled by the Papal States from 1274 until the French Revolution and was centered around the city of Avignon, known for the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) when the popes resided there. The map prominently features rivers, fortifications, and road networks, emphasizing the region's administrative and strategic significance.
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).
![[Perpignan]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/75063.jpg)
