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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 / 1609
Size:
19 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100508
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1609
Size:
20 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100527
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1609
Size:
19 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100533
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1606
Size:
20 x 14.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
101659
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1585
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
93877
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1595 circa
Size:
4.5 x 3 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
68621
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1608
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
69023
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1608
Size:
22.5 x 17 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
75016
Place/Date:
/ 1601
Size:
4 x 3 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
76123
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1590 circa
Size:
4.5 x 3.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
82755
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1609
Size:
19.5 x 15.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100529
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1612 circa
Size:
12.5 x 9 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
81845
Place/Date:
Italy / 1598 circa
Size:
4 x 4.5 inches (Including text)
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
73790
Place/Date:
Breschia / 1598 circa
Size:
4.5 x 5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
82542
Place/Date:
Venice / 1667
Size:
4 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
85316

Archived

Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1608
Size:
20 x 14.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
3754
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1574
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
4102
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1575
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
4372
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1570 (1608)
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
4948
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1595
Size:
19 x 14.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5060
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5922s
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5923s
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5928
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
20 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5934
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5935
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1587
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
19187
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
20 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5936
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 14.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5937
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5940
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
20 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5949
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
18 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5951
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5959
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1575
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5960
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5971
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5972
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
5985
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
17.5 x 12.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5989
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5990
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
18.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5992
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
17 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5995
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5996
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
5997
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
19.5 x 14 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6015
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1592
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6016
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6020
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
18 x 13 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
6023
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1574
Size:
16 x 9.5 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
6030
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1584
Size:
8 x 4.5 inches (plus text)
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6033
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1592
Size:
19 x 14 inches
Condition:
Fine
Stock#:
6066
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1608
Size:
19.5 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6496
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1590
Size:
19.5 x 14.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6542
Place/Date:
Antwerp / 1579
Size:
19.5 x 13.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
6543