Ortelius (1527–1598)

Abraham Ortel (although always referred to using the Latin form, Ortelius) was born in Antwerp. He was a prominent citizen of that great trading city, and he conducted his scholarly and publishing activities from there until his death. He was one of many scholars involved in drawing and publishing maps in what was then the Spanish Netherlands (he became cosmographer to King Philip II of Spain), but his distinctive contribution [Page 2105][Page 2106]was that he was the first to produce an atlas of the world, titled Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, in 1570 (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 World map from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum

Source: Library of Congress.

While there had been many collections of maps made before Ortelius, they were either updates of Ptolemy or random collections of maps copied from diverse sources and simply bound together. Ortelius's innovation lay in his overall plan for what he did: He wanted a uniform set of maps to cover the whole world as then (i.e., in his own time) known to Europeans. This set of maps would be compiled from all the available sources and not simply copied from whatever map was available for a particular region. This interest in having a set of maps based on the best available sources was openly indicated in the atlas in that his sources for each map are stated; and this collection of information brought Ortelius into communication with most of the geographers of his time. He also consciously set about distinguishing his contemporary maps from those that he drew to show classical civilization or the biblical lands. In making this distinction, he was the first to create a historical atlas; and eventually, he removed these historical maps into a separate atlas, the Parergon, in 1579, which was included in later editions of the Theatrum. In the Theatrum proper, Ortelius employed a thoroughly empirical approach to mapping; while in the Parergon, he adopted a different hermeneutical principle—“geography is the eye of history”—and his aim was to produce maps that would bring clarity to the study of the past and its classic, often indeed sacred, texts.

He was in close touch with another famous atlas maker of the period, Gerardus Mercator, and may have inspired aspects of the latter's work. The Theatrum, published originally in Latin, appeared in Dutch, German, French, Italian, English, and Spanish editions (several in the case of each of these languages) until 1624. It remained as an influence in the work of subsequent generations such as Hondius, Janssonius, and Blaeu; many of the conventions he established in the Theatrum remain in atlases to this day.