Atlas Ortelius
World Map in the Ortelius Atlas
This atlas by Ortelius is the first "modern" world atlas. Abraham Ortelius made his Theatrum orbis terrarum at the end of the sixteenth century in Antwerp. He had several existing maps redrawn in a standard format and published them as a book.
Browse the book online
Antwerp: the card city of the sixteenth century
In the sixteenth century, France, Spain, and England were the most powerful countries in Europe. Compared to them, Flanders and Holland were small. But the small Netherlands developed another strength: international trade and shipping, first within Europe, later worldwide.
The Dutch Revolt against Spain provided an additional incentive for long-distance sea voyages. Traditionally, the Portuguese imported spices from the Indies, but that trade ground to a halt due to the war. A competitive struggle for the monopoly on the spice trade arose, in which the Low Countries also participated fully.
A great need arose for good (nautical) maps. Antwerp was the center of international trade, and it was there that the art of mapmaking (cartography) flourished.
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The Netherlands in the Atlas Ortelius
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Europe in the Atlas Ortelius
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England in the Atlas Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) was one of the many mapmakers in Antwerp. Like most of his colleagues, he started out as a "karten afsetter," a map colorist. This was a separate profession in an era when printing was limited to a single color, usually black. Anyone who wanted color illustrations had to have each map colored by hand.
Ortelius taught himself Greek, Latin, and mathematics. Later, he started a small business selling books and art objects. He traveled throughout Europe for this purpose. In 1560, he traveled with Gerardus Mercator, the greatest cartographer of the time. Mercator inspired him to start making maps himself.
In Ortelius's time, atlases as we know them today didn't exist, only individual maps for sailors and composite atlases made to order. These usually consisted of maps of varying sizes that lacked a uniform appearance.
Ortelius likely received Mercator's suggestion to collect geographical knowledge and maps of the entire world from various sources and disseminate them to a wide audience. This led to the idea of a "modern" atlas: a collection of maps bundled in a book, all the same size and with the same look and feel, which were (re)engraved in copper especially for the publication. The publisher released multiple copies of the book, which was also a novelty.
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Detail from the Atlas Ortelius
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Detail from the Atlas Ortelius
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Detail from the Atlas Ortelius
Production
Producing the atlas was a major undertaking. For the first edition, Ortelius gathered the best material he knew. He recreated all 53 maps himself in a standard format and added descriptions of countries and places. Finally, he included a source reference to the original map, which was quite unusual in the sixteenth century. Every mapmaker used copperplates from predecessors and rarely included the source.
Once the maps were drawn, Ortelius had them engraved on a copper plate by Frans Hogenberg and his assistants Ambrosius and Ferdinand Aertsen. Gillis Coppens van Diets did the printing. The atlas was named Theatrum orbis terrarum, or "Theatre of the World."
The first edition appeared in 1570 in Latin.
Broad audience
The first Dutch edition appeared in 1571. It was striking that the texts were not translated directly from Latin, but were specifically written for a general, non-academic audience. For example, Ortelius wrote that The Hague was the best village in Europe, and that the inhabitants did not want (city) walls, because they preferred to live in the best village rather than in a city like so many others.
Bestseller
The Ortelius' Atlas was an immediate success. Although such an atlas was a significant investment for a buyer, especially with colored maps, there were plenty of wealthy citizens who wanted to expand their knowledge of the world. The first edition quickly sold out. Ortelius decided to produce new editions with more maps. Translations also appeared in German, French, Spanish, and later in English and Italian. These later editions were produced from 1579 onwards by the famous Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin.
North Holland in the Ortelius Atlas
The north
A striking feature of Ortelius's Atlas is that north is not always at the top of the page. In the sixteenth century, the placement of north was not yet standardized. The map was positioned as conveniently as possible on the plate. This led, for example, to an unexpected map of North Holland with the North Sea at the bottom (map 35, see image opposite).
The Atlas Ortelius in the KB
The digitized Atlas of Ortelius from the KB contains 53 maps with texts from the first Dutch edition of 1571, supplemented by later additions. The last map is from 1584. Therefore, the book must have been bound after that date. The descriptions of the countries are in Dutch, but the maps themselves have Latin names. Re-engraving all the maps just for the names would have been far too expensive.
This copy comes from the Hommes family, but has been passed down through the Van der Lynden banking family from Dordrecht. More traces of names can be found in the book. For example: "This book belongs to J.-L. Muyshondt, Med. Selzaete." He was a "medical officer" and died in Zelzate on May 22, 1850, at the age of 72. A second, presumably later name is only half legible: "Mathilde."
The KB acquired the atlas in 2013 with support from the Friends of the KB Association. The KB has four other editions of the Atlas Ortelius: two Latin editions (Antwerp, 1592, 134 maps; colored; Antwerp 1595, 147 maps; uncolored); one Dutch (Antwerp 1598; 91 maps; incomplete; uncolored) and one Italian (Antwerp 1608; partly incomplete; 166 maps; uncolored). In all these atlases, the names on the maps are in Latin, but the descriptions of countries are in the language mentioned.
For a long time, the first Dutch edition digitized here was missing from the KB collection. And this particular copy is of great importance: this copy in particular because it contains only Dutch text. Maps known only with Latin text have blank backs.
In 1994, the KB acquired an important collection of 163 letters by Abraham Ortelius (application number 79 C 4). In these letters, Ortelius exchanged various ideas with important scholars of his time.
References
- M. van den Broecke, Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570-1641). Characteristics and development of a sample of on verso map texts. Utrecht 2009.
- M. van den Broecke, Ortelius atlas maps. An illustrated guide. 2e herziene druk. ’t Goy-Houten 2011.
- C. Koeman (comp., ed.), Atlantes neerlandici. Bibliography of terrestrial, maritime and celestial atlases and pilot books, published in the Netherlands up to 1880. Amsterdam, 1967-1985; dl. III, nr. Ort 31
- P. van der Krogt, Koeman's Atlantes neerlandici; III: Ortelius's Theatrum orbis terrarum, De Jode's Speculum orbis terrarum, The Epitome, Caert-thresoor and Atlas minor, The atlases of the XVII provinces, and other atlases published in the Low Countries
