ORTELIUS, Abraham

(b. 1528 Antwerpen, d. 1598 Antwerpen)

Flemish cartographer and geographer, credited as the creator of the modern atlas. (Ortelius was the Latin version of his real Dutch name Ortel.) He was a member of the influential Ortelius family of Augsburg, he traveled extensively in Europe. He is specifically known to have traveled throughout the Seventeen Provinces; south and west Germany (e.g., 1560, 1575-1576); France (1559-1560); England and Ireland (1571), and Italy (1578, and perhaps twice or thrice between 1550 and 1558).

Beginning as a map-engraver, in 1547 he entered the Antwerp gild of St Luke as afsetter van Karten. His early career is that of a businessman, and most of his journeys before 1560 are for commercial purposes (such as his yearly visits to the Frankfurt fair). In 1560, however, when travelling with Gerardus Mercator to Trier, Lorraine and Poitiers, he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator’s influence, towards the career of a scientific geographer; in particular he now devoted himself, at his friend’s suggestion, to the compilation of that atlas or ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ (Theatre of the World) by which he became famous. This was probably the first collection of maps in book form twenty years before Mercator published his atlas. In 1570, when the first edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was published, the word atlas was not in use yet. The engraver was Frans Hogenberg.

The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was so successful that it had to be reprinted four times in its first year of publication. Altogether the atlas was published in 42 editions from 1570 to 1612 and in 7 languages - Latin, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, English and Italian. A tremendous success for a cartographer in the 16th century! Ortelius was also the first to note the reference sources for his maps by mentioning other cartographers.

Americae sive Novi Orbis, nova descriptio

This engraving, depicting a “new description of America or the New World”, is from Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum, published in Antwerp, 1586.

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Hispaniae veteris descriptio

This engraving, depicting an “old description of Hispania,” is from Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum, published in Antwerp, 1586.

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Image of the Pilgrimage of St Paul

This engraving was an illustration of Abraham Ortelius’ Theatre of the World, first published in Antwerp in 1570.

Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp was one of the foremost Renaissance cartographers. In the first half of the 16th century an unprecedented world exploration occurred. Lands long known and recently discovered alike were charted with growing precision. Ortelius’s Theatre of the World was prized for its accuracy.

Ortelius apologized that his map recounting St Paul’s travels was not as thorough as usual, since he limited its labels to towns and places mentioned in the new Testament. He portrayed the biblical, not the modern eastern Mediterranean. The viewer can examine the map, read the accompanying text and meditate upon Paul’s extraordinary life. Subsidiary depictions of his dramatic conversion near Damascus and his shipwreck at Malta allow the reader to form an image of Paul while retracting his route.

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