Although Lafreri and others in Italy had published collections of ‘modern' maps in book form in earlier years, the Theatrum was the first uniformly sized, systematic collection of maps and hence can be called the first atlas, although that term itself was not used until twenty years later by Mercator. On one such visit to England, possibly seeking temporary refuge from religious persecution, he met William Camden whom he is said to have encouraged in the production of the Britannia.Ī turning point in his career was reached in 1564 with the publication of a World Map in eight sheets of which only one copy is known: other individual maps followed and then – at the suggestion of a friend - he gathered together a collection of maps from contacts among European cartographers and had them engraved in uniform size and issued in 1570 as the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of the Whole World). Traveling widely, especially to the great book fairs, his business prospered and he established contacts with the literati in many lands. "Abraham Ortel, better known as Ortelius, was born in Antwerp and after studying Greek, Latin and mathematics set up business there with his sister, as a book dealer and ‘painter of maps'. In 1570 he published the first comprehensive collection of maps of all parts of the world, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum ("Theatre of the World"), the first modern atlas as we know it. Ortelius died in 1598, but demand for his work was such that, after acquiring the plates and the rights to use them, Jan Baptiste Vrients continued to produced the later editions until 1612.Abraham Ortelius is the most famous and most collected of all early cartographers. Established English mapmaker John Norden was given the task of issuing the English text version in 1606. These included text in: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Over the next 42 years, no less than 42 editions of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum were published. But the word 'atlas' to describe a compendium of maps was not universally accepted until it was also used by Gerard Mercator in around 1595, when he completed and published his 3 volume reworking of Ptolemy's Geographia. This is often considered now as the first atlas, although there were earlier works that could, if pressed, also take that name. It did give him the confidence to continue learning his trade and honing the required artistic and practical skills.Īgain, after advice from his quality European contacts, Ortelius collected, collated, re-sized and finished a stunning collection of country maps of the known world, which he published in 1570 as, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (loosely translated as, 'Atlas of the whole world'). Though remarkable in itself, this map was not commercially viable and hence very few copies were made. Using his mapmaker contacts, Ortelius, as he is now more often known, created perhaps his most stunning work: an eight sheet map of the world, published in 1564, only one copy of which is said to still exist. The business took him to book fairs all over Europe, and for the time, he was soon incredibly well-travelled for one his age.ĭuring these travels he began to make a list of invaluable contacts in the printing, publishing and cartography set.
He also promoted himself as a 'painter of maps' and his interest in the field blossomed from there. Born in Antwerp in 1528, Abraham Ortel went on to study the Classics: Latin and Greek and then mathematics before setting up a book dealing business with his sister.
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