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A Magnificent Example of the First Standardized Atlas
With Maps in Rich, Original Color
Atlas.
ORTELIUS, A. [Antwerp, 1592]
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. [colophon:] . . . Antuerpiae, In Officina Plantiniana, Auctoris are & cura. M.D.XCII.
Folio
Sumptuously gold-tooled, modern red morocco binding. 134 maps with fine, original color. Occasional light toning or staining, few minor mends, still overall excellent.
“If every home now owns an atlas of some sort, it is due ultimately to the conviction and example of Ortelius.” – PMM 91.
“The publication of this atlas marked an epoch in the history of cartography. It was the first uniformly sized, systematic collection of maps of the countries of the world based only on contemporary knowledge since the days of Ptolemy, and in that sense may be called the first modern atlas.” – R.V. Tooley, ap. Streeter #65 Copies of the atlas were very likely owned by explorers such as Drake and Frobisher. The reason they would have is that no other contemporary atlas depicts the geographical discoveries of the 16th century—from the Americas to China and Japan—so faithfully.
This example of the atlas is distinguished by vibrant, highly pleasing period coloring throughout and by the strong, heavy paper on which the maps were printed. When the Theatrum was published, it was the most expensive book ever printed (van den Broecke, p. 17), and copies with color were significantly more expensive still. Records from July 1570 note that a bound and colored copy cost 16 guilders, more than double the price of a plain, unbound copy. By the 1580s, the atlas had been enlarged to 112 maps, and the cost of copies had increased correspondingly, with colored copies in gold-tooled bindings costing between 25 and 30 guilders.
“This is an edition of the Theatrum with all the additional material belonging to it. After this edition, only Additamentum V would further enlarge the Theatrum.” (Koeman) (The Additamenta, of which there were five in all, were groups of new maps that were added to the atlas at particular points in its publication history.) Between this edition and the first one of 1570, over 80 new maps had been added to its total. Moreover, the maps added to this edition include many of the most desirable and valuable of Ortelius’s entire output. They include the first separate maps of the Pacific Ocean, of China, and of the southeast United States. Other prized additions include the famous sea monsters map of Iceland and the masterfully engraved travels and life of Abraham map.
The atlas contains a separate section of 26 maps of the ancient world called the Pareregon; these maps were largely designed by Ortelius himself and appeared only in later editions of the atlas. Van der Krogt points out other notable aspects of this edition of the Theatrum. “This the first edition of the Theatrum with a clear division into three parts: (1) the atlas itself, (2) the Parergon, and (3) the Nomenclator. The Parergon had for the first time its own title page.”
Ortelius first became involved with cartographic publications in the 1560s as a map colorist for the publisher Plantin. In 1575, and despite some doubts regarding his orthodoxy, he was designated geographer to Philip II of Spain, which controlled the Low Countries at the time. He thus developed an extensive network of sources among explorers and cartographers of Spain’s empire, from whom he was able to procure an impressive number of previously unpublished maps—including what appear to have been confidential Spanish maps of the southeast United States, Mexico, and South America.
Each subsequent edition of the Theatrum was accordingly updated with important discoveries: in the edition of 1587, for example, revisions were made to the world map to reflect Le Maire’s voyage around Cape Horn and also to show the newly discovered Solomon Islands. When Philip assumed the throne of Portugal in 1580, Ortelius gained access to the secrets of Portuguese cartography, revealed in the maps of China and Japan (mentioned above) based on previously unpublished maps drawn by Portuguese Jesuits. The map of the Pacific Ocean, also mentioned earlier, delineates the West Coast of North America more accurately than any other printed map to date, and may have been based on an unrecorded Spanish voyage.
Printing in the Mind of Man, 91; Streeter I.65; Van der Krogt, III A, 31:041; Koeman Ort 27 B; van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas Maps, p. 17. |
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