Name: ABRAHAM ORTEL [ORTELIUS].
Dates: 1528-1598.
Map type: Copper plate engraved maps.
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. He also promoted himself as a 'painter of maps' and his interest in the field blossomed from there. The business took him to book fairs all over Europe, and for the time, he was soon incredibly well-travelled for one his age.
During these travels he began to make a list of invaluable contacts in the printing, publishing and cartography set. 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. Though remarkable in itself, this map was not commercially viable and hence very few copies were made. It did give him the confidence to continue learning his trade and honing the required artistic and practical skills.
Again, 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').
This is often considered now as the first atlas, although there were earlier works that could, if pressed, also take that name. 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.
Over the next 42 years, no less than 42 editions of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum were published. These included text in: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Established English mapmaker John Norden was given the task of issuing the English text version in 1606.
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.
During these travels he began to make a list of invaluable contacts in the printing, publishing and cartography set. 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. Though remarkable in itself, this map was not commercially viable and hence very few copies were made. It did give him the confidence to continue learning his trade and honing the required artistic and practical skills.
Again, 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').
This is often considered now as the first atlas, although there were earlier works that could, if pressed, also take that name. 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.
Over the next 42 years, no less than 42 editions of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum were published. These included text in: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Established English mapmaker John Norden was given the task of issuing the English text version in 1606.
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.