Abraham Ortelius was born in Antwerp in 1527, and is widely regarded as the creator of the first modern Atlas – called Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. He began his life as a map engraver, and supplemented his living by selling maps, books and prints. (So he must have been a decent chap). It was at the Frankfurt book fair, that he met Gerald Mercator in 1560.
In 1570 his Antwerp publisher issued his Theatrum Orbis. This contained 57 maps of the known world. There were 25 editions of his atlas between then and the time of his death in 1598.
Presented here is one of them – his map of Friesland (or Frisia Occidentalis) which comes complete with an inset of Roman Friesland in the bottom right corner. This beautifully coloured map was issued by the famous Dutch publishing house Plantijn in 1598.
Incidentally – among many other firsts, Ortelius has the distinction of having one of his maps recreated as part of the world’s largest commercial jigsaw puzzle. He would have been very pleased !
The Book & Cartography Blog 