![]() ![]() By the 1580s, the atlas had been enlarged to 112 maps, and the cost of copies had increased correspondingly: colored copies in gold-tooled bindings now cost between 25 and 30 guilders. ![]() 17): records from July, 1570 note that a bound and colored copy cost 16 guilders, more than double the price of a plain, unbound copy. When the Theatrum was published, it was the most expensive book ever printed (van den Broecke, p. They produced three final editions, but retired the plates soon thereafter. At that point Ortelius’ plates became the property of Plantin’s heirs, the Moretus brothers. Prior to his death in 1612 Vrients would publish the first English (1606) and Italian (1608) editions of the Theatrum. Vrients’ maps are among the most finely engraved in the atlas. This 1603 edition also introduces a sophisticated new title page for the historical Parergon section, engraved by an unknown artist, and two supplementary sheets depicting German Emperors. This edition includes 6 new maps, including ‘Anglia, Regnum’, a chart of England and Wales based on Christopher Saxton’s 1579 landmark map, as well as maps of Burgundy and Germany. Vrients quickly produced a Spanish edition-the second in that language-followed by the Latin edition offered here. The atlas continued to evolve under Vrients, who commissioned new plates for the Theatrum based on previously existing maps. The map of the Pacific Ocean, which first appeared in 1590, delineates the west coast of North America more accurately than any other printed map to date, and may be based on an unrecorded Spanish voyage.Īfter Ortelius’ death, the copper plates for the Theatrum were sold to Jan Baptist Vrients (1601). When Philip assumed the throne of Portugal in 1580, Ortelius gained access to the secrets of Portuguese cartography, whence the maps of China and Japan based on previously unpublished maps drawn by Portuguese Jesuits. 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. He thus developed an extensive network of sources among explorers and cartographers of the empire, by means of which he was able to procure an impressive number of previously unpublished maps-including what appear to have been confidential Spanish manuscripts. In 1575, and despite some doubts regarding his orthodoxy, he was designated geographer to Philip II. Ortelius first became involved with cartographic publications in the 1560s, as a map colorist for the publisher Plantin. For this reason, later edition of the Theatrum are generally more valuable than earlier ones. Over this period, the size of the atlas grew incrementally so that by 1612, the last dated edition***, the published had more than doubled the number of maps, re-engraved many, and incorporated several completely new sections (the Additamenta and Parergon). ![]() Ortelius began his epic project-compiling a volume of maps that depicted the entire world-in 1570 over the next 40 years the Theatrum progressed through 31 editions in 7 languages. Copies of the atlas were very likely owned by such explorers as Drake and Frobisher, and if so, the reason is clear: perhaps no other contemporary atlas depicts the geographical discoveries of the 16th century-from the Americas to China and Japan-so faithfully. “If every home now owns an atlas of some sort, it is due ultimately to the conviction and example of Ortelius” ( PMM 91). 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. “The publication of this atlas marked an epoch in the history of cartography. Lower right blank margin of title repaired some pale waterstains on a handful of leaves some inconsequential handsoiling or spotting here and there otherwise, an unusually tall and fresh, truly superb copy.Ī beautifully colored, remarkably fresh copy of one of the great monuments of cartography, “the most advanced Latin edition of the Theatrum published by Vrients” (Koeman, p. Bound in contemporary Flemish calf restored at extremities, covers double gilt ruled with fleurons at corners and arabesques at center, raised bands on spine with fleurons gilt in each of 7 compartments. Antwerp, Joannis Baptistis Vrients, 1603 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.įolio, (22) ff., including title, arms of Spain, memorial to Ortelius and full-page portrait of Ortelius, 118 double-page maps, plus 38 maps of Parergon, all in magnificent contemporary color, title page lettered in liquid gold and some figures with gold highlights, 190 initials colored, numismatic samples colored as well. ![]()
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