Grouping of Six Prints Featuring Antique Maps by Abraham Ortelius
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Grouping of Six Prints Featuring Antique Maps by Abraham Ortelius
About the Item
- Creator:Abraham Ortelius (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 22.5 in (57.15 cm)Width: 26.25 in (66.68 cm)Depth: 0.38 in (9.66 mm)
- Sold As:Set of 6
- Style:American Classical (In the Style Of)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:20th Century
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Overall very good vintage condition. Minor areas of wear to a few frames enhances the old world look.
- Seller Location:Bridport, CT
- Reference Number:Seller: Revelisa1stDibs: LU90112421332
Abraham Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius is widely recognized as the inventor of the atlas and one of the most prominent geographers in history. He is one of the best known and most frequently collected of all sixteenth-century mapmakers, and today, hand-colored, copperplate-printed Abraham Ortelius maps continue to command avid interest.
Ortelius was the eldest of the three children of an Antwerp merchant. After his father's death when he was ten, he was raised by his uncle Jacob Van Meteren — a financier and printer of early English versions of the Bible. Ortelius entered the Guild of Saint Luke in 1547 to become a map copier and colorist, but his hobbies overshadowed his studies.
Ortelius was better known as a student of history and a collector of books and old coins than a cartographer — only initially garnering modest praise for his skills at mapmaking. Gleaning what he learned from his uncle, he became a dealer in books and prints. In 1554 he attended the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, where he met the highly respected cartographer Gerardus Mercator.
Ortelius refocused his work in mapmaking after that fateful encounter. He eventually published Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theater of the World) — a comprehensive collection of maps that he bound into a book. It was the first of its kind and is now recognized as the first modern-day atlas. While creating his atlas, Ortelius observed that the coast of America shared geometrical similarities with the shores of Europe and Africa. When he lined up maps of the coastlines of the continents, they matched — much like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
Some have argued that the concept of continental drift is at least partly rooted in Ortelius’s 16th-century-era suggestion that the continents had once been joined together as a single mass of land before the Americas were pulled away from Europe and Africa. Much later, in 1912, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed in a lecture and an article that the continents had once been locked together based on data he collected. Wegener was widely ridiculed at the time, but the foundation of modern-day science of plate tectonics has its origins in his work.
On May 18, 2008, a Google Doodle celebrated the 300th anniversary of Ortelius’s atlas.
On 1stDibs, find original Abraham Ortelius prints, landscape prints and more.
- Antique Map of Southeast Asia by Ortelius '1587'By Abraham OrteliusLocated in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacientium Typus'. Ortelius includes early European depictions of both Japan and China and is the first to name Formosa (Taiwan). The Philippines and East Indies or Spice Islands are shown based upon Portuguese and Spanish sources, and before their penetration by the Dutch. Japan is shown in kite form, as a large oval island...Category
Antique 16th Century Maps
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- Antique Map of Mexico by Ortelius, circa 1602By Abraham OrteliusLocated in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Hispaniae Novae Sivae Magnae Recens Et Vera Descriptio 1579'. Map of western New Spain, showing the recently-created Spanish settlements, many rivers, and large l...Category
Antique Early 17th Century Belgian Maps
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$967 Sale Price20% Off - Antique Map of the Low Countries by Ortelius, 1584By Abraham OrteliusLocated in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Belgii Veteris Typus'. Beautiful map of the Low Countries, extending to the English Channel and part of Britain. This map originates from Ortelius' 'Theatrum Orbi...Category
Antique 16th Century Maps
MaterialsPaper
- Antique Map of Austria by Ortelius, c.1612Located in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Austriae Descrip. per Wolfgangum Lazium' Original antique map of Austria. Published by A. Ortelius, circa 1612. Artists a...Category
Antique 17th Century Maps
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- Antique Map of North Africa by Ortelius, c.1600Located in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Barbariae et Biledulgerid nova descriptio'. Old map of coastal North Africa and the Mediterranean. The map extends from Morocco and the Sahara to Libya and sh...Category
Antique 17th Century Maps
MaterialsPaper
- Antique Map of North Africa by Ortelius, c.1580Located in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Barbariae et Biledulgerid Nova Descriptio'. Original antique map of North Africa. The map covers the regions of Barbaria and Biledulgerid, essentially the territo...Category
Antique 16th Century Maps
MaterialsPaper