The work would go on to be published for 42 years, with some 31 editions being produced.
Even though it was the most expensive work published at the time, it proved an instant success with four versions of the first edition being printed in 1570 alone. With its comprehensive scope, the atlas was a huge step forward compared with the contemporary ‘Lafreri’ atlases, which were bound up to order and so reflected the whims of the customer. The work was “the first true atlas” (van der Broecke): all the maps were of a uniform size and style, with an engraved title, accompanying text, and - hitherto unheard of in cartographic publications - a list of the source material. These contacts would prove invaluable in the compiling andcompletion of his ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’, first published in 1570. It was whilst travelling that Ortelius built up his unrivalled web of contacts, which included many of the leading historians, scientists, and cartographers of the day. He travelled extensively in his search for new material and was a well-known face at the Frankfurt bookfairs. He began his career as a “kaarten afzetter” (illuminator of maps) purchasing single (generally wall) maps from booksellers and colouring them for resale. Most probably at the Plantin press, and then shipped to London whereĪbraham Ortelius (1527–1598) took an active interest inĬartography from an early age. Used in London for printing the maps were in fact printed in Antwerp, Although the pause in printing of the AntwerpĮdition between 16 might suggest that all the plates were The English edition was based upon the 1603 Latin edition excluding copies in the British Isles)” (Wardington). It was a particularly small edition and not sold through the house of Christopher Plantin no surviving copies are known to exist on the European continent (i.e. The book was the largest ever printed and published in England up to that date, measuring at least an inch more than uncut copies of the Bishop’s Bibles of 1568, 15, or the Genevan versions in black letter of 1578–83. It had more maps than any other edition of Ortelius, whether before or after. Ortelius’ ‘Epitome’ was the earliest world atlas to be published with English text accompanying it, with the editions of Pieter Heyns and Michiel Coignet in 16 respectively. The ‘Theatrum’ was the first ‘proper’ world atlas to be printed and The scarce and only edition of Ortelius’s Theatrum in English.
0 kommentar(er)
