He dealt in maps and books to supplement his income, and met Gerard Mercator at the Frankfurt book fair in 1554. He lived with his sister Anna, who was also a map colourist one of his clients specifically requested an atlas coloured by her. He began his career as a map colourist, enrolling in the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1547, and appearing in the books of the Plantin publishing house in 1558 as a “peintre des cartes”. Show moreĪbraham Ortelius was a cartographer and publisher, and the first person to publish an atlas as we now know it. The present example is the first state of the map, appearing in the 1595 Latin edition. Between 15, it was issued in 31 editions and seven languages. At the time of its publication, it was the most expensive book ever produced. Ortelius’ ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ is widely regarded as the first modern atlas. This map and the Hondius and Le Clerc rare map of 1589 (known only in the 1602 edition) have a curious and not fully understood relationship as to which is truly the first map of the Pacific, although because no example of the 1589 Hondius-Le Clerc has been discovered, this map retains primacy. The treatment of America and most notably the Northwest Coast is reminiscent of Hondius’ America. The map reflects a much smaller body of water than the true size of the Pacific. This was the first map to focus on the Pacific Ocean. The Solomons, or Melanesia, are located, as are some of the islands of Micronesia. Among other notable features, it is detached from Terra Australis. New Guinea appears very different to Ortelius’ world map of 1588, suggesting he may have drawn additional information from an unrecorded voyage.
An odd ‘Isla de Plata’ appears above Japan. Ortelius shows the Moluccas and the Philippines, already the site of considerable Dutch activity and a misshapen Japan. It is based upon Gerard Mercator’s world map of 1569, with details from 25 Portuguese manuscript maps of Bartolomeo de Lasso which Plancius obtained and later used for his own world map. The Maris Pacifici map was first issued in 1590.
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