Gallia Vetus, Ad Julij Caesaris commentaria

Method Copper engraved with hand colour
Artist Ortelius, Abraham
Published Ex Conatibus geographicis Abrah. Ortelij. 1590. Cum Imp. Reg. et cancellarie Brabantie privilegio decennali. [1595 Parergon Edition]
Dimensions 352 x 458 mm
Notes A map of ancient Gaul (France), following exactly the description provided in Julius Caesar's Commentaries of his Gallic Wars, from the 1595 Parergon (Supplement) of Ortelius' famous Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. The map was first issued in 1590, likely coinciding with Ortelius' work on an edition of the Bellum Gallicum that he published in 1593. His close familiarity with the text is immediately apparent in this scholarly, but also highly decorative, map. Gaul, as per Caesar's description, is divided into three parts, following the tribal divisions of the Belgae, Celtae, and Aquitani. Parts of the neighbouring provinces of Hispania, Provincia Romanorum, Cisalpine Gaul, Germania, and Britannia are also depicted. The map is ornamented in beautiful hand colour, and notable geographic features are shown, particularly the extensive Belgic forests. Principal cities and towns are picked out in red, including 'Londinum' in Britannia. The lands of each Celtic tribe are labelled, and extensive boxed lists on the right and left margins record every tribe, chieftain, and notable individual mentioned in Caesar's text. The map is further embellished with a wide decorative border, and three strap-work cartouches, enclosing the title, inscription, and a dedication to the Archbishop of Antwerp and Renaissance humanist, Laevinus Torrentius. The latin text on the verso reassures the reader of the painstaking accuracy of Ortelius' map, stating that no person, place, or region mentioned in Caesar is absent. The remainder of the text is mostly occupied with a lengthy description of the Druid class of Celtic society, drawing widely from many different authors, including Ammianus Marcellinus, Lucan, Diodorus Siculus, Athenaeus, Strabo, Pliny, Pomponius Mela, and Dio Chrysostom, Tacitus, Suetonius, and even his contemporary, William Camden. The end piece of the text features a depiction of a Roman coin of the emperor Galba featuring 'Tres Galliae' on the reverse, which Ortelius proudly confirms is in his own collection.

The Parergon ('Supplement') was, as the title suggests, originally conceived of as a supplement to Ortelius' Theatrum. The work, a massive and intricately researched index of the classical world, was accompanied by a series of ancient world maps. Unlike the maps of the Theatrum, the majority of which were reductions of earlier maps, the maps of the Parergon were researched and drawn by Ortelius himself. The work was a huge commercial success, and the maps themselves set the standard for ancient world maps for the duration of the seventeenth century, being reproduced or reprinted by various publishers after Ortelius' final 1624 printing. His interest in the mapping of the ancient world is manifest. The maps of the Parergon are a veritable mine of textual commentary and classical philology, drawing upon Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, and many others. Interestingly, the project seems to have been a labour of love, rather than a mercantile venture. Ortelius himself was fascinated with the ancient world, and a formidable classical scholar in his own right. In addition to his work as a cartographer, he dealt in antiquities, visited and surveyed ancient sites across Europe, published a critical edition of Caesar's Gallic Wars in 1593, and assisted Welser in his studies of the famous Tabula Peutingeriana in 1598, producing an engraved copy of the map that can be found in later editions of the Parergon.

Abraham Ortelius (1527 -1598) was a Flemish cartographer, cosmographer, geographer and publisher and a contemporary of Gerard Mercator, with whom he travelled through Italy and France. Although it is Mercator who first used the word "Atlas" as a name for a collection of maps, it is Ortelius who is remembered as the creator of the first modern atlas. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was the first systematically collated set of maps by different map makers in a uniform format. Three Latin editions as well as a Dutch, French and German edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum were published by 1572 and a further 25 editions printed before Ortelius' death in 1598. Several more were subsequently printed until around 1612. Ortelius is said to have been the first person to pose the question of the continents once being a single land mass before separating into their current positions.

Condition: Clean, crisp impression with full margins. Central vertical fold as issued. Crossed arrows watermark.
Framing framed
Price £800.00
Stock ID 41523

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