| Method | Copper engraved with hand colour |
| Artist | Ortelius, Abraham |
| Published | [Antwerp, 1598] |
| Dimensions | 320 x 230 mm |
| Notes |
A superb late-sixeenth century map of Anatolia, roughly corresponding to modern day Türkiye, as well as the adjoining parts of Syria, Cyprus, and the Dodecanese Islands of Greece, from the 1598 French edition of Ortelius' famous Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Principal cities and towns are marked in red, and mountain ranges, lakes, and rivers are shown pictorially. The title, which also refers to the region as 'Asia Minor' is enclosed at top right in a simple boxed cartouche. The map is oriented with east to top, and originally would have been accompanied on the facing page with two smaller inset maps of Egypt, and the area surrounding the city of Carthage. The neatlines joining the three maps can still be seen on the right margin of the sheet. 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: Acid burn from old mount to margins, just outside platemark. Time toning and foxing to sheet. Old adhesive tape to left and right margin of verso. Manuscript annotations in old hand to French letterpress text on verso. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £350.00 |
| Stock ID | 53136 |