Very rare first 1570 A edition.
Southeast Asia, by Abraham Ortelius. 1570
This map, a unique synthesis of the best readily available information on Southeast Asia and the East Indian Islands, is a treasure for collectors and enthusiasts. It extends from Portuguese India in the west, through China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the East Indies (Indonesian archipelago), including New Guinea, to the Northwest coast of America. Sumatra and Java are shown as heavily distorted, along with the principal spice islands. However, the emergent shape of Borneo and the Philippines is apparent, as well as the general configuration of the East Indian archipelago. Java is depicted as an island with a greatly inflated shape and no topographical information along the south coast, separated from Beach, a presumed peninsula on the southern or 'fifth' continent. Borneo is mapped in the place of the fictitious 'Java Minor' that frequently appeared at that latitude on the 'modern' Ptolemaic maps of the region, although only the part of Borneo north of the equator is shown to the west of a barely recognizable Celebes (Sulawesi), where no hint is given of the very distinctive peninsula geography of the island.
Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)
The maker of the 'first atlas', the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570), was born on 4 April 1527 into an old Antwerp family. He learned Latin and studied Greek and mathematics.
Abraham and his sisters Anne and Elizabeth took up map colouring. He was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke as an "illuminator of maps." Besides colouring maps, Ortelius was a dealer in antiques, coins, maps, and books, with the book and map trade gradually becoming his primary occupation.
Business went well because his means permitted him to start an extensive collection of medals, coins, antiques, and a library of many volumes. In addition, he travelled a lot and visited Italy and France, made contacts everywhere with scholars and editors, and maintained extensive correspondence with them.
In 1564 he published his first map, a large and ambitious world wall map. The inspiration for this map may well have been Gastaldi's large world map. In 1565 he published a map of Egypt and a map of the Holy Land, a large map of Asia followed.
In 1568 the production of individual maps for his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was already in full swing. He completed the atlas in 1569, and in May of 1570, the Theatrum was available for sale. It was one of the most expensive books ever published.
This first edition contained seventy maps on fifty-three sheets. Franciscus Hogenberg engraved the maps.
Later editions included Additamenta (additions), resulting in Ortelius' historical atlas, the Parergon, mostly bound together with the atlas. The Parergon can be called a truly original work of Ortelius, who drew the maps based on his research.
The importance of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum for geographical knowledge in the last quarter of the sixteenth century is difficult to overemphasize. Nothing was like it until Mercator's atlas appeared twenty-five years later. Demand for the Theatrum was remarkable. Some 24 editions appeared during Ortelius's lifetime and another ten after his death in 1598. Editions were published in Dutch, German, French, Spanish, English, and Italian. The number of map sheets grew from 53 in 1570 to 167 in 1612 in the last edition.
In 1577, engraver Philip Galle and poet-translator Pieter Heyns published the first pocket-sized edition of the Theatrum, the Epitome. The work was trendy. Over thirty editions of this Epitome were published in different languages.
Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacientium Typus.
Item Number: 30592 Authenticity Guarantee
Category: Antique maps > Asia > Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, by Abraham Ortelius.
Title: Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacientium Typus.
Cum Privilegio.
Date of the first edition: 1570.
Date of this map: 1570.
Copper engraving, printed on paper.
Image size: 350 x 500mm (13.78 x 19.69 inches).
Sheet size: 395 x 530mm (15.55 x 20.87 inches).
Verso: Latin text.
Condition: Original coloured, centre and sides backed, replacing bottom corners and closing centre fold., stained.
Condition Rating: A.
From: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Antwerpen, Gielis Coppens van Diest, 1570. (Van der Krogt 3, 1:001)
There were three editions in 1570.
The first copies of the Theatrum were ready in June 1570. On 17 June 1570, Ortelius delivered 40 copies of the atlas to Plantin. During that year, 119 more copies of the Theatrum followed. This first edition includes 53 maps and has the colophon dated 20 May 1570: probably only the 40 copies delivered on 17 June are of this first edition (A). There are two other editions in 1570. For each of these 1570 editions, the complete text has been reset. These editions are called the A, B, and C editions. (See Van der Krogt 3A, p. 46)
This map, a unique synthesis of the best readily available information on Southeast Asia and the East Indian Islands, is a treasure for collectors and enthusiasts. It extends from Portuguese India in the west, through China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the East Indies (Indonesian archipelago), including New Guinea, to the Northwest coast of America. Sumatra and Java are shown as heavily distorted, along with the principal spice islands. However, the emergent shape of Borneo and the Philippines is apparent, as well as the general configuration of the East Indian archipelago. Java is depicted as an island with a greatly inflated shape and no topographical information along the south coast, separated from Beach, a presumed peninsula on the southern or 'fifth' continent. Borneo is mapped in the place of the fictitious 'Java Minor' that frequently appeared at that latitude on the 'modern' Ptolemaic maps of the region, although only the part of Borneo north of the equator is shown to the west of a barely recognizable Celebes (Sulawesi), where no hint is given of the very distinctive peninsula geography of the island.
Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)
The maker of the 'first atlas', the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570), was born on 4 April 1527 into an old Antwerp family. He learned Latin and studied Greek and mathematics.
Abraham and his sisters Anne and Elizabeth took up map colouring. He was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke as an "illuminator of maps." Besides colouring maps, Ortelius was a dealer in antiques, coins, maps, and books, with the book and map trade gradually becoming his primary occupation.
Business went well because his means permitted him to start an extensive collection of medals, coins, antiques, and a library of many volumes. In addition, he travelled a lot and visited Italy and France, made contacts everywhere with scholars and editors, and maintained extensive correspondence with them.
In 1564 he published his first map, a large and ambitious world wall map. The inspiration for this map may well have been Gastaldi's large world map. In 1565 he published a map of Egypt and a map of the Holy Land, a large map of Asia followed.
In 1568 the production of individual maps for his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was already in full swing. He completed the atlas in 1569, and in May of 1570, the Theatrum was available for sale. It was one of the most expensive books ever published.
This first edition contained seventy maps on fifty-three sheets. Franciscus Hogenberg engraved the maps.
Later editions included Additamenta (additions), resulting in Ortelius' historical atlas, the Parergon, mostly bound together with the atlas. The Parergon can be called a truly original work of Ortelius, who drew the maps based on his research.
The importance of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum for geographical knowledge in the last quarter of the sixteenth century is difficult to overemphasize. Nothing was like it until Mercator's atlas appeared twenty-five years later. Demand for the Theatrum was remarkable. Some 24 editions appeared during Ortelius's lifetime and another ten after his death in 1598. Editions were published in Dutch, German, French, Spanish, English, and Italian. The number of map sheets grew from 53 in 1570 to 167 in 1612 in the last edition.
In 1577, engraver Philip Galle and poet-translator Pieter Heyns published the first pocket-sized edition of the Theatrum, the Epitome. The work was trendy. Over thirty editions of this Epitome were published in different languages.
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