![]() ![]() The Pacific Ocean is optimistically narrow, particularly at the Strait of Asian separating the continents, encouraging the notion of a close connection between the Americas and the treasures of the orient. Ortelius' map is infused with considerable data from Marco Polo's 13th century voyages, but Ortelius also does much to reconcile the medieval knowledge of Asia with the 16th century revelations of the Western Hemisphere. A Groundbreaking MapThis is one of the earliest maps to attempt the mapping of northeast Asia: prior maps relied entirely on the information of ancient geographers, whose concrete data seldom reached beyond what is now considered Eastern Europe. In fact, much of the content north of China is mythical or loosely derived from the journals of Marco Polo, the legends of Prester John, and Biblical sources. The map is based on a partial conic projection, and depicts from the Black Sea to the Gulf of California, and from the Arctic to southern China, what Europeans then considered the extent of the Tartar Kingdom. It also displays a strait separating Asia and America - the Strait of Asian - appearing long before the existence of such a strait was proved by discovery. It is the earliest obtainable map to name California. The map includes what is now the west coast of the United States, northwestern Canada and Alaska, bit was then almost entirely unknown lands. While the map is primarily intended to detail Asia as dominated by the Great Khan, it is also notable for what it shows of America. Minnesota - North Dakota - South DakotaĪ richly-colored example of Ortelius' seminal map of Tartary, this is one of the first maps to focus on the North Pacific.Massachusetts - Connecticut - Rhode Island.Original resource at: Museum Plantin-Moretus/Print Room.ĭescription based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions. Title devised, in English, by Library staff. ![]() ![]() Plantin produced many important religious, humanistic, and scientific books, including the famous Biblia Polyglotta (Polyglot Bible) of 1568-73. A native of France, he settled in Antwerp around 1549, where he worked first as a bookbinder and, in 1555, established his own publishing house, De Gulden Passer (The golden compasses). Plantin was an influential Renaissance humanist and printer. For printing the texts, Plantin charged Ortelius 177 florins in June-July of 1587. Shown here is the French edition of 1587, which contains the same maps as the Latin edition of 1584. It is not known who engraved and printed the maps, but for printing the typographical parts of the atlases Ortelius commissioned a series of Antwerp printers: initially Aegidius Coppens van Diest, followed by Aegidius Radeus in 1575, and in 1579-89 Christopher Plantin (1520-89). The 1570 edition was followed by editions in Latin, Dutch, French, German, and Spanish, with an ever-increasing number of maps. ![]() Containing 53 maps, each with a detailed commentary, it is considered the first true atlas in the modern sense: a collection of uniform map sheets and accompanying text bound to form a book for which copper printing plates were specifically engraved. The Flemish scholar and geographer Abraham Ortelius (1527-98) published the first edition of his Theatrum orbis terrarum (Theater of the world) in 1570. ![]()
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