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Abraham ORTELIUS

Epitome du theatre du monde

De l'imprimerie de Christofle Plantin, à Anvers 1588, petit in-8 à l'italienne (15x10,5cm), (8f.) 94f. (2f.), relié.

Epitome du theatre du monde
[Epitome of the Theater of the World]

First complete edition of the 94 maps. This is the third edition in French, the first for some parts, as reviewed, corrected and enlarged with 11 maps.
First published in Latin in 1570 in Antwerp (with two editions appearing that same year, with the title Theatrus orbis terrarum), then in Dutch in 1577, the text was translated into French from 1579 onwards. This first edition in French, which appeared under the title of Miroir du monde, had only 72 maps. It was re-published in 1583 with 83 maps. It was not until 1588 that the complete, definitive version, with its 94 maps appeared, entitled Epitome du theatre du monde. Each map has a facing text on the history of, topographical details of, or anecdotes about, the part of the world in question. There is an alphabetic table of maps at the back of the volume. This edition also has a preface from the engraver (and holder of the privilege) Philippe Galle (1537-1612), followed by an allegorical engraving showing Prudence, Truth and the Omnipotence of God, and a Discours de la mer [Discourse on the Sea] by Ortelius.
18th-century light brown marbled sheep, spine in four compartments with compartment decoration, gilt fillets and fleurons, as well as a tan morocco title-piece, all edges red. Head and tail of spine, corners and one compartment at head of spine repaired and re-gilded. A small burn affecting a few letters of the text on Egypt.
Ink ex-libris to title. A few contemporary manuscript annotations to margins. A very fresh copy.
An illuminator, book- and map-seller, Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) had a very good idea what collectors wanted and decided to embark on a career as a cartographer. He was deeply influenced by his 1554 meeting with Gerard Mercator (1512-1594), with whom he became so close that the latter, also working on his famous atlas, pushed back its publication date in order not to hurt his friend, whose work he held in high esteem. It was thus on the 20 May 1570 that the first, Latin, version of the work appeared, printed at the expense of the author by Gilles Coppens in Antwerp. The atlas was not cheap, costing 30 florins at the time it appeared. Max Rooses (1839-1914), the curator of the Plantin-Moretus museum, tells us that the Ortelius atlas was the most expensive book in the 16th century. Nonetheless, this collection, having taken several years of rigorous and intense work, was immediately very successful and became a cartographic reference almost ten years before the appearance of Mercator's atlas.
Maps at the time circulated either in isolation or collected in a somewhat random and unnatural way. Ortelius was thus the first to offer a coherent set of maps uniform in format, scale, and appearance, or in other words scientifically reliable, thus giving birth to the modern encyclopedic atlas. The deliberately reduced size of the work made it easy and convenient to handle and it was useful both to scientists and laymen.
“The collection was intended to satisfy two principal types of readers: the cultivated amateur and the professional, aware of the practical utility of the map. The layout was managed economically in order to respond to the pragmatism of the second, while the tastes of the first were catered to by choice typography, the symbolic language of the emblems and the scholarly notes on the history of places and peoples. The Theatrum orbis terrarum was thus a rigorously put-together book which offered all its readers the best positive way of seeing the known world represented.” (Erika Giuliani, 5 – Mettre en collection des “vues de villes” à la fin de la Renaissance: les Civitates orbis terrarum (1572-1617), in Isabelle Pantin et al., Mise en forme des savoirs à la Renaissance, Armand Colin “Recherches,” 2013, pp. 103-126).
Giuliani also highlights that this enterprise proved successful because it brought together the best artisans of the age: “The fact that he was not only an illuminator and map-dealer, but also a collector, friend of Mercator and a member of Plantin's circles allowed him to choose the best examples to make what would become a model for other publishers and an unsurpassed reference work. Ortelius recommended that scholars have the Theatrum in their libraries and consult it when reading the Bible or the history books.” (op. cit.)
The fact that Ortelius called upon the talents of Plantin as publisher to produce the French version of his work is not surprising. The latter was one of the defining figures of the Renaissance boom in illustrated scientific books. Geographers were rediscovering the work of Ptolemy (90-168) at that time, putting cartography no longer at the service of science, but of discovery (the search for, and creation of new maritime routes, the perfection of ships, and so on). This was a total re-evaluation of the medieval view of the world, based on more precise astronomical and terrestrial measurements. Ortelius' atlas found its rightful place in this re-nascent topographical movement, while at the same time respecting Ptolemy's rigorous and immutable geographic order: England, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Central and Eastern Europe to Russia, Asia, and Africa. It was not until 1507 with the work of Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1520) that the map of America saw the light of day; he was notably the first to provide a complete representation of the Atlantic Ocean and also to expand Ptolemy's work considerably. Waldseemüller's version was nonetheless only partial and restricted itself to the South-West coast of the continent. Far more detailed and extensive, Ortelius' map drew on the one published by Diego Gutiérrez in 1562, but offering a much greater view, especially of North America. On Ortelius' map we can see, among others, New France, discovered in 1523 by Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528) who was tasked by François I with exploring the area between Florida and Newfoundland in order to find a way through to the Pacific.
Ortelius' scale is correct for some areas and too great for others (Tierra del Fuego, New Guinea, and Mexico, as well as Australia and Antarctica, which are shown all together and labeled terra australis nondum cognita) that had, nonetheless been reached since the 1520s. As far as North America is concerned, it is represented more or less as we know it today. The toponymy was hardly Christianized yet, with a number of Amerindian appellations appearing (Culia, Tiguex and Tecoantepec, among others).
The cartographer was also the first to show Lower California as a peninsula, with the North-Western coast of America being nothing more than a sketch beyond California.
One can also see that the map's legends focus on the rivers and littorals, showing the lack of knowledge of inland areas, which yet remained to be explored. It is equally interesting to note the presence of some quite surprising legends, especially in Patagonia: “Patagonum regio ubi incole sunt gigantes” (or, the region of Patagonia where the inhabitants are giants). Other labels of the same sort explain the circumstances of the discovery of certain areas, the names of famous explorers, and so on. In the extreme North of America, the author notes “Ulterius septentrionem versus hec regiones incognite adhuc sunt,” or “The more northerly regions are still unknown.” This note may leave us with the impression that Ortelius was careful and prudent in not showing on his maps anything but areas that had already been explored. Nonetheless, one can also see the presence of the cities of Quivira and Cibola, two of the mythical Cities of Gold located in California, following the account of the explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510-1554), who set off to find them in 1541.
Ortelius' work, an emblematic work of the Renaissance, nonetheless bears the marks of the popular traditions of the Middle Ages. It mixes the scientific rigor of its cartographic outlines with legends and descriptions drawn from accounts of voyages, sometimes melded with fantasy.

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