In Abraham Ortelius’s 1587 Typus Orbis Terrarum “a world map is surrounded by quotations from Cicero and Seneca meditating on the transient insignificance of human affairs when viewed from a cosmic perspective.” -Paula M. Watts, “The European Religious Worldview and its Influence on Mapping,” in The History of Cartography

First published in 1587 in collaboration with the cartographer Gerardus Mercator (who later became one of his competitors), Abraham Ortelius’s Typus Orbis Terrarum was the first world atlas—a collection of standard maps bound together—and the most successful early atlas, going to forty editions by 1641 (Woodward, The History of Cartography 1322). Frans Hogenberg and Ortelius were the primary engravers of these beautiful maps, though the designs are based on the works of many previous cartographers whom Ortelius widely credits throughout. The @IULillyLibrary’s 48cm-tall 1612 edition of the atlas was probably hand-colored to order for Cesare d’Isle, Duke of Ferrara and Modena, whose coat of arms adorns the covers. It came to the Lilly Library from the immense travel literature collection donated to the Lilly by Bernardo Mendel.

According to Rodney Shirley in ‘The Art of the Decorative Cartographic Titlepage,’ the title page of Ortelius’s atlas was influential in depicting each of the five known regions of the world in female form. The meaning of each of the figures is explicated in a long Latin poem by Adolf van Meetkerke which Ortelius includes at the beginning of the book. The portrait of Ortelius was included in editions after 1579 and “was engraved by Filips Galle following a painting by Pieter Paul Rubens now in the Plantin Moretus Museum, Antwerp” (Shirley, Courtiers and Cannibals, 9).

The Dutch with their overseas trading empire became the leading producers of maps and atlases during the 17th century; and yes, there was something of a competition going among Dutch atlas-makers to see who could print the biggest, most spectacular maps. The hugest of them all was the Atlas Maior published by Joan and Wilem Blaeu between 1662 and 1672 in Amsterdam, which contained over 500 maps and was the largest and most costly book printed in the 17th century.

IU Lilly Library | G1006.T37 I8 1612