Descriptio Germaniae Inferioris

Old coloured antique map of the Low Countries with the Netherlands and Belgium by Abraham Ortelius. Shows the area from The Hague to Cologne and from Emden to Paris. Above a title band held by two putti. In an ornate decorative border, with a mileage scale, two sailing ships and a sea monster. From the early edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1575. Latin text on verso.

A small tear to the lower right closed. Very good conditions.

Abraham Ortelius was born 1527 in Antwerp. He studied mathematics, Greek and Latin and travelled a lot across Europe. He established a business in dealing with books and drawing maps. His first remarkable map was a 8 sheet world map in the year 1564, but only three copies have survived. In 1570 he issued the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern Atlas with uniformly sized maps in a systematic collection. The term Atlas was not used until Mercator introduced it 20 years later. Most of the maps in Theatrum have been engraved by Frans Hogenberg. At the time of publication, the atlas was the most expensive book ever printed. Nevertheless it was a big success and around 7000 copies have been printed until 1612 in many editions and six different languages. Beside the Theatrum, Ortelius compiled a series of historical maps and published it in the Parergon Theatri which was bound with the Theatrum from 1579 onwards or published separately.