Ortelius, Abraham
Bavariae, olim vin Deliciae, Delineationis compendium. Ex tabula Philippi Apiani Math.
- Published: Antwerpen
- Published date: 1584
- Technique: Copper engraving / Uncolored
- Category: Bavaria
- Type: map
- Size: 381 by 488mm (15 by 19¼ inches).
- Stock number: 32733
- Condition: In excellent condition.
Article description
Copper engraving, uncolored as published. Latin text edition 1592. The map of Bavaria is shown after the so-called ,Landtafeln by Phillip Apian'. Verso with Latin descriptive text. An important early antique map of Bavaria, Regensburg and the Danube. Regensburg is located at the geographical northest point of the river Danube. The map shows Bavaria with the neighboring Bohemia with the Bavarian and Bohemian woods, it extends in the north towards the 'Fichtelgebirge' and Nürnberg. In The cities and towns on the map still shown as miniature views in form of silhouettes. At the right side in the centre with a large decorative engraved renaissance title cartouche, above with a cartouche with the Bavarian rhombic pattern. In the lower right corner a mileage scale. Ortelius was born on 14 April 1527 in the city of Antwerp, which was then in the Habsburg Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). The Orthellius family were originally from Augsburg, a Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1535, the family had fallen under suspicion of Protestantism. Following the death of Ortelius's father, his uncle Jacobus van Meteren returned from religious exile in England to take care of Ortelius. Abraham remained close to his cousin Emanuel van Meteren, who would later move to London. In 1575 he was appointed geographer to the king of Spain, Philip II, on the recommendation of Arias Montanus, who vouched for his orthodoxy. He travelled extensively in Europe and is specifically known to have traveled throughout the Seventeen Provinces; in southern, western, northern, and eastern Germany (e.g., 1560, 1575–1576); France (1559–1560); England and Ireland (1576); and Italy (1578, and perhaps twice or thrice between 1550 and 1558). Beginning as a map-engraver, in 1547 he entered the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an illuminator of maps. He supplemented his income trading in books, prints, and maps, and his journeys included yearly visits to the Frankfurt book and print fair, where he met Gerardus Mercator in 1554. In 1560, however, when travelling with Mercator to Trier, Lorraine, and Poitiers, he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator's influence, towards the career of a scientific geographer. (Wikipedia)