ORTELIUS, Abraham, (1527-1598). Theatrum orbis terrarum. Antwerp: Aegid. Coppenium Diesth, 1570.
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ORTELIUS, Abraham, (1527-1598). Theatrum orbis terrarum. Antwerp: Aegid. Coppenium Diesth, 1570.

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ORTELIUS, Abraham, (1527-1598). Theatrum orbis terrarum. Antwerp: Aegid. Coppenium Diesth, 1570.

2o (401 x 279 mm). Engraved allegorical title, 53 engraved double-page maps, most by Frans Hogenberg (map 36 with marginal repair and torn along image margin, title and A8 reinforced along margins, scattered light foxing or staining). Contemporary vellum (light wear and staining, lower cover with large amateur painting of pirates). Provenance: Marcellus de Marcellini Politianus (ownership inscription on title); Baron Horace de Landau (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, verso of title with Epigramma and 4 lines in Greek by Gerart Falkenburg and Catalogus Auctorum with 94 names. "The first modern geographical atlas...The compilation of a general atlas containing maps of uniform size and bound up in a single volume was the result of a suggestion of a friend...Ortelius, who knew most of the map-makers and map-sellers both in Amsterdam and abroad, gathered together the best available maps of the various countries and had them re-engraved in uniform size" (The World Encompassed, 1350). His list of contributors, which included not only the authors of the original maps but other cartographers and geographers as well, has been of particular value for historians of cartography. The engraved allegorical title with its five female figures representing the five continents (one a mere bust, symbolizing the mostly unexplored continent of "Magellenica", ie., Antarctica), contains what is "probably the earliest allegorical representation of America" (Koeman III, Ort 1A-1D); Phillips 374; Sabin 57693; Shirley 122.
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