Cartographica Neerlandica Background for Ortelius Map No. 13

Title: HISPANIÆ | NOVÆ SIVÆ | MAGNAE, RE:|CENS ET VE:|RA DESCRIP:|TIO 1579. [A recent and true representation of new or large Spain 1579]. (upper right:) "Cum Imp. et Reg. Mts. | priuilegio decennali". [With a ten year imperial and royal privilege]. Text block upper right centre: "Deserta regio, et gens siluestris, | animalium carnes putrefactas et | sole somicoc.tas in delicijs habens. | Bella inter se, ob messem et fruc:|tuum collectiones, sepius gerunt". [This is a deserted region, where people live in the woods, who highly favour rotting meat, somewhat cooked in the sun. They often fight among each other while collecting harvests and fruits]. Cartouche lower left: "Lectori, | Partium longitudinis hu:|ius tabulæ initium non sumi:|tur Ptolemaico more ab insu:|lis Canarijs, versus Orientê; | sed à Toletano Hispanien:|sis meridiano, Occiden:|tem versus". [To the reader; the beginning of the longitude on this map we have not, in the Ptolemæic fashion taken from the Canary islands towards the East, but from the Spanish meridian in Toledo towards the West.] (Top left;) "Anthropophagi sunt, qui | his montibus|habitant". [They who live in these mountains are cannibals.] (Above centre:) "Magala Hispanorum, vrbi | armenta p:ascuntur" [The encampments of the Spanish, where their armed soldiers roam.] (Middle left top:) "Terra incognita et mon:|tibus asperrima". [Unknown land and very rough mountains].

Plate size: 352 x 506 mm
Scale: 1 : 2,000,000
Identification number: Ort 13 (Koeman/Meurer: 72, Karrow: 1/106, van der Krogt AN: 9510:31)

Occurrence in Theatrum editions and page number:

1579/1580L2Add5A (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like one line above it: num , Italica lingua Venetiis excusis.),
1579L(A)6 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like the line above it: num, Italica Venetiis excusis.), identical to 1579/1589L2Add except for page number;
1579L(B)6 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like the line above it: tionum,Italica Venetiis excusis.),
1580/1589G6 (350 copies printed) (last line, centred like 4 lines above it, in Gothic script: gen.),
1581F6 (400 copies printed) (last line, left aligned, in cursive script like the entire text: "langue Italienne."),
1584L6 (750 copies printed) (last line, centred like the line above it: nauigationum , Italica lingua Venetiis excusis.),
1587F6 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned, in cursive script like the entire text: "Venize en langue Italienne".),
1588S6 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: ciones en Italiano , impressos en Venecia.),
1592L7 (525 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tionem, in suo de China regione libellulo.),
1595L7 (500 copies printed) (10th line ends: in pre- ; last line, left aligned: gione libellulo.),
1598/1610/1613D7 (100 copies printed) (last line,centred like 4 lines above it: vollen af schrijft.),
1598F7 (525 copies printed0 (last line, left aligned: uigations , qui sont imprimez à Venize en langue Italienne.),
1601L7 (200 copies printed) (10th line ends: in pretio ; last line, left aligned: gione libellulo.),
1602G7 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like 4 lines above it, in Gothic script like the entire text: gen.),
1602S7 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tiene amplissima description della en su librillo de la Region de China.),
1603L7 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: bet descriptionem, in suo de China regione libellulo. [page number 7 is located 4/5 of line width to the right, text and page number, but not typesetting, identical to 1609/1612S/L]),
1606E7 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: notable discourses hereof in the third Volume of M. "Hakluyts" English voyages.),
1608/1612I7 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: China, contiene anco di questa vna diffusissima descrittione.),
1609/1612/1641S7 (325 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: de la Region de China.),
1609/1612L7 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: bet descriptionem, in suo de China regione libellulo. Page number 7 is located 2/3 of line width to the right, text and page number, but not typesetting, identical to 1603L).

Approximate number of copies printed: 6675.

States: 13.1 as above;
13.2: from 1602S onwards, areas between sea names received stippling.

Cartographic sources: unclear. (Meurer p. 93). Brandmair suggest Jean Duran who published a Mexico map in 1575.

References: H.H. Cline (1962): The Ortelius maps of New Spain, and related contemporary materials 1560-1610, Imago Mundi 16, pp. 98-115. Burden (1996). D. Reinhartz "The Americas Revealed in the Theatrum", p. 209-220 in: Van den Broecke, van der Krogt and Meurer (eds) "Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas", HES Publishers, 1998; F. Depuydt & J. Depuydt (2007) De metrische nauwkeurigheid van Ortelius' Hispania Nova (1579). In: P. van Gestel-van 't Schip & P. van der Krogt (eds), Mappae Antiquae; Liber Amicorum Günter Schilder, 't Goy; Hes & de Graaf Publishers, pp. 359-373.

Remarks: note the large number of placenames, often so densely distributed that reference by number or letter is used to save space, and lines are drawn from placenames to circles indicating their location. Numerous rivers are depicted, but most of them remain unnamed. Spanish barracks or tents are indicated by small squares with a circle in the middle.

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