Cartographica Neerlandica Background for Ortelius Map No. 14

Title: CVLIACANÆ, A:|MERICÆ REGIO:|NIS, DESCRIPTIO - HISPANIOLÆ, CVBÆ, ALIARVMQVE INSVLA:|RVM CIRCVMIACIENTIVM, DELINEATIO. [A representation of Culiacan, a region of America - An Outline of Hispaniola, Cuba and of other islands lying around them] (top middle:) "Cum Imp. et Regio. | priuilegio decennali. | 1579". [With Imperial and Royal privilege for ten years. 1579.] Cartouche top left: "Sciat lector; Auctorem Anonijmum, qui | hanc Culiacanam regionem, et has insulas pelus:|trauit, er descripsit longitudines non ut | Ptolemæus, alijaque solent; à Fortunacis insulis, versus | Orientem sumsiße: sed à Toleto Hispaniæ vmbilico, | Occidentem, ex eclypsibus ab ipsomet obseruatis | depræ: hendisse". [The reader should know that an anonymous author who drew these islands and determined the longitudes of this region of Culiacana did not take the Fortunate Isles as his measure, as Ptolemæus and others have the habit to do, but took them from Toledo in the middle of Spain toward the west, based on eclipses he observed by himself].

Plate size: 392 x 499 mm. Two maps on one plate.

Identification number: Ort 14;

Title Ort 14a: Culicaniæ

Scale: 1 : 1,700,000. Size: 128/198 x 495 mm.

Identification number: Ort 14a (Koeman/Meurer: 73a, Karrow: 1/107, vdKrogtAN: 9520:31).

States: 14a.1: Tropic of Cancer erroneously called Capricorni.
14a.2: in the 1592L edition the hachuring of the American westcoast has been extended from 3 to 6 mm;
14a.3: in the 1595L edition tropic was "corrected". Now both tropics are called Cancri.
14b.4: in 1601, the isle of Iumeto, northeast of Cuba was renamed Iumero, and the placename Toperito in northwest Mexico was changed to Toperico.
14a.5 during or after 1612S, date was removed.

Cartographic sources: unclear (Meurer p. 93) as also acknowledged by Ortelius.

Title Ort 14b: Hispaniolæ

Scale: 1 : 8,000,000. Size: 221/150 x 495 mm.

Identification number: Ort 14b (Koeman/Meurer: 73b, Karrow: 1/108, vdKrogtAN: 9610:31).

States: 14b.1: Tropic of Cancer erroneously called Tropic of Capricorn.
14b.2: in 1595 this was "corrected". Now both tropics are called Cancer.
14b.3: during or after 1612S, date was removed.

Cartographic sources: Ortelius drew this map himself, based on a variety of sources such as Mercator's 1569 world map, Guttierez' 1562 America map, and Alonso de Santa Cruz' 1560 Isolario (Meurer p. 94-95). Brandmair suggests Forlani and Giovanni Martines as sources.

Occurrence in Theatrum editions and page number:

1579/1580L2Add5B (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like 2 lines above it: tis insulis; & ceteros Noui orbis scriptores. Text identical to 1579L(A) but with different page number),
1579L(A)7 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred: tis insulis; & ceteros Noui orbis scriptores.),
1579L(B)7 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tyris librum De nuper repertis insulis,& ceteros Noui orbis scriptores.),
1580/1589G7 (350 copies printed) (last line, centred like 5 lines above it, in Gothic script like the entire text: fundenen Insulen.),
1581F7 (400 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: des Isles nagueres trouuées,& autres qui ont descrit le Nouueau Monde.),
1584L7 (750 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tyris librum de nuper repertis insulis, & ceteros Noui orbis scriptores; [note that the third word "de" of this line is written with capital in the 1579L version, and without capital in this 1584 edition]),
1587F7 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: re Martyr,appellé des Isles nagueres trouuées,& autres qui ont descrit le Nouueau Monde.),
1588S7 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Martyr de islas poco ha halladas: y a los demas escritores d'el Orbe Nueuo.),
1592L8 (525 copies printed) (3rd line from the bottom ends: in- ; last line, left aligned: tionem; Petri Martyris librû de nuper repertis insulis;&ceteros noui Orbis scriptores.),
1595L8 (500 copies printed) (3rd line from the bottom ends: insu ; last line, full width: tionem; Petri Martyris Decades de nuper repertis insulis;& ceteros noui Orbis scriptores.),
1598/1610/1613D8 (100 copies printed) (last line, left aligned, in Gothic script: desen Eylanden "Benzo, Petrum Martyrem", ende andere schryveren.),
1598F8 (525 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: qui ont descrit le Nouueau Monde.),
1601L8 (200 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: ceteros noui Orbis scriptores.),
1602G8 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like 5 lines above it, in Gothic script like the entire text: fundenen Insulen.),
1602S8 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tyr de las islas poco ha halladas: y a los demas escritores d'el Orbe Nueuo.),
1603L8 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: scriptionem; Petri Martyris Decades de nuper repertis insulis;& ceteros noui Orbis scriptores. ; text after title CVBA, ET SPAGNIOLA. begins with capital I in large woodcut.),
1606E8 (300 copies printed) (last line, full width: "Benzo, Peter Martyr" his Decads of Islands lately discovered,and other writers of "America".),
1608/1612I8 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tro Martire delle Isole di nuouo trouate, & il rimanente de'scrittori del nuouo Mondo.),
1609/1612/1641S8 (325 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tores d'el Orbe Nueuo.),
1609/1612L8 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: scriptionem;Petri Martyris Decades de nuper repertis insulis;& ceteros noui Orbis scriptores. ; text after title CVBA, ET SPAGNIOLA. begins with ordinary typeset capital I).

Approximate number of copies printed: 6675.

References Ort 14a: H.H. Cline 1962: The Ortelius maps of New Spain, and related contemporary materials 1560-1610, Imago Mundi 16, pp. 98-115. 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.

Remarks: a fragment of Ort 14b was published on a stamp of 3 Pesos issued by the government of Cuba in 1973.

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