Cartographica Neerlandica Background for Ortelius Map No. 17

Title: ANGLIAE ET HIBERNIAE | ACCVRATA DESCRIPTIO, | VETERIBVS ET RECENTIORIBVS | NOMINIBVS ILLVSTRATA: | ET AD D. GVLIEL. CAMDENI BRITANIAM ACCOMODATA.|"Nominibus Antiquis * vel pręponitur vel postponitur". [An accurate depiction of England and Ireland, enriched with ancient and modern names, and approved by William Camden from Britain. With ancient names placed before or after](cartouche middle bottom:) "Ioannes Baptista Vrints. | Geographicarum tabularum | calcographus, excud. Antverpię" [Joannes Baptist Vrients, designer of geographical maps, made in Antwerp]. (cartouche upper right corner:) "PROGENIES REGVM ANGLIĘ AB GVILELMI CONQVEST. | TEMPORIBVS VSQVE AD HVNC DIEM. Anno Dm. 1605 | SER.MOINVICTISSIMOQVE IACOBO MAGNĘ BRI:|TANNIĘ, FRANCIĘ, ET HIBERNIĘ REGI, | IOANNES BAPTISTA VRINTS ANTVERPIANVS, D.DEDICAT [Pedigree of British kings from William the Conqueror to the present day, in the year of our Lord 1605, dedicated by Joannes Baptista Vrients to the invincible James the Great, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland (followed by a genealogical tree starting at the bottom with William the Conqueror and ending at the top with king James the Great (James I)], [stating of him in a circle] "1603 Iacobus | Magnę Brittan:|nię, Francię, et | Hibernię | Rex".) [1603 James the Great, king of Great Britain, France and Ireland]. (cartouche bottom left corner starting "CATALOGVS Vrbium ..." [list of cities] 4 lines at the top, legend, 52 shires with their characteristics in 10 columns, split over a full and half size list).

Plate size: 441 x 565 mm
Scale: 1 : 2,000,000
Identification number: Ort 17 (Koeman/Meurer: 148, not in Karrow, vdKrogt 5000:31B).

Occurrence in Theatrum editions and page number:

1606E12 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: hadin "Brittaine".),
1608/1612I12 ((300 copies printed) last line, left aligned: & l'istesso ha per le mani il trattato dell'imperio de Romani in Britannia.),
1609/1612/1641S12 (325 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tre manos d'el Imperio de los Romanos en Bretańa.),
1609/1612L12 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: in Britannia imperio prę manibus habet.).

Approximate number of copies printed: 1250.

States: 17.1a: the state described above applies to 1606E and some 1608I.
17.1b of state 1 is a variant found in most 1608I and 1609L editions have a slip pasted over the dedication to James I, thus removing it. The text on the slip reads "Unum qua ad Dominum Britannia tota redisti,|Una tibi ō redeat sic quoque prisca fides".
17.2: after 1609L, we find state 2 of the plate, which no longer has James' dedication. The information on James in the circle now reads "1603 Iacobus Magnę Britannię Rex". Whether the removal of James' dedication and the change in his circle in the tree occurred exactly at the same time is unclear. To make matters more complicated, state 1 was also printed without text on verso and used later in editions concurrently with state 2. This information is based on Shirley (see below) and on thorough and inventive analysis by Arthur L. Kelly.

Cartographic sources: an anonymous map of 1594 (Shirley map 177), itself based on Hondius' map of 1592 (Shirley map 164).

References: R.W. Shirley (1991) Early Printed Maps of the British Isles 1477-1650, Antique Atlas Publications, p. 112-113. A. Kelly "Maps of the British Isles, England and Wales, and Ireland", p. 221-238, in Van den Broecke, van der Krogt & Meurer (eds.) "Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas, 1998, HES Publishers.

Remarks: as will be noted, although the map by Vrients is new, the text retains the characteristics that Ortelius gave in Ort16, but was almost completely stripped of most bibliographical sources. Daniel Rogers is still called "my kinsman" which seems to mean that Vrients presents this text as having been written by Ortelius and not by himself, which is correct.

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