Cartographica Neerlandica Background for Ortelius Map No. 77

Title: FLANDRIAE | COMITATVS | DESCRIPTIO. | "Ad autographum Gerardi Mercatoris, in hanc for:|mulam contrahebat, parergaque addebat; Ab. Ortelius." [Depiction of the region of Flanders, after the manuscript map of Gerardus Mercator, in this form summarised, and provided with additional matters by Abraham Ortelius]. (Lower left:) "Cum priuilegio | ad decennium. | 1590". [With a privilege for ten years. 1590.] (Inset map without title of ancient Walcheren and NW-Flanders) Facies huius tractus sub Guido:|ne Dampetra, Flandriæ Comite. | qui obijt anno M.CCC.IIII. [The way this area looked at the time of Guidonus Dampetra, count of the Flanders region, who died in the year 1304].

Plate size: 377 x 492 mm.
Identification number: Ort 77 (Koeman/Meurer: 125, Karrow: 1/187, van der Krogt AN: 3200:31C)
Scale: 1 : 400,000.

Occurrence in Theatrum editions and page number:

1592L40 (400 copies printed) (last line, centred like 3 lines above it: Meyeri Flandricarum rerum Tomos decem.),
1595L42 (500 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Tomos decem.),
1598/1610/1613D34 (100 copies printed) (last line, centred like 3 lines above it: was, daer af ghevrijdt ende zijns selfs ghemaeckt.),
1598F45 (525 copies printed) (last line, full width: rendu à soymesme,par l'accord fait à Madril, entre sa Maiesté & le Roy de France.),
1601L42 (200 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: dricarum rerum Tomos decem.),
1602G45 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like 6 lines above it, in Gothic script like the entire text: Flandern.),
1602S45 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: de Iacobo Meyero.),
1603blank (Vri1), no text, no page number,
1603L45 (300 copies printed) (6th line from the top ends: Teutonicam, ; last line, left aligned: dricarum rerum Tomos decem.),
1606E42 (300 copies printed) (in some copies added in ms: 43.44.45) (last line, left aligned, mostly italic like the rest of the text: "reade also" Iacobus Meierus "his ten tomes of" Flanders "affaires".),
1608/1612I50 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: volumi delle cose di Fiandria del Meiero.),
1609/1612L49 (300 copies printed) (6th line from the top ends: Teutonicam ; last line, left aligned: dricarum rerum Tomos decem.),
1609/1612/1641S48 (325 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Marchante.Mira tambien los diez tomos de las cosas de Flandes de Iacobo Meyero.).

Approximate number of copies printed: 3750.

States: 77.1 as described. Note a small crack in the copperplate in the top margin, second block ornament from the left, just left of the cross of five balls, present from 1592 onwards, which worsens in the course of the time that this plate was used.
77.2: date removed after 1612.
77.3: "Theodore Galle" added around 1628.
77.4: signature "Theodore Galle" no longer visible: removed or covered around 1641.

Cartographic sources: Gerard Mercator's 1540 Flanders map (Karrow 56/6, p. 379-382, Meurer p. 196). In the introductory text to the 1603 Latin edition, Marcus Laurin, Lord of Watervliet, is mentioned as a source for this map.

References: H.A.M. van der Heijden "Ortelius and the Netherlands", p. 271-290 in: M. van den Broecke, P. van der Krogt and P. Meurer (eds.) "Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas", HES Publishers, 1998

Remarks: Replaces oval plate Ort 76.

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