Index by (van den
Broecke) Ort Numbers
Introduction
Introduction to the texts on the backside of each Ortelius
map
Structure and characteristics of the texts
Typographical conventions and approach used in the modernisation
of the texts
Publications on Ortelius by Marcel van den Broecke
Bibliography
Access to background information per map
This part of our
website tries to give you concise but in-depth information on Ortelius' Atlas
Maps. Some of this information has also appeared in book format in my books
"Ortelius Atlas Maps", 312 pp., with 250 illustrations, HeS
Publishers, 1996, ISBN 90 6194 308 6, and in "Ortelius and the First
Atlas" edited together with P.C.J. van der Krogt & P.H. Meurer, 430
pp., HeS Publishers, 1998, ISBN 90 6194 388 4, but most of it is new and
appearing here for the first time. Note that, like all translations, the
translations of Latin texts on the maps themselves and on their backsides are
copyrighted. Feel free to use them and print them. However, if you are an
auction house, I insist that my name be mentioned. If you are a map dealer, you
can only use translations in your catalogues or websites if you mention my name
AND my website, so that your prices can be compared with mine, which gives the
prospective buyer a choice, We encourage price comparisons.
If you want to obtain
a factual description of any Ortelius atlas map, you will find it here. Each
map description typically starts with a picture of the map. This is followed by
the title of the map, usually in Latin, often with a translation), scale, size
of the plate (horizontal by vertical plate dimensions in millimeters),
occurrence in the various Theatrum editions and page number, cartographical
sources, bibliographical references, and any remarks that may be of relevance
to the reader, followed by a translation of the text, in some cases with an
indication from which edition a piece of text stems, and a list of
bibliographical sources, about which more below.
Note that occurrence
of a map in various editions of Ortelius' Theatrum is presented in an
abbreviated form in the following manner. First, the date of the edition is
given, e.g. 1575. Then a capital letter is appended indicating the language of
the edition:
L=Latin, D=Dutch, G=German, F=French, E=English, I=Italian, S=Spanish. A Roman
number from I to V which may follow indicates an Additamentum (=supplement)
edition (1 through 5). Then follows the page number of the map in that edition.
Thus, 1575L22 means: this map occurs in the 1575 Latin edition and has the page
number 22 in that edition. For those editions which appeared in various
versions, the year of publication is first followed by and A, B etc. Thus, the
second version of the first 1570L edition is called 1570BL. Four different
versions are distinguished for the 1570 Latin edition, viz. 1570AL, 1570BL,
1570 CL and 1570DL; three versions are distinguished for the 1573L edition, viz.
1573AL, 1573BL and 1573CL.
This part of the background information provided for each map resembles the map
descriptions provided in my book "Ortelius Atlas Maps". The
Ort-numbers for each Ortelius map provided in that book have been used here as
well. The descriptions as they occur in the book have undergone extensive error
correction and updating on the basis of information which I collected or which
was provided to me since the appearance of this book by its readers. Finally,
as mentioned above, I have added a modernised English version of the text,
prima- rily based on texts as they appear in the 1606 English edition of the
"Theatrum", but also from other editions. Which edition(s) have been
used for the translation is indicated by opening curly brackets with the
edition identification, then the text, then closing curly brackets of that
edition. An example : {1573L{ piece of text first occurring in the 1573L
edition }1573L}.
All texts have been divided into paragraphs in a rather arbitrary fashion. This
has been done to allow reference to a specific piece of text which would
otherwise be hard to locate, particularly in the case of long texts. Such texts
are particularly found on the Parergon maps, in some cases necessitating an
extra text leaf in the atlas, because the two folio sides on the back of the
map were too small to print all the text Ortelius wrote in spite of the very
small font used in such cases. This paragraph numbering system is also used for
indicating the location of bibliographical sources (see further below)
mentioned in the texts. Map descriptions without the accompanying texts still
occur on this website for some of the less important maps, but we intend to
fill these holes in the course of time.
Each map description
ends after the translated text with an alphabetical list of bibliographical
sources and the paragraph in which they occur. If not only an author is
mentioned, but his book as well, this book is indicated in the concluding list.
Only those names from the text which refer to authors of written material that
Ortelius used to write his text are listed. Historical figures who did not
provide bibliographical input for Ortelius are not listed. I intend to merge
the bibliographical list of each map into an overall list to obtain an insight
into the total number of different sources and the frequency of use of each of
these sources, arguably representing the books which found their way into
Ortelius library in the course of time. That his library was very large is
confirmed by eye witnesses who called his house, (and he regularly moved to
bigger ones in
Users of the
information presented here may consider buying the book "Ortelius Atlas
Maps" (for Euro 56,75 plus postage) from the publisher: URL http://www.forum-hes.nl, e-mail Hesselink@forum-hes.nl or from me, in
case you want an autographed copy: Email info@orteliusmaps.com,
or from Mercator's World: URLhttp://www.mercatorsworld.com
(for US $ 75 plus postage). This may be preferable to downloading and printing
what soon becomes an unmanageable pile of paper of more than 1500 pages.
However, the book does not contain any map texts except the one for the
Hollandiae Catthorum map.
It is surprising that
so little attention has been paid so far to the texts which accompany each
atlas map of Ortelius. This may have to do with the fact that most editions of
Ortelius' "Theatrum" appeared in Latin, a language little known
today, having lost its prominent position as the "Lingua Franca" of
the scientific and cultured community that it occupied during the Renaissance.
These texts were certainly all written by Ortelius himself if introduced into
his atlas before his death in 1598. Texts appearing on maps introduced after
Ortelius' death were written by Vrients and later by the Plantin-Moretus
family. The texts of maps introduced by Ortelius do no longer grow in length
with each edition and clearly lack the driving force for updating information
which was so typical of Ortelius. Incidentally, Octavo (http://www.octavo.com) has recently published
a CD-ROM facsimile of Mercators Atlas of 1595 which includes a translation of
all Latin text occurring in this edition, altogether a hefty file of 416 text
pages. Part of these texts are concerned with Mercators philosophy on the
history and present state of the world, another part consists of translations
of all the texts on the backside of the maps. These texts show clear
correspondences between Mercators texts and those written by Ortelius, and
constitute an intriguing research subject by themselves.
The texts contain a
wealth of information about the area depicted on the map to which they are
attached and sometimes also information about the map itself, to which they may
refer explicitly. Further, texts will contain economic, cultural and social
characteristics of the region depicted and its inhabitants, its history as it
has been described by classical and "modern", that is contemporary
16th century authors, and a listing of the variety of names that have been
given to the area, its cities and its inhabitants in the course of time. See
further below. For additional information on geographical names, Ortelius often
refers to his book "Thesaurus", or Treasury, which is fully devoted
to the subject of geographical nomenclature, but which contains no maps.
All in all, the texts provide very useful background information on the areas
depicted providing a better insight into the salient features of the map to
which they refer.
The texts vary in
length between about 200 and 12,000 words, and, as said, tend to grow in length
with each new edition of the "Theatrum". Generally, the Parergon maps
have longer texts than the "modern" ones, exemplifying Ortelius' close
attachment to these reconstructed Roman maps, representing "the eye of
history" as Ortelius explains on the Parergon title page. Languages used
for the various editions of this atlas are Latin, Dutch, German, French,
Spanish, Italian and English. Even native speakers of these languages
(excluding Latin, no longer spoken by anyone) have difficulty understanding
their own language as it was written 400 years ago, due to irregular spelling,
change of the meaning of words, archaic expressions, exotic fonts (including
Gothic) and so on. Therefore, I have taken the English texts as far as they
occur in the (only) English edition of 1606 as my starting point for providing
translations into Modern English. With 166 maps, this edition covers a large
part of the 228 maps which were used over the entire series of editions of
Ortelius' atlas, which span the period between 1570 and 1624 (for some maps
even to 1641). These texts have been modernised so as to make them accessible
for anyone who understands present day English. For maps not occurring in the
1606 English edition, texts have been translated from other languages of other
editions, usually Latin, French, German or Dutch, because of my greater
familiarity with these languages as compared to Italian and Spanish.
Ultimately, it is my intention to provide for each map a complete text history
on this website, indicating which passages were added (and which were deleted)
at which particular point in time over the period 1570-1624. Most texts
presented on this web site do not (yet) show this history, but we thought it
helpful to provide this intermediate information, rather than to wait with
their publication until all text-histories of each of the 228 maps had been
compiled in a definitive form, which may take another couple of years. In other
words, these texts represent work in progress, and should be considered as
such. I express the hope that others will become aware of the significance of
maps texts which were introduced as a standard atlas feature by Ortelius,
continued to be provided in atlases after Ortelius' example until about 1700,
and then began to disappear from the back sides of atlas maps, giving way to
specific text sections, no longer linked to maps.
On the whole, the
contents of the map texts follow a regular pattern. First a discussion is
presented on the various names of the area and its inhabitants, often providing
linguistic data from classical and modern authors, mostly called
"historiographers" by Ortelius. Then, there may be a short discussion
on possible changes in the size and borders of the country or area under
discussion, the characteristics of its most prominent cities, their products
and salient features, the history of the inhabitants, their religion, and any
miracles that may be connected to the area. Texts were written as 16th century
tourist folders, extolling all the eminent characteristics of the region, which
are invariably "goodly", that is, "excellent". Exceptions
to this positive approach occur only rarely. An example is the text belonging
to the map of
However, Ortelius has
a critical attitude towards his sources, which stands in contrast with the
positive promotional attitude towards the region under discussion that we just
mentioned. He may devote an inordinate amount of text to a discussion of
differences between authors in their reports on the region. He warns which
authors are unreliable and "of dubious credit", who "have been
dreaming" and praises authors that he admires for their credibility
(Strabo and Pliny in particular). Whenever he obtains first hand information
about an area, he will mention the name of his source, often identifying this
source as one of his personal friends or acquaintances. (For more information
on Ortelius' text sources, see Brandmayer). Sometimes, he is wordy to the point
of loquaciousness and circumlocution, to use Charles Dickens' term. Sometimes,
when sources disagree, Ortelius takes sides and tells why, sometimes he
professes his ignorance in the matter and leaves it to the reader himself,
usually called student of geography, to choose what he likes best. As a true
Renaissance humanist, Ortelius is fascinated by information from classical sources,
but he maintains a critical attitude towards these sources, as appears from the
following extract from the text on Ort 19, Angliae Regnum, paragraph 21-23:
"21. ... Cardane
says That Historians and Writers of those times (between four hundred and five hundred
years ago) were so delighted with fables and lies that they competed who could
lie fastest and win the whetstone. It was, as you see, the fault of the time
and age in which he lived, not the man.
22. The learned
Orator Tully, in the second book of his Offices, as I remember, thus describes
the virtues of the true Historiographer:
"Ne quid falsi
scribere audeat; Ne quid veri non audeat; Ne quam in scribendo suspitionem
gratiae; Ne quam simultatis ostendat". <that is:>
A good Historian may
not dare to write anything that is false; He may not be afraid to write
anything that is true; He must not show any partiality or favour in writing; He
ought to be void of all affection and malice.
Learned Antiquaries
follow this good advice of the grave philosopher. Sell us no more rubbish for
pure metal. Refine what you read and write. Not every tale that is told is
true. Some authors lack judgement, others honesty. Let no man be believed for
being ancient.
23. For you know what
Meander says: <in Greek lettering:>Ouk ai piches poiusin ai loukai
phronein, <that is:>"Grey hairs are not always a sign of wisdom and
deep understanding."
Old men sometimes
doze, and will lie as well as others. One says "Nescio quo casu illud
evenit, ut falsa potius quam vera animum nostrum captant", <that
is:> "I cannot tell how it comes to pass but it is surely true that we
are more easily carried away by lies and fables than by truth". And how
hard it is to remove an opinion, once it has settled however false and absurd,
anyone with experience knows."
So far Ortelius on
his bibliographical sources. One wonders how this attitude can be reconciled
with Ortelius' predilection to report wonders. There is hardly any map text
which does not contain the description of a miracle of one kind or another,
often concluded by a remark of the sort: "if you believe one half of it, I
will believe the other half". I think the answer to this question is
mundane: in spite of the fact that Ortelius invariably addresses his reader as
being "studious in geography", he knew that many of the readers and
buyers of his atlas were not so much interested in geographical truth, but
rather in exciting, exotic wonders and miracles. This phenomenon can be seen as
early as the Nurnberg Chronicle of 1493, the world map of which features all
kinds of weird humanoids with two heads etc., supposedly inhabiting exotic,
distant and dangerous lands. Such information provided amusement and thrills.
Readers in Ortelius' time were no different, and Ortelius knew it. His habitual
inclusion of miracles in his map texts caters for this kind of reader (and
buyer) of his atlas.
Whatever the case may
be, the texts provide additional insights into the map under discussion as well
as about the author of these texts, Ortelius himself.
The typography of the
originals has been followed as closely as possible, taking the 1606 English
edition typography as a model wherever I could. In some texts, the default font
is italic, with proper names and place names in non-italic. But more often,
typography is used in a reverse manner: proper names and place names are then
in italic or capitals, the rest in non-italic. I have tried to retain the
archaic flavour of the texts rather than attempting to modernise the texts to
the extent that they truly read like having been written today. Where this led
to texts which are difficult to understand, explanatory or additional words or
word groups have been added between angled brackets <like this>. Gothic
fonts have been represented in capitals whereas Greek lettering has been
transcribed into Roman lettering accompanied by an indication that
transcription from Greek has taked place. Arabic lettering has not been
reproduced in any way due to both my ignorance of this language and to my
inability to represent it on my computer, let alone on the web. Incidentally,
in the English edition of the "Theatrum" there are mostly open spaces
where Arabic should have appeared. This is probably due to the similar
incapacity of the publisher of the English edition, John Norton (this in
contrast to Plantin, producer of most "Theatrum" editions), to
typeset Arabic. Where texts have retained Latin in the English (or other living
language) editions, I try to provide translations into modern English. As
indicated above, a text is opened by an edition identifyer between opening
curly brackets and closed by that edition identifyer with closing curly
brackets showing from which edition a text originates. Example: {1584{ text
}1584} indicates that the text between the sets of curly brackets was
introduced for the first time in the 1584 Latin edition.
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1986) How rare is a map and the
atlas it comes from? Facts and speculations on production and survival of
Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum and its maps The Map Collector 36:
2-15
Broecke, M.P.R. van den, (1994) Variaties binnen edities van oude atlassen,
geïllustreerd aan Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Caert
Thresoor 13 (4): 103-110
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1995a) Unstable editions of Ortelius' atlas The Map Collector
70: 2-8
Broecke, M.P.R. van den, (1995b) Ortelius zag de continenten al drijven Caert-Thresoor
14: 9-10
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1996a) Ortelius Atlas Maps: an illustrated guide 't Goy-Houten,
HES Publishers
Broecke, M.P.R. van den, (1996b) Platen en staten in Ortelius' Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum, in: Capita Selecta uit de geschiedenis van de
kartografie, ed. P. van der Krogt. NVK publikatiereeks nr. 18, Amersfoort,
Nederlandse Vereniging voor Kartografie, 39-42
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1997) Abraham Ortelius Mercators World 2(3): 18-24
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1998a) Introduction to the Life and Works of Abraham Ortelius, in: Abraham
Ortelius and the First Atlas, (M.P.R. van den Broecke, P. van der Krogt
& P.H. Meurer, eds.) 't Goy-Houten, HES Publishers, pp. 29-54
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1998b) The Plates of Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, in: Abraham
Ortelius and the First Atlas, (M.P.R. van den Broecke, P. van der Krogt
& P.H. Meurer, eds.) 't Goy-Houten, HES Publishers, pp. 383-390
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, (1998c) Unmasking a Forgery Mercators World 3(3): 46-49
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den, & D. Günzburger (1998) The Wanderings of patriarch Abraham, in: Abraham
Ortelius and the First Atlas, (M.P.R. van den Broecke, P. van der Krogt
& P.H. Meurer, eds.) 't Goy-Houten, HES Publishers, pp. 319-330
Broecke, M.P.R, P.
van der Krogt & P.H. Meurer (1998), (eds.) Abraham Ortelius and the
First Atlas, 't Goy-Houten, HES Publishers, 425 pp.
Broecke, M.P.R. van den (1998d) Abraham Ortelius, grondlegger van de
moderne kartografie, in Kartografisch Tijdschrift 24: 4-8
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den (1999) Ortelius as a Scientist, Collector and Merchant, Journal of the
International Map Collector’s Society 77: 21-31, based on a
presentation given at the Meeting of the Brussels International Map Collectors
Circle on December 12, 1998
Broecke, M.P.R. van
den (2002) Historical Maps in the First Modern Atlas by Abraham Ortelius
– Their Justification and Purpose, exemplified by their texts, Brussels
International Map Collector Society (BIMCS), February 2002
Broecke, M.P.R. van den (2003a) Historische kaarten en hun teksten in de
eerste moderne atlas van Abraham Ortelius, Caert-Thresoor 22(2): 29-39,
with an English summary.
Broecke, M.P.R. van den (2003b) Correcties op het boek Ortelius Atlas
Maps , Caert-Thresoor 22(2): 60-61.
Broecke, Marcel van den (2004a) De eerste staat van Vrients’/Philip
Galle’s Inferioris Germaniae kaart gevonden, Caert-Thresoor 23(1):
1-4, with an English summary.
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2004b) De Utopia kaart van Ortelius, Caert-Thresoor 23(4):
89-93, with an English summary and a facsimile of Ortelius’Utopia map.
Broecke, Marcel van
den & F. Ormeling (2005a) 1596 Ortelius’map of Utopia; What’s
in a name? in Peter Barber (editor) The Map Book, p. 132-133, Weidenfeld
& Nicholson, London.
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2005b) Has the fourth Ortelius Americas plate ever been used? Map
Forum 7:28-32
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2005c) Ortelius’s map texts and oceanography International
Journal for the history of oceanography Issue 17, p. 4 – 7, http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume3_number2-3_AugDec04/ocgr%20pdf%20archive/HISTOC17.pdf
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2006) Unmasking another Ortelius atlas map forgery:
Broecke, Marcel van den (2007) Ortelius Zeeland kaart revisited. Caert-Thresoor
26:16.
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2008) The Significance of Language: The Texts on the Verso of the Maps in
Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Imago Mundi
60(2):192-200
Broecke, Marcel van den (2009) Ortelius’
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570-1641), characteristics and development of a
sample of on verso map texts.
Broecke, Marcel van den (2011a)
Ortelius’ Epitomes? Caert-Thresoor 30:47-51.
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2011b) Ortelius Atlas Maps An
illustrated guide. Second, revised edition. ISBN 978 90 6194 380 8. HES
& DE GRAAF, Houten, the
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2013a) Ortelius’ Brittenburg, Caert-Thresoor
32(2) p. 42-46.
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2013b) Ortelius’ engravers and engravings. How many engravers did
Ortelius employ for his maps, and can they be identified? Imcos Journal No. 134, Autumn 2012, p. 29-37.
Broecke, Marcel van
den (2014) Ortelius’s Library Reconstructed. Imago Mundi 66.1 p. 25-50.
Access:
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/F8JYYpY2qtDf5KAUc2ki/full
I have prepared a selective bibliography on Ortelius.
There are various
ways to locate and open the individual map descriptions including their texts:
2.
The link
"background" on our home page leads to the present page, which
includes three indexes:
an
index of all map titles, alphabetically
ordered,
an
index by area, both covering the entire set of
Ortelius map from Ort1 to Ort234, and
an
index by (van den Broecke) Ort numbers.