The world's first modern atlas – before Australia was discovered – is to go under the hammer for £60,000.
The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was an early attempt at pulling together all the maps of the known world in a single volume.
It was compiled by Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius 437 years ago – before then no one had arranged maps logically by continent, region and state.
His works, first published in Latin, Dutch, French and German by 1572, became the most comprehensive summary of 16th Century cartography.
It contained fifty-three sheets with a total of seventy copperplate maps, most of them engraved by Flemish artist Frans Hogenberg, and thirty-five leaves of text.
There was a growing demand for maps at the time due to the expanding colonisation and development of commerce.
Due to their age, the hand drawn maps do not feature Australia or New Zealand, as they had not been discovered.
The world’s largest oceans are also filled with depictions of sea monsters.
The atlas is going under the hammer at Sotheby’s Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History auction in London next month.
The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was an early attempt at pulling together all the maps of the known world in a single volume.
It was compiled by Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius 437 years ago – before then no one had arranged maps logically by continent, region and state.
His works, first published in Latin, Dutch, French and German by 1572, became the most comprehensive summary of 16th Century cartography.
It contained fifty-three sheets with a total of seventy copperplate maps, most of them engraved by Flemish artist Frans Hogenberg, and thirty-five leaves of text.
There was a growing demand for maps at the time due to the expanding colonisation and development of commerce.
Due to their age, the hand drawn maps do not feature Australia or New Zealand, as they had not been discovered.
The world’s largest oceans are also filled with depictions of sea monsters.
The atlas is going under the hammer at Sotheby’s Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History auction in London next month.
Music: "Send for the Horses" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: The Sun, Wikipedia
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