A Special Collections Exhibition
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Uniformly- Composed Collections of Maps, Charts and Plans |
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Map of Ptolemy’s known world, from Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis
Terrarum, 1595
During
the middle decades of the sixteenth century, many maps were produced, showing
not only areas of land, but also the seas and cities, and as we have seen,
sometimes these various maps were gathered together by collectors into Lafreri
atlases. Then in 1570 Abraham Ortelius changed the main way of portraying the
world, by bringing out an atlas (as it soon came to be called) of about seventy
maps in a uniform format. Like the Geography of Ptolemy, this Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum of Ortelius then went through many translations and editions.
Our plate comes from the edition of 1595, and shows a map from the Parergon,
or historical section. It depicts on the world an image of the oikumene,
or world known in the days of Ptolemy.
© Special Collections Division
The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
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