This is a scarce and beautiful 1584 map of Palestine, Israel or the Holy Land by Abraham Orteilus. It extends from Beirut (Berytus) to Egypt and the Nile Delta and south as far as the Red Sea. This map shows the course of the Israelites as they fled out of Egypt, across the Red Sea into Palestine.
The city of Ramesse is indicated as the starting point of the Biblical Exodus and the wandering of the Hebrews. We can follow their path into the desert and across the Red Sea following Moses' parting of the Red Sea. Now in the Sinai, we can follow the footsteps of the Hebrews to Mount Sinai (Mons Sinai) and their subsequent wanderings in the Sinai over the next forty years before migrating into the Promised Land by crossing the Jordan River just north of the Dead Sea. Forty one stations, each signifying a year of the Wandering, is noted throughout. Numerous Biblical sites are noted throughout.
A beautiful cartouche in the top left quadrant features a description of the region, while another beautifully engraved title cartouche adorns the lower right quadrant. This map was issued by Ortelius in his scarce 1584 issued of Theatrum Orbis Terrarium.
Abraham Ortelius (April 14, 1527 - June 28, 1598) also known as Ortels, was a cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer of Brabant, active in Antwerp. He was the creator of the first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum and is a seminal figure in the history of cartography. Along with Gerard Mercator and Gemma Frisius, he was a founder of the Netherlandish school of cartography. His connections with Spain - culminating in his 1575 appointment as Royal Cartographer to King Phillip II of Spain - gave him unmatched access to Spanish geographical knowledge during a crucial period of the Age of Discovery. Ortelius was born in 1527 in Antwerp. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an illuminator of maps. He began trading in books, prints, and maps, traveling regularly to the Frankfurt book and print fair, where in 1554 he met Mercator. He accompanied Mercator on journeys throughout France in 1560 and it was at this time, under Mercator's influence, that he appears to have chosen his career as a scientific geographer. His first published geographic work appeared in 1564, an eight-sheet cordiform world map. A handful of other maps preceded the 1570 publication of the first edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, which would prove to be his life work. Appearing with but 53 maps in its first edition, Ortelius' work expanded with new maps added regularly. By 1592, it had 134 maps. Many of Ortelius' maps remained the standard for nearly a century. He traveled extensively, but his genius was as a compiler, locating the best informed maps on which to base his own. His contacts throughout Europe and extending even (via the Portuguese) to the Far East were formidable. Moreover, many of his maps were based on his own scholarship, particularly his historical works. His theories of geography were particularly ahead of his time with respect to the notion of continental drift, the possibility of which he mused on as early as 1596, and which would be proven correct centuries later.
In a sense his greatest achievement was his successful navigation of the religious and political violence endemic to his city throughout his adult life: The Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years' War (1568 - 1648), fully embroiled Antwerp. Although outwardly and officially recognized as Catholic (Arias Montanus vouched for Ortelius' Catholic orthodoxy prior to his appointment as Royal Geographer), Ortelius was able to separate himself from the religious furor which characterized the war in the low countries. Ortelius showed a glimpse of himself in a letter to a friend, regarding humanist Justus Lipsius: 'I do not know whether he is an adherent of the Pope or a Calvinist, but if he has ears to hear, he will neither be one nor the other, for sins are committed on both sides'. Ortelius' own explorations of Biblical history in his maps, and the Christogram contained in his own motto, suggest him to be a religious man, but his abjuration of political religious authorities mark him as an individualist. His tombstone at St Michael's Præmonstratensian Abbey in Antwerp bears the inscription, Quietis cultor sine lite, uxore, prole. ('served quietly, without accusation, wife, and offspring.') More by this mapmaker...
Ortelius, A., Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Antwerp, 1584.
Very good. Minor wear along original centerfold. Original platemark visible.
OCLC Number: 57232682. Laor, E., Maps of the Holy Land: Cartobibliography of Printed Maps, 1475 - 1900, #540B.