Beautiful original coloured map of the African continent. From the 1598 French edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius. Fifth state of the copperplate, still the date 1570 is present in the cartouche which was removed between 1606 and 1612 (van den Broecke). The cartographical source of this map comes from Gastaldi (1505-1566) and his 8 sheet map of Africa (1564). Also parts of the Mercator Africa map of 1569 are present (Meurer p. 151).
Minor overall toning. Small tears in centrefold repaired. Small tear in upper margin. Very good condition in excellent original colour.
Abraham Ortelius was born 1527 in Antwerp. He studied mathematics, Greek and Latin and travelled a lot across Europe. He established a business in dealing with books and drawing maps. His first remarkable map was a 8 sheet world map in the year 1564, but only three copies have survived. In 1570 he issued the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern Atlas with uniformly sized maps in a systematic collection. The term Atlas was not used until Mercator introduced it 20 years later. Most of the maps in Theatrum have been engraved by Frans Hogenberg. At the time of publication, the atlas was the most expensive book ever printed. Nevertheless it was a big success and around 7000 copies have been printed until 1612 in many editions and six different languages. Beside the Theatrum, Ortelius compiled a series of historical maps and published it in the Parergon Theatri which was bound with the Theatrum from 1579 onwards or published separately.
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Abraham Ortelius: Africae tabula nova.
Old coloured map of the African continent. Printed in Antwerp in the year 1598.
Africa - Ortelius, Abraham - Africae tabula nova