Unstable editions of Ortelius' atlas

1-7-2010

As a true humanist and renaissance cartographer, Ortelius was keenly interested in the geographical knowledge of classical antiquity. The Parergon maps, which he considered his major cartographical achievement, bear witness to this. As early as 1578, Ortelius knew about the existence of the Peutinger tables and tried to get hold of them. They show the Roman world view around the third century. The original, found by Konrad Celtes (1459-1508) in a library in Augsburg, came into the hands of Konrad Peutinger (1465-1547) and later went to his relative Marcus Welser. Welser was the first to publish a copy of it in 1591 at Aldus Manutius in Venice, which Ortelius possessed but found inadequate and insufficient, since it seemed to deviate in many respects from the original. In 1598 new, more accurate copies were made by Welser at Ortelius' request. These formed the basis of his Peutinger tables in four sheets. Proof prints from these plates went back to Marcus, were compared with the original and corrected accordingly. The original Peutinger Tables disappeared, were found back in 1714 and are now in the National Library in Vienna. Because of damage and progressive blackening of colours of the 11 (once 12) original sheets of parchment, together once forming a roll, Ortelius' version now is the most reliable representation. Ortelius supervised the engravings but did not live to see the final result, which was first published by Moretus in 1598 as a separate booklet with text by Ortelius. Subsequently, Bertius included prints from these plates in his Theatrum Geographiae Veteris without text. It was not until 1624 that the tables finally appeared in the last edition of Ortelius' Parergon, produced by Plantijn-Moretus. To demonstrate the importance Ortelius attached to these tables, consider his final piece of text accompanying them (translated from Latin): "Farewell dear spectator and dear reader, enjoy this monument which, although it has plenty of shortcomings, does not have an equal or even anything like it under all the relicts from antiquity".

The sheets form a road map. The North-South dimension is heavily crushed. The first segment begins with England and Spain. Most space and greatest accuracy is devoted to Italy and Greece (segments 2-5). The Roman world ends in the east with the river Ganges and the island of Ceylon. Shown here are the first and last segment.

Finally, there is a mystery category. It is unclear why a new Abraham plate (25P/I) was made next to the old one (12P) since they were used side by side for some time. They differ mainly in the diagonal direction of the background hatching, and must have taken a great deal of time and effort to engrave due to the delicacy of the scenes in the twenty-two medallions surrounding the map. Maybe the plate was lost for a time.

Then there is the matter of copyright or privilegio. An older version of 'Artois' (map 82) was reintroduced at a later stage, when a newer version (map 115) was already available. This had to do with privilege as indicated by Denucé[4]. Some offprints of this map were included in the Latin edition of 1575 in the expectation that privilege would be obtained from Philip II but when it was refused a new version was made. When the privilege was finally granted, the old plate reappeared. Finally, as Meurer points out, there may also have been parallel printing of nearly identical plates on different presses to speed up production. Homann at one stage employed three plates for one map in parallel. These prints can be distinguished only by the differing widths between the edge of the print to the edge of the platemark.

No systematic, exhaustive attempt has so far been made to identify the various states of each of the plates and it is beyond the scope of this paper. However, on the basis of meticulous inspection of various copies from a few plates in different editions (such as plates 41, 42, and 43 by László Gróf[5]), plate 18 'Zeelandicarum' by Frans Gittenberger (unpublished), plates 1, 112/I, and 113 'Typus Orbis'[6] or plate 19 'Hollandiae' in my paper,[1] it seems fair to assume that all plates except the very shortlived ones, existed in more than one state. This is understandable as copperplates wore out quickly and needed recutting after 1000 impressions. Some had even shorter lives giving only 300 impressions. Correcting a plate was obviously more economical than replacing it.

In addition, there are also different variants which resulted from damage to the plate (See letter from R. Shirley to Editor of TMC about definition of state. Issue 67, p.56). The first plate of the world map is a case in point; in 1575 its lower left corner broke off. As an engraved copperplate took two to six months to engrave it represented a considerable investment and could not be easily discarded. Therefore, copperplates were repaired whenever that turned out to be feasible. The world map plate was repaired by bolting a sustaining piece of copper to the back of the plate. An image of these bolts can be seen in the impressions and help identify the version. Shirley[7] and personal communication discern the following states for the three plates of the Ortelius world map:

1 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1

State 1 1570-1579 (from 1575 with bolt impressions in lower left corner)
State 2 1579-1584 crack somewhat mended, clouds reworked
State 3 1584-1585 date 1584 (or 1585) added to the right of Franciscus Hogenberg Sculpsit

112/I Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 2

State 1 1586 unsigned, slightly smaller than plate 1, bordering clouds retained, dated 1586
State 2 1587-1589 as state 1 but without date
State 3 1588-1585 as State 2 but with corrected coastline of South America

113 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 3

State 1 1588-1612 medallions in corners, geographically revised, dated 1587
State 2 1628 Le Maire Strait added, date removed

Rather than showing what the Romans knew of the world, this map shows the Roman empire itself. The medallions in the top corners show the legendary founders Romulus and Remus, the tree at the lower right corner the lineage of subsequent Roman kings (double circles) and their wives (single circles), based on the historical writings of Livius, Dionysius and Plutarchus.

This map shows the area where Alexander the Great made his conquests, beginning in Egypt, where the Ammon-Jupiter oracle (see lower left) welcomed him as "Son of Zeus" and predicted a great future for him. The numerous cities in Persia called Alexandria which he founded are also shown.

Another case of damage through use, this time with no repair attempted, is the plate of the African continent. From 1602 onwards the part of the copperplate for the lettering Africae Tabula Nova in the main cartouche began to crack. The later the print, the clearer these cracks become. Obviously, such unintended "states" can be used to date maps just as successfully as purposeful alterations although they are not formally recognised as new states.