Catalog Archive
Auction 183, Lot 311

"Europae", Ortelius, Abraham

Subject: Europe

Period: 1595 (published)

Publication: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum

Color: Hand Color

Size:
18 x 13.4 inches
45.7 x 34 cm
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This handsome map was based on Gerard Mercator's 1554 map of Europe and incorporates Magnus' information on Scandinavia and Jenkinson's map for Russia. The map extends to include Iceland and part of Greenland, and there is a tiny bit of Labrador intruding into the map at upper left. It also extends into western Asia and Northern Africa based on Gastaldi's cartography. Finely engraved with a stippled sea and modestly adorned with a sailing ship, compass rose, and a tent encampment in Russia. The personification of Europa being abducted by Zeus in the form a bull graces the title cartouche. This is Ortelius' second map of Europe, which replaced the original copper plate in 1584. Latin text on verso.

References: Van den Broecke #5.

Condition: B

A dark impression with full contemporary color on paper with the crossed arrows watermark commonly found on Ortelius maps with some printer's ink residue and very light toning and soiling. The map has been professionally backed in thin tissue to repair several separations along the centerfold, some cracks caused by the oxidation of the green pigment, and tears in the top blank margin.

Estimate: $600 - $750

Sold for: $450

Closed on 6/9/2021

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