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1579 / 1595 Ortelius Map of Anjou, France
Anjou-ortelius-1579$175.00
Title
Andegavensium Ditionis Vera et Integra Descriptio.
1579 (dated) 14 x 18.75 in (35.56 x 47.625 cm) 1 : 350000
1579 (dated) 14 x 18.75 in (35.56 x 47.625 cm) 1 : 350000
Description
A beautiful example, in superb original color, of Abraham Ortelius' 1579 map of the Duchy of Anjou, now largely consistent with the Department of Maine-et-Loire. Ortelius sourced his map from a now-lost map produced in 1573 by Lezin Guyet (1515 - 1580,) who lived in Anjou and whose map was dedicated to the Duke of Anjou. At the time the map was produced, the Dukes of Anjou were embroiled in the French Wars of Religion. This part of the Loire valley is known as the source of the Vignobles d'Anjou et Saumur.
In the south of the map, the site of the 1569 battle of Moncontour, at which the royalist Catholic armies of King Charles IX of France defeated a Huguenot force led by Gaspard de Coligny.
While the book's first edition was released in 1570, Ortelius continually improved the work - both by adding new maps and by refining the production of the book. Maps appearing in editions of the Theatrum in the 1580s and 1590s generally display, as here, a finer quality of color than those in the earlier issues of the work.
A Closer Look
The north-oriented map, centered on the city of Angers, embraces the middle the Loire River valley from the commune of La Varenne in the southwest to the commune of Montsoreau in the east. The Duchy is detailed as far south as the river Moine and is bordered in the north by the province of Maine. The map includes not only a dotted line indicating the border of Anjou but also specific landmarks dividing Anjou from Brittany: the map notes a bridge crossing an unnamed stream west of the town of Cuillé and a standing stone marking that border on the north bank of the Loire. This was La Pierre de Bretagne, a menhir which is said to have been sold to a quarryman in 1792 (perhaps in an excess of Republican disdain for the past). A numbered list names a series of islands found within the Loire, some of which are shown having substantial towns on them.In the south of the map, the site of the 1569 battle of Moncontour, at which the royalist Catholic armies of King Charles IX of France defeated a Huguenot force led by Gaspard de Coligny.
While the book's first edition was released in 1570, Ortelius continually improved the work - both by adding new maps and by refining the production of the book. Maps appearing in editions of the Theatrum in the 1580s and 1590s generally display, as here, a finer quality of color than those in the earlier issues of the work.
Sources
The map is based on a now-lost 1573 map of the Duchy made by Lezin Guyet (1515 - 1580) and dedicated to the Duke of Anjou; this would have been the first map of the Duchy produced by someone who lived there. This cartography now survives thanks to Ortelius' edition and those who copied Ortelius in the following century. Nothing, beyond his dates, is known of Guyet.Publication History and Census
This map was engraved and first added to the Ortelius Atlas in 1579. This is the second state, according to van den Broecke, corresponding to Ort 40.2, displaying the borders of Anjou with a dotted line. The present example conforms typographically to the 1595 Latin edition of the Theatrum. This map is well-represented in institutional collections and appears on the market from time to time.Cartographer
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...
Source
Ortelius, A., Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, (Antwerp: Plantin) 1595.
Abraham Ortelius' magnum opus, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, was the world's first regularly produced atlas, which 'set the standards for later atlases . . . It was the first undertaking of its kind to reduce the best available maps to an uniform format.' (Koeman) A modestly-sized work of fifty-three maps in its first edition of May 1570, it was an immediate success: there were three further editions that year, and the work remained in print for a total of 32 editions, the last of which was 1641, well after its author's 1598 death. Ortelius added to his atlas constantly, and by 1595 the Theatrum contained 147 maps. Ortelius is renowned generally as an editor, and indeed much of the Theatrum is compiled from a variety of sources: in such cases, Ortelius was scrupulous in naming his sources. But Ortelius was also a mapmaker in his own right: many of his maps are a distillation of various sources into his own work, and there were many maps - particularly in his atlas of Biblical and ancient history Parergon - which were entirely Ortelius' work. In his role as an editor, Ortelius followed in the footsteps of Munster, whose Cosmographia was, until Ortelius, the best window on the world for the curious European reader. In terms of the artistry of his maps, Ortelius oversaw the first great flourishing of copperplate engraving in the service of cartography to occur in Northern Europe. Ortelius' work provided the model for the atlases of Mercator, Hondius, Blaeu and all their progeny in the 17th century - many of whom were to produce faithful editions of Ortelius' maps in their own productions.
Condition
Excellent. Reinforced at bottom centerfold outside printed image, else fine with generous margins and superb original color.
References
OCLC 608233981. Rumsey 10001.115 (1608). Van den Broecke, Marcel P.R., Ortelius Atlas Maps: An Illustrated Guide, 40.2.