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...

Ferdinand de Lannoy (1510 - 1579) was a Flemish duke, soldier, engineer and cartographer in the service of Spain and the the Holy Roman Empire. He was born in Italy to Charles de Lannoy, governor of Tournai and viceroy of Naples. Ferdinand was educated in Italy, focusing on mathematics, topography and mapmaking. He began a military career, primarily serving in the religious wars fighting German Protestants. He rose to a generalship of artillery during his wars in Germany, Italy and Flanders. In 1560 he returned to a domestic, academic life, devoting himself to cartography. He completed in 1563 a map of the county of Burgundy - the first known map of Franche-Comté - and earned recommendations which won him the governorship of the city of Gray the following year. The appointment gave him abundant opportunity to improve his map, which he intended to publish. In 1565 he began negotiations with Antwerp engraver Hierronymus Cock to cut the plates, and the printed maps were even completed when, at the behest of the Duke of Alba, the map - detailing as it did a region crucial to Spain's efforts in the Eighty Years' War - was suppressed and the plates destroyed. At least one copy survived, however: Abraham Ortelius was aware of the map as far back as 1570, and on the year of de Lannoy's death the Antwerp mapmaker would publish his version of the map in his atlas. Learn More...