1595 Ortelius Map of Brabant, the Netherlands and Belgium

A beautiful original color example of Abraham Ortelius' 1595 map of Brabant, his home region, which contains the cities of Brussels and Antwerp. It appeared in his magisterial Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas, first printed in Antwerp 1570.

A Closer Look

This map oriented towards the east, with Antwerp towards bottom-left and Brussels to its right. The Meuse River runs in an arc along the top of the map, providing some helpful guidance to the modern viewer. Cities and towns are indicated throughout, with larger towns and cities represented by illustrations of buildings. Forests are likewise illustrated and shaded green.

Regions are labelled and in many cases color shaded for easy distinction. An inset at top-right displays the area around Machelen, seen on the main map shaded in yellow roughly halfway between Antwerp and Brussels. The region's intricate network of rivers, streams, and other waterways are cataloged, including the swampland of De Peel at top-left.

Four cartouches surround the title, inset map, publication information at right, and scale at bottom-right, while an intricate border surrounds the map. Text on the verso provides a historical and geographical description of Brabant.

Historical Context

This map was published during the long struggle for Dutch independence from the Spanish empire known to history as the Eighty Years’ War (1568 - 1648). The opening phase of the conflict had been particularly unkind to the Brabant region, with its main urban center and capital of the Union of Utrecht (forerunner to the United Provinces and, eventually, the Dutch Republic), Antwerp, being sacked and terrorized by mutinying Spanish troops in 1576. The death and destruction were so severe the Antwerp's economic and cultural influence permanently declined relative to Amsterdam. A decade later, the city suffered a year-long siege that saw Spanish troops successfully capture Antwerp and expel Protestants over the next several years; many relocated to Amsterdam, again to the benefit of the latter. Even after the United Provinces were granted independence in 1648, the Scheldt River would remain closed for nearly two centuries afterwards, effectively precluding Antwerp from engaging in long distance trade.

Brabant as a whole was on the front lines of the conflict and was consequently divided in the eventual treaties which ended the war. North Brabant (Noord-Brabant) eventually became a province of the Dutch Republic while the remainder of the region remained part of the Habsburg Empire and later formed the northern portion of Belgium. The jagged and complex border between the two polities, which does not follow natural features between the Meuse and the North Sea, is best exemplified by the Dutch municipality of Baarle-Nassau, which includes 22 exclaves within the borders of the Belgian town of Baarle-Hertog, with some of those exclaves containing 'counter-enclaves' belonging to Belgium. The smallest of these is a mere 2,469 square meters or 26,580 sq. ft. and its boundary runs through the middle of a building, resulting in it having two addresses, one Dutch and one Belgian.

Publication History and Census

Though dated 1591 at bottom-right, the present example conforms typographically to the 1595 Latin edition of the work. While the first edition of the Theatrum 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. The present map first appeared in the 1592 edition of the Theatrum.

As with all Ortelius maps from the Theatrum, there can be considerable inconsistency and confusion in catalog listings. The OCLC independently catalogs one example of the map dated 1595 held by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, though others may exist in institutional collections cataloged as 1591.