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...

Wolfgang Lazius (October 31, 1514 – June 19, 1565) was an Austrian humanist, cartographer, historian, and physician. He was born Wolfgang Laz in Vienna, and would be trained in medicine in the University of Vienna in 1541. He did not remain a medical doctor: he would become the official historian to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, and curated the imperial collections. His position as historian led him to travel broadly, and to write historical works; he avidly accumulated a remarkable library, occasionally stooping to theft to do so. His maps of Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, and Greece were influential, providing source material not only to Ortelius but also to the many later mapmakers who copied the Antwerp atlas publisher. Learn More...

Pietro Coppo (1470-1555) was a Venetian public official, geographer, and cartographer. He studied under humanist Marcantoni Sabellico, and then traveled throughout the Mediterranean world. He returned after six years in Crete to serve as chancellor in cities under Venetian rule. He would settle in Izola, near Piran in Istria, now southwestern Slovenia. He would become chancellor there in 1511, and would hold other positions in the city as well. He nevertheless was a prolific writer and geographer. He completed in 1520 a manuscript cosmography, De toto orbe, which survives in two copies. This work contained twenty-two maps. He produced summaries of that work which did not contain maps. A further manuscript included woodcut maps, printed between 1524 and 1526. Of these, one would be copied by later mapmakers and broadly disseminated: Coppo's map of Istria. Learn More...

Paolo Forlani (fl. 1560-1571) was an Italian cartographer and engraver of maps and views, working in Venice between 1560 and 1571. His early life is obscure: he is thought to have hailed from Verona. There is not even a date available for his death, although it is probable that he was claimed by the 1574-75 plague that killed 30% of Venice's population, and which seems to have impacted the printing community of that city disproportionately. Even within the narrow period of 1560 to 1571, there are about a hundred maps and prints that can be attributed to him, so it is probable that he was even more prolific. A good census of his work is complicated by the fact that most of his work was printed by other publishers under their imprints: Forlani engraved maps and views for Camocio, Bertelli and Zaltieri. Matters are complicated by the reprinting of plates by two or more publishers, as plates were handed down from one to another. Learn More...