![]() ![]() These next two photographs are of the 1603 edition. A map of North Africa and the Mediterranean in the second edition of the atlas (1579) Burnt fragments of the first edition of Ortelius’s atlas (1570) – the foremost page shows an area of the Middle East.įortunately, St John’s copy of the second edition of Ortelius’s atlas, published in 1579, is in much better condition, as can be seen in this photograph of a page showing a map of North Africa. The text suffered heavy damage from a fire, probably during the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, St John’s copy of the first edition survives only as burned, unbound pages. These are the first and second editions, published in 15 respectively, and two editions published after Ortelius’s death, in 16. St John’s College Library has four copies of Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, all of which are unique to Oxford libraries. Modern readers have commented on the language in the atlas in various ways one argues that the maps and textual descriptions are made to be equally ‘delectable’, while another believes that the flowery language – and the occasional description of miracles – is for Ortelius to make his scientific work appealing to an audience who were ‘not so much interested in geographical truth, but rather in exciting, exotic wonders’. It is not only the beautiful and contemporarily accurate maps which make Ortelius’s atlas outstanding but the accompanying descriptions. The changes from one edition to another accumulated to the point that the 1612 edition had more than double the number of individual maps found in the original 1570 edition. Each edition shows a development and extension from the previous, which shows Ortelius’s apparent desire to strive towards making his atlas an authoritative, accurate and definitive source.
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