1595 Ortelius Map of Braunschweig, Luneburg, Nuremberg, and Environs

Era of Declining Fortunes.

This is a striking old-color example of Abraham Ortelius' 1595 maps of the Duchy of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, along with the city of Nürnberg and its environs. Both areas are captured near the height of their economic and cultural influence, but on the cusp of a rapid decline brought about by warfare and economic changes.

A Closer Look

The sheet is divided into two maps, with the map at left covering the Duchy of Braunschweig (Brunswick) and Lüneburg, taking in a large portion of today's north-central Germany, including the cities of Hannover at the left and Hamburg at the top. In addition to cities, towns, and villages, forests, swamps (paludes), and areas of elevation are indicated.

The map at right covers the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, one of the largest and most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire, even considered an 'unofficial capital' as several important imperial Diets were held there between the late Middle Ages and early modern periods. The walls of Nuremberg are traced, and nearby towns are also labeled, including Erlangen, Fürth, and 'Altdorf academa' (Altdorf bei Nürnberg), which hosted a university founded in 1587 (closed in 1809), whose graduates included the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716) and the composer Johann Pachelbel (1653 - 1706).

On the verso, Ortelius discusses the history and economy of the regions presented on the recto, including a retelling of the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin (Hameln / Hamelen), which appears towards the bottom-left of the Braunschweig map. Ortelius also dedicates considerable space to a discussion of the public life of Nuremberg, composed of 'senators, merchants and artisans,' and their methods of resolving disputes.

Historical Context

Around the time this map was prepared, Braunschweig had emerged as a leading economic and political center in northern Europe, being a member of the Hanseatic League and one of the ten largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire. Nominally ruled by the Princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the city was in fact effectively independent, at least until one of the Princes, Rudolph Augustus (1627 - 1704), besieged and occupied the city in 1671. Lüneburg was also a member of the Hanseatic League and was a major center of salt production, which was mostly exported to Scandinavia via Lübeck. But in the decades before this map's publication, the city began a rapid decline once herring populations in the southern Baltic Sea collapsed, due to overfishing and climate change, thus reducing the need for Lüneburg's salt.

Nuremberg is seen here near the tail end of a long period of wealth and cultural florescence, it having been one of the main trading centers of Central Europe and the core of the German Renaissance, the home of painter Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) among others. Initially, the city avoided large-scale violence during the Protestant Reformation and was even the site of an important peace treaty in 1532 that halted religious warfare in the Holy Roman Empire for 15 years. But when this peace broke down, the city was attacked in 1552 during the Second Schmalkaldic War, despite attempts to remain neutral. Nuremberg began to lose its mercantile preeminence around this time, and suffered terribly during the Thirty Years' War (1618 - 1648), during which its population was nearly halved and its economy irreparably damaged.

Publication History and Census

This sheet was published by Abraham Ortelius in the 1595 Latin edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, of which 500 copies were printed. The map at left was originally prepared by Joachimus Camerarius, whom Ortelius credited on the map in early editions of the Theatrum, but who asked that his name be removed for political reasons from 1589 onwards. The map at right is derived from a map of Nürnberg by Jörg Nöttelein (1525 - 1567). In this configuration, these maps appeared in the Theatrum between 1590 and 1609, and in its various printings, the sheet is well-represented in institutional collections and occasionally appears on the market. That being said, the present edition is not independently cataloged in the OCLC among the holdings of any institution.

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.')   Further Details...

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

Good. Repaired tear in bottom margin. Light discoloration along fold line at bottom, other minor imperfections in margins.