1595 Ortelius Map of Fulda and Waldeck Regions, Hesse, Germany

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This is a striking old-color example of Abraham Ortelius' 1595 maps of Fulda (or Buchavia) and Waldeck, central Germany. These regions, known today for their picturesque spa towns, were an important center for the Church in the Middle Ages and later an early bastion for Lutheranism during the early Reformation.

A Closer Look

This sheet is divided into two maps, with that at the left depicting the city of Fulda and its environs. Oriented towards the northwest, it covers a radius of about 25 miles (40 kilometers) around Fulda, noting towns and villages, forests, waterways, and hills and mountains; in later times, this region became famed for its many spa towns.

The map at right focuses on the area around the city of Waldeck, as far north as Warburg and as far south as Frankenberg (the other center of today's Waldeck-Frankenberg District of the State of Hesse). Towns and villages, waterways, and forests are indicated throughout. A modern map of this region would look notably different due to the construction of a hydroelectric dam across the Eder just south of Waldeck in the early 20th century, creating the Edersee, Germany's third largest reservoir.

Text on the verso gives a historical and geographical overview of both areas, with the discussion of Fulda focusing on the Benedictine monastery there (see below) and that of Waldeck praising the productivity of the region's soil and of the Eder River, and discussing local castles.

Historical Context

Fulda is famous as being a stronghold of Benedictines in the early Middle Ages, in particular the followers of St. Boniface, who founded a Benedictine abbey there as an effort to reorganize the Church in Germany. Aside from religious works, the abbey was also an important cultural center more broadly, for example with the monks' composition of the Annales Fuldenses, an important source on Carolingian history, and maintenance of ancient sources such as those by Cicero and Ammianus Marcellinus and early Christian sources, such as the Codex Fuldensis, one of the earliest surviving examples of the Latin Vulgate. After his martyrdom, Boniface's relics were housed in the monastery in Fulda, guaranteeing the city's patronage and prestige in future years, with the abbots becoming princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century. This status became important during the Protestant Reformation; although earlier prince-abbots had been tolerant of Lutheranism, allowing it to become widespread among the population, Balthasar von Dernbach (r. 1570 - 1606) wholeheartedly embraced the Counter-Reformation, expelling Lutherans and launching widespread witch trials that ensnared supposed crypto-Protestants, among others.

As with many other parts of the Holy Roman Empire, both Fulda and Waldeck were entangled in parallel and interrelated struggles over religion and authority. Philip I, the Landgrave of Hesse (r. 1509/1519 - 1567), was an early and important supporter of Martin Luther (1483 - 1546), having listened to his speeches at the 1521 Diet of Worms. Like other early princes who supported or converted to Lutheranism, Philip had political motives as well, as many of his opponents, both locally and among the other powerful princes of the empire, were staunchly Catholic. In any event, under Philip's leadership, Hesse swung strongly towards Lutheranism, and some areas experimented with other Protestant denominations.

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 is based on a 1574 map by Wolfgang Regerwyl, while that at the right is based on a 1572 map by Joist Moers (also known as Justus Meurs). This sheet appeared in the Theatrum between 1579 and 1609, and in its various printings is well-represented in institutional collections and occasionally appears on the market. That being said, the present edition is only independently cataloged in the OCLC among the holdings of the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

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

Very good. Some discoloration along fold line, minro spotting and stains in margins.

References

OCLC 864324996.