1570 Ortelius Map of Poland

Abraham Ortelius (1527 - 1598) was one of the most important figures in the history of cartography and is most famously credited with the compilation of the seminal 1570 atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, generally considered to be the world's first modern atlas. Ortelius was born in Antwerp and began his cartographic career in 1547 as a typesetter for the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke. In this role Ortelius traveled extensively through Europe where he came into contact with Mercator, under whose influence, he marketed himself as a "scientific geographer". In this course of his long career he published numerous important maps as well as issued several updated editions of his cardinal work, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Late in his career Ortelius was appointed Royal Cartographer to King Phillip II of Spain. On his death in July fourth, 1598, Ortelius' body was buried in St Michael's Præmonstratensian Abbey , Antwerp, where his tombstone reads, Quietis cultor sine lite, uxore, prole. Learn More...

Wacław Grodziecki (or Grodecki) (c. 1535 - 1591) was a Polish Catholic priest, canon, and cartographer. He was born to the family of a Starost, a community elder; he studied mathematics and philosophy at Krakow Academy, and between 1556 and 1558 studied further at the university in Leipzig. He is thought to have travelled to Rome in 1558 and to have visited Prague in 1561. Having returned to Krakow, he graduated with a master's degree in liberal arts in 1564. Thereafter he became canon in several towns successively: Wrocław, Olomouc and Brno, where he and his brother Jan established a Jesuit college. In 1572, he became Olomouc's bishop. During his time in Leipzig, Grodziecki drew a map of Poland, published around 1562 in Basel; it is thought to have been derived from the 1526 map of Bernard Wapowski, but as virtually all of Wapowski's maps were destroyed in the fire of Kraków in 1528, Grodziecki's work was long the best map of Polish lands. It provided the model for Ortelius' 1570 map, to which Grodziecki's fame can largely be ascribed. Learn More...