1595 Ortelius Map of Wurttemberg, Germany

War Zone of the Holy Roman Empire.

This is an old color example of Abraham Ortelius' map of the Duchy of Württemberg, which appeared in the 1595 Latin edition of his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. At this time, Württemberg was in the midst of decades of warfare, which predated but were exacerbated by the Wars of Religion.

A Closer Look

The map covers the Duchy of Württemberg, including Tübingen (home to the important Universität Tübingen), Stuttgart, Pforzheim, and other cities, including some just beyond the borders of the duchy, such as Ulm at the bottom-right. Towns and villages are indicated throughout, as are forests, including the Schwartzwald at the bottom-left, and waterways, including the Neckar River, running north to south down the center of the map. A portion of the Rhine River is included at the top-left near the title cartouche. The map is characterized by unusual and striking ornate Gothic script (Blackletter) used for some place names, particularly along the borders of Württemberg (where space allows for sweeping flourishes). The meaning of the illustrated monkeys above the scale at the bottom-right is elusive, but monkeys were a somewhat common motif in German art of the era, symbolizing greed, lust, and malice, perhaps a subtle commentary on the fractious politics of the region. The verso discusses the topography, toponyms, people, and culture of Württemberg.

Reformation and Revolution

When this map was published, Württemberg was in the midst of a decades-long series of wars, uprisings, and unrest that left large parts of it devastated. The ambitious but volatile Duke Ulrich of Württemberg (r. 1503 - 1550) feuded with the Holy Roman Emperor and his supporters in the Swabian League and alienated his own people with tyrannical rule and unpopular policies (including high taxation). Eventually, the duchy was occupied by the Swabian League and handed over to the Habsburgs, who reformed its governance and political relationships. But the exiled Ulrich schemed for a return, which was successful when he joined an anti-Habsburg coalition in 1534 and was restored to his rule, before being defeated again in 1546 and effectively disempowered. Aside from, or perhaps because of, these maneuverings, the countryside was rife with unrest, most evident in the German Peasants' War (1524 - 1525). Moreover, the Protestant Reformation swept through the region at the same time, becoming entangled in the Holy Roman Empire's internecine power struggles. Unfortunately, the situation only worsened in the 17th century, with the region serving as ground zero during the Thirty Years' War. The duchy was the single worst-affected part of Europe, losing more than half (as much as three-quarters) of its population to death or flight.

Publication History and Census

This map was based on a 1572 unpublished map prepared by Georg Gadner (who claimed Ortelius never obtained his permission to print the map) and was published in the 1595 Latin edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, of which 500 copies were printed. It is worth comparing this map with Mercator's map of the same region published the same year (see our Wirtenberg-mercator-1595), which has some stylistic similarities with Ortelius' map but also many differences, including a wider lens, including the Rhine and Danube Rivers. The present map 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 1595 edition is only independently cataloged in the OCLC among the holdings of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, and the University of Michigan.

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. Light toning along centerfold.

References

Rumsey 10001.209 (1579 Ed.). OCLC 1454194369, 551926035.