Salzburg – Salisburgensis (..).; A. Ortelius – Marco Secznagel – 1571

Description

A stunning example of Ortelius’ first map of the Jurisdiction of Salzburg to appear in a modern atlas, oriented to the west. The map presents as a curling parchment with a bird’s eye view of the city of Salzburg in the lower right hand corner. Up left a eight line poem:

“Qui patriæ adfert ingenio suæ | Illustre nomen, Laudibus excolens | Dignus favore est, præmioque | Quem sequens veneretur ætas | Cum Marcus ergo fecerit hoc opus | Grato tuum, te quæso, foue sinu | Salczburga ciuem, gestiensque | Posteritatis honore cinge.”

Translation: “Whoever with his talents contributes to the splendid name of his native country, providing excellence through glory, deserves admiration from the next generation. Because Marcus [Secznagel] has achieved this welcome contribution, I pray to you, Salzburg, to cherish him to your bosom, and load him with honours on behalf of posterity.”

Details

• Type: carthografic print
• Title: Salisburgensis Jurisdictio. nis, locorumque vicinorum vera descriptio Auctore / Marco Secznagel Salisburgensis.
• Publication: 1571, 1th state
• Technique: cupper engraving with contemporary coloring
• Carthographer: Marco Secznagel
• Illustrator: Abraham Ortelius
• Engraver: Frans Hogenberg e.a.
• Publiced in: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (..) by C. Diest in Antwerp
• Size print:  34.0 x 44.5 cm
• Size paper: 39.5 x 47.2 cm
• Verso: Latin text / p.28
• ID: M2560E
• Source: Van den Broecke 107 / Koe III Ort 1 [28]

Condition: B

Good, given age. Centrefold as issued with sufficient  margins. Sharp print with beautiful coloring, paper with some stains. Tear and paper in lower margin reinforced on the verso.

Gut, dem Alter entsprechend. Mittelfalz wie ausgegeben mit ausreichenden Rändern. Scharfer Druck mit schöner Farbgebung, Papier mit einigen Flecken. Rückseitig verstärkter Einriss und Papier im unteren Rand.

Backgrounds

Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)

Abraham Ortelius is perhaps the best known and most frequently collected of all sixteenth-century mapmakers. Ortelius started his career as a map engraver. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp guild of St Luke as afsetter van Karten. In 1560, while traveling with Gerard Mercator he seems to have been attracted towards a career as a scientific geographer. From that point forward, he devoted himself to the compilation his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), which would become the first modern atlas.

In 1564 he completed his “mappemonde“, an eight-sheet map of the world. The only extant copy of this great map is in the library of the University of Basle. Ortelius also published a map of Egypt in 1565, a plan of Brittenburg Castle on the coast of the Netherlands, and a map of Asia, prior to 1570.

In 1570, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum first appeared in an edition of 53 maps. The Theatrum was the best available summary of 16th-century cartographic knowledge, covering much of the exploration of the world in the century following the discovery of America. Most of the maps in Ortelius Theatrum were drawn from the works of a number of other mapmakers from around the world; a list of 87 authors is given by Ortelius himself.

The broad appeal of the Theatrum saw demand from many consumers who preferred to read the atlas in their local language. Thus, in addition to Latin, the book was published with text in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and English.

By the time of his death in 1598, a total of 25 editions were published including editions in Latin, Italian, German, French, and Dutch. Later editions would also be issued in Spanish and English by Ortelius’ successors, Vrients and Plantin, the former adding a number of maps to the atlas, the final edition of which was issued in 1612. Most of the maps in Ortelius Theatrum were drawn from the works of a number of other mapmakers from around the world; a list of 87 authors is given by Ortelius himself

After Ortelius’s death in 1598, the copper plates for his atlas passed to his heirs. They, in turn, sold the collection to Jan Baptist Vrients (1522-1612) in 1601. Vrients added new maps and published the atlas until his death in 1612. Vrients’s widow then sold the plates to the Moretus brothers, who were the successors of Christoffel Plantin.

In 1573, Ortelius published seventeen supplementary maps under the title of Additamentum Theatri Orbis Terrarum. In 1575 he was appointed geographer to the king of Spain, Philip II, on the recommendation of Arias Montanus, who vouched for his orthodoxy (his family, as early as 1535, had fallen under suspicion of Protestantism). In 1578 he laid the basis of a critical treatment of ancient geography with his Synonymia geographica (issued by the Plantin press at Antwerp and republished as Thesaurus geographicus in 1596). In 1584 he issued his Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, a Parergon (a series of maps illustrating ancient history, sacred and secular.) Late in life, he also aided Welser in his edition of the Peutinger Table in 1598.