Abraham Ortelius Map of Southeast Asia Indiae Orientalis.

This map was drawn from Marco Polo's account of his travels, and the charts of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, aided more than a little by the Imagination. To illustrate the point, you need look no further than the mythical Great Lake Chiamai, which appears on this map near Indostan. Lake Chiamal, never existed, except in the minds of the cartographers, although explorers were not to discover this until some 200 years later. Note also the presence of Cincapura, Singapore, and conversely the absence of Taiwan and Korea, which presumably were not known to the map makers of this period.

Overall Size: 23 x 28 1/2 in.

Sight Size: 14 x 19 1/2 in.

#1688 . 

Abraham Ortelius (April 1527 - June 1598) was a cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer from Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. He is recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World). Along with Gemma Frisius and Gerardus Mercator, Ortelius is generally considered one of the founders of the Netherlandish school of cartography and geography. He was a notable figure of this school in its golden age (approximately 1570s–1670s) and an important geographer of Spain during the age of discovery. The publication of his atlas in 1570 is often considered as the official beginning of the Golden Age of Cartography. He was the first person proposing that the continents were joined before drifting to their present positions.

Location BF