About Cartographica Neerlandica

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We are a firm of about 25 years old, specialising in maps from the second half of the sixteenth century from the Low Countries, which happens to be our location as well. Our speciality is maps by Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), a founding father of modern cartography. He made the first atlas ever in 1570. Its name was Theatrum Orbis Terrarum or Theatre of the World. It was an instant success and sold over 40 editions. It was the most expensive, as well as the best selling book of the time. About 8100 of these atlases were printed in Antwerp between 1570 and 1612. As a true scientist, Ortelius assiduously worked at updating the cartographical knowledge displayed in his atlas. He achieved this by adding new maps and discarding old ones. As a good renaissance humanist, he took care to mention all his cartographical sources. His first atlas had 53 maps, his last one 166. Over the various editions, 228 different maps were used.

We at Cartographica Neerlandica do not issue catalogues. Catalogues are very expensive to make, soon outdated when items from it are sold, and never as informative on the item that you are specifically interested in as you would wish it to be. If a catalogue has some photographs, they seldom show your item of interest. Our entire stock is on our website. All maps have a 200 word description in html. All maps also have a JPEG picture.  All these maps are on medium resolution JPEG-photographs for quick downloading. We have now introduced "hires" images as well, which show more detail but take more time to download since they are typically 4 MB each.

Of most Ortelius maps we have multiple copies in stock. This means we offer a unique choice, catering for every individual taste concerning colour preference, quality and price.

For comments or questions concerning this page, please send an email to info@orteliusmaps.com.

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