Abraham Ortelius 1527-1598
Abraham Ortelius (1527 – 1598) is recognized as one of the founding fathers of cartography. Born in Antwerp, he began as a map-engraver in 1547 before embarking on an early career in business. He spent a good deal of time traveling for commercial purposes, but after traveling with Mercator in 1560, he was attracted to a career as a scientific geographer. He then devoted himself to the creation of his world famous atlas entitled Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), which was published in 1570. Known as the first modern atlas, it contained 53 maps.
Ortelius continued map production after his masterpiece, publishing seventeen supplementary maps in 1573 under the title Additamentum Theatri Orbis Terrarum. This was followed by four additional maps, the last of which was published in 1597.
In 1575, Ortelius was appointed geographer to the King of Spain, Philip II. In 1578, he laid the basis of a critical treatment of ancient geography with his Synonymia geographica which was republished as Thesaurus geographicus in 1587 and again, expanded, in 1596. In this last edition, Ortelius considers the possibility of continental drift, a hypothesis proved correct only centuries later. In 1596, he received a presentation from Antwerp city, similar to that later bestowed upon Rubens. His death on July 4, 1598 was marked by public mourning.