Plate 16
Abraham Ortelius, Flemish, 1527–1598
Typus Orbis Terrarum

13¼ x 19⅜ in. (33.7 x 49.3 cm)
Antwerp, 1570
Detail, p. 10

A splendid map, this was part of the first modern atlas, Abraham Ortelius’s Theater of the World. With it, map publishing moved from Italy to the Netherlands, and it ushered in a hundred years of mapmaking as high art. Note the enormous, if imaginary, southern continent that was assumed to exist in order to balance the weight of the Northern Hemisphere.