Abraham Ortelius was also known as Abraham Ortels. He was born on April 2, 1527 in Antwerp. He was a well – known geographer and cartographer. Abraham Ortelius the cartographer is known for creating the first modern atlas.
Abraham Ortelius was impressed by the works of Mercator and so he decided to pursue his career in the field of geography and cartography. Abraham Ortelius, the Geographer began his career in1547. He worked on the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World) or the Atlas which made him famous. Thus, after this, Cartographer Abraham Ortelius published many works, a list of which is given below:
- In 1564 he finished a “mappemonde”, which is the eight-leaved world map.
- In 1565 he brought forward a map of Egypt, which had 2 sheets.
- In 1567, he came up with an eight-sheet and a six-sheet map of Asia and Spain respectively.
- On May 20, 1570 the “first modern atlas” Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, came out and it had 42 editions. This Atlas was published in 7 languages.
- In 1575 the king of Spain appointed him as a geographer.
- In 1579 he published his Nomenclator PtolemaicusAbraham Ortelius expired on 1598. Many of his works were published posthumously too.