Abraham ORTELIUS Burgundiae Inferioris Quae Ducatus Nomine Censetur Des. 1584, Map of Burgundy

Decorative regional map of part of Burgundy, including Dijon, Avalon, Autun, Chalon, Beaune, Chatillon, etc. Includes a number of famous wine regions.

Embellished with several cartridges. First published in 1584. This map has been hand colored.

Abraham ORTELIUS is perhaps the best known and most frequently collected of all 16th-century cartographers. Ortelius began his career as a card colorist. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke. Early in his career he was a businessman and most of his travels before 1560 were for commercial purposes. In 1560, while traveling with Gerard Mercator to Trier, Lorraine and Poitiers, he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator's influence, towards a career as a scientific geographer. From then on, he devoted himself to compiling his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theater of the World), which would become the first modern atlas.

In 1564, he completed his "mappemonde", an eight-sheet map of the world. The only existing copy of this large map is in the library of the University of Basel. Ortelius also published a map of Egypt in 1565, a plan of Brittenburg, Castle on the coast of the Netherlands, and a map of Asia, before 1570.

On May 20, 1570, Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum appeared for the first time in an edition of 70 cards. By the time of his death in 1598, a total of 25 editions had been published, including editions in Latin, Italian, German, French and Dutch. Later editions were also published in Spanish and English by Ortelius's successors: Vrients and Plantin, the former adding a number of maps to the atlas, the final edition of which was published in 1612. Most of the maps in the atlas Theatrum of Ortelius were drawn from the work of a number of other cartographers from around the world; a list of 87 authors is given by Ortelius himself

In 1573, Ortelius published seventeen additional maps under the title Additamentum Theatri Orbis Terrarum. In 1575, he was appointed geographer to King Philip II of Spain, on the recommendation of Arias Montanus, who vouched for his orthodoxy (his family, from 1535, was suspected of Protestantism). In 1578, he laid the foundations for a critical treatment of ancient geography with his Synonymia Geographica (published by the Plantin press in Antwerp and reissued under the title Thesaurus Geographicus in 1596). In 1584 he published his Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, a Parergon (a series of maps illustrating ancient history, sacred and profane). Late in life he also assisted Welser in his edition of Puisinger's Table (1598).

Very good condition, framed under glass (see photos).

Dimensions of the engraving: 46.5 x 38 cm (18 1/4" x 15")

Frame dimensions: 58 x 50 cm (22 3/4" x 19 3/4")

Weight: 2,215 kg