![]() ![]() They have one king to whom they are subject and obey all his orders and laws. They pray and hold services in their churches much in the same manner as Christians. The inhabitants are much given to learning, wisdom, and religion, and are diligent searchers of the truth in natural causes. It is a very large and wide island, and has almost the same elevation with respect to the north pole as Italy does with the south pole. But Japan, which Paulus Venetus calls Zipangri, is worth special note since not many years ago it was known to few or none. There are so many islands in this region that it could justly be called the World of Islands. It supplies the world with spices, pearls and precious stones, with a greater plenty of these things than the rest of the world combined. It has many great and fair rivers that water its soil, which with a sun of full force is most fruitful. ![]() The country is rich and fortunate, and as Herodotus writes, it is the most populous and best stored of any country in the world, with an almost infinite number of towns and villages and great abundance of all commodities (with brass and lead excepted, according to Pliny). Paulus Venetus seems to divide it into three provinces – the Greater, Lesser and Middlemost, which he says they name Abasia. In the Holy Scriptures it is called Evilat or Havila others call it Seria or the country of the Seres, as Dominicus Niger testifes. It is divided in the middle by the great Ganges River with the western portion known as India of theInner Ganges and the eastern part known as India of the Outer Ganges. The entire compass of India was defined by Strabo and Pliny as being limited by the Indus River in the west, the Taurus mountains on the north, the sea in the east where the famous Molucca Islands are found, and the Indian Ocean in the south. Nearly all writers have confirmed by consensus that there is no finer or more famous country in the world comprehended under a single name than that of the name of India. Ortelius's commentary is a fascinating document in itself, and so for reference purposes we offer a translation below derived from the 1606 English edition published in London: The notation on New Guinea states that "Andreas Corsalus names this land Piccinaculi, and whether it is an island or part of a southern continent is unknown": The banner advertises the fact that the Moluccan Islands "export fragrant spices all over the world": Ortelius follows Mercator in placing the mythical Lake Chyamai northeast of India and showing it as the source of numerous rivers: ![]() Luzon is missing in the Philippines and all islands are somewhat distorted - to get a sense of the map's detail consider that the distance from "Manado" on Borneo to "Manadu" on Celebes measures just 6 cm actual size: India is mapped with dozens of place-names: The Portugese arms are presented, symbolic of their dominant influence in the region: Singapore is shown as "Cincapura", Siam as "Sian" with "Camboia" to the east: Two mermaids comb their hair with sea-shell hand mirrors: ![]() Note the Ptolemaic great southern continent of "Beach" below Java Major, and a handsome ship: Two fearsome sea monsters attack a disabled ship off the shore of America, which is shown in close proximity to Japan: We begin our survey of the map with the kite-shaped Japan introduced by Mercator - the plate for the map was engraved in 1570, and it is interesting to compare it to the *Ortelius map of Japan engraved 25 years later* to see how rapidly European knowledge of the region expanded in the last quarter of the 16th century: The handsome title cartouche announces the region described as the "East Indies and surrounding islands." Many of the ornate cartouches used by Ortelius's engravers were taken from a series of ornament prints published in the 1560s by the brilliant architect, painter, designer and graphic artist Hans Vredeman de Vries: The map provides a fascinating snapshot of a part of the world just starting to be understood in the great age of exploration, and the flamboyant decorative elements understandably make it one of the most celebrated and sought-after of all Ortelius maps. Ortelius drew upon earlier maps by Mercator, as well as the accounts of Marco Polo and Antonio Pigafetti, a survivor of Magellan's circumnavigation. It was one of the most famous and influential maps published in the Theatrum. "This scarce and important original map of East Asia (49.5 x 35 cm copperplate engraving, 54 x 40.5 cm sheet size, later hand colour, Antwerp, circa 1603) comes from the 1603 Latin edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), the first true atlas in the modern sense. The seller, *regiomontanus*, provides useful commentary that is reproduced here with only slight editing: "Indiae Orientalis, Insularumque Adiacientium Typus," from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius, 1603 Latin edition ![]()
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