No copy has yet been found of Ortelius’s great map of Asia, but in his chief work, which assures him for all time a place of honor in the history of cartography, we find not only his own map of Asia on a smaller scale, but also a number of maps of other cartographers, who otherwise are completely unknown. Bernoulli, “Ein Karteninkunabelnband”, Basle, 1905, p. As the only extant copy of this great map is that in the library of the University of Basle (cf. Five years before Mercator published his famous Carta Navigatoria (1569) appeared Ortelius’s great eight-leaved map of the world. Mean-while he did not confine himself entirely to trafficking in charts. This trading in maps was probably one of the chief reasons for his unusually extended trips to Germany, England, Italy, and particularly for his annual visits to the great fair at Leipzig. By purchasing as valuable maps as possible, mounting them on canvas, coloring, and reselling them, he managed to assist in supporting the family, as may be gleaned from a contemporary letter. When twenty years of age he joined a guild as a colorer of charts.
The death of his father in 1535, who had been a wealthy merchant, seems to have placed the family in difficulties, for Ortelius began to trade or peddle geographical charts and maps while still a mere youth.
His family came from Augsburg, wherefore Ortelius frequently referred to himself as “Belgo-Germanus”. Ortelius (OERTEL), ABRAHAM, cartographer, geographer, and archaeologist, b.
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