Lot #: 47937

Sold in 2022 for $240.
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[Title page] Theatro Del Mondo Di Abrahamo Ortelio . . .

Maker / Publisher:		ORTELIUS, A.
Place & Date:		Antwerp, Moretus, 1612
Colored:		Uncolored.
Size:		410 x 220 mm / 16.1 x 8.7 inches
Condition:		Paper slightly age-toned. Water staining in the upper part. Good and dark impression.

Selling price: $240
Sold in 2022

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Description

Fine decorative title page of the Italian text edition of the 1612 edition of Theatro Del Mondo Di Abrahamo Ortelio (31:652) printed by the Moretus brothers. On the verso a portrait of Clement VIII.

The title page of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum shows five female figures as allegorical representatives of the continents, grouped around the title. The meaning of the title page is supplied by a poem headed Frontispicii explicatio written by Adolf van Meerkerke, lawyer, diplomat and alderman of Bruges, and was printed in the preliminary pages to the Theatrum.
The crowned and enthroned figure at the top is Europe, empress of the world. The scepter in her right hand is an emblem of her authority and by means of the rudder held in her left hand, she steers the affairs of the world. The large cross signifies her Christian (Catholic) religion. The figure at her right hand on the left of the title is Asia, richly dressed as an oriental princess with gems and precious stones. In her left hand is a thurible, full of fragrant incense, and the aromatic fumes issuing from it represent oriental mystery.
Africa, standing on the opposite pedestal, is black; burnt as a result of the impetuous chariot ride of Phacthon unable to control the horses of his sun-father Helios. Africa's head glows with her heat and in her hand she holds a sprig of balsam whose unique provenance was thought to be Egypt.

The reclining figure at the foot is America, thought to be the first allegorical representation of that continent. She depicts south America with weapons and hunting equipment appropriate to her status as an Amazonian warrior. The severed head hints at the practices of cannibalism which are elaborated in lascivious detail in Van Meetkerke's poem.

Finally, there is the truncated bust of a fifth figure: she represents Magellanica, the terra incognita or virgin land as yet unexplored. The fires burning below her breast correspond to those sighted by Magellan and hence the lands named thereafter Tierra del Fuego and Magellanica.

Ortelius's engravers made three almost identical plates for the title page: plate A (1570), plate B (1579), and plate C, used for non-Latin editions beginning in 1572.

This is version B, with the title cut out of the copperplate.

Reference: V.d.Krogt, Atlantes Neerlandici, vol.IIIA, plate 31:1B.

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