[47.5 x 37 cm
copperplate engraving, 56 x 45 cm sheet size, modern
hand colour, Antwerp, 1579]
These images are of a 3-part
original map from the 1579 Latin edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
of Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), the first true
atlas in the modern sense. In the above figure, showing
at left the Kärnten (Carinthia) region of what is now Austria along with a map
of the Adriatic coast from Trieste to Rijeka (Fiume) and a map of Istria,
including the Zadar and Sibenik region, Ortelius based the cartography for this
map on cartography submitted by his friend the Hungarian scholar Wolfgang Lazius
along with earlier Italian maps by
Pietro Coppo and Paulo Forlani.
Latin text on
verso contains some interesting commentary on the
regions of the map - excerpts derived from the 1606
English edition are presented below:
"In
that place where on our map (of Zadar and Sibenik) you
see certain ruins of old decayed buildings Dominicus
Niger says that city Essesia did one time stand but now
lies level with the ground. Today the place is
known as Beribir, where epigrams in Latin and Greek with
many other monuments of antiquity are yet seen."
"The citizens
of Klagenfurt are so hardly bent against thieves that
upon the least occasion of suspicion of theft shall be
hanged there without examination, and then three days
after the hanging they hold the trial. If he is
found to have been unjustly executed they bury him very
honourably; if justly they let him hang still..."
[Unfortunately, no part of the
Histria text was transcribed.]
Pietro Coppo,
(Venezia 1470 - Isola d'Istria 1555) Fu Geografo, e
Cartografo.
È particolarmente noto per
l'opera, del 1520,
De toto orbe, una descrizione assai precisa del mondo
conosciuto all' epoca, con preziose mappe geografiche.
Autore in oltre di un
Portolano (1528) e della prima esatta descrizione
dell'Istria (Del Sito de l'Istria).
Sources:
|