A spectacular acquisition: the last Ortelius, Antwerp 1641
A complete copy of the Spanish edition of Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum has joined the collection. Printed at the Officina Plantiniana by Balthasar II Moretus in 1641, more than forty years after Ortelius's death, it is the very last edition of the Theatrum ever published: the closing chapter of the first modern atlas, printed from copperplates that had been in use since the 1570s. Only 25 sets of the maps were printed, and Van der Krogt's census locates just two copies of this final issue, in the Antwerp city library and at the Newberry Library in Chicago. This is the third known copy: 127 maps with Spanish text, in contemporary calf, available to view by appointment.