Ortelius' 1570 Typus Orbis Terrarum is one of the most important world maps ever produced. Its elaborately engraved pictorial border depicts New World flora and fauna discoveries; its corners are annotated with quotations from Cicero and Seneca.

Our Perfect Recreation™ captures every colorful detail including the oceans' deep-sea fish, sailing ship and sea monster. A bold inscription across the largely unknown North American continent acknowledges Columbus' 1492 discovery.

About Abraham Ortelius

After his friend Gerard Mercator, Ortelius is the most important 16th-century cartographer. Inspired by Mercator's landmark 1569 Orbis Terrae, he created his own most important work: the 1570 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.

This first modern world atlas set the precedent for incorporating a comprehensive world map and a set of clearly related component maps of distinct and smaller regions. This distinguished Ortelius' work from the Ptolemaic Geographia and other atlases that were assemblies of unrelated regional maps.

Typus Orbis Terrarum, the Theatrum's world map, is generally regarded to be a "mother map" because it had a profound and lasting influence on cartography.