Watch List notes:

WORLD. Low Countries. Framed hand-colored map of the "Travels of Aeneas" by Abraham Ortelius. Circa 1594. From Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published in Antwerp. Includes Anatolia, the Levant, North Africa, Greece, Italy and Sicily, highlighting the journey of the Trojan prince Aeneas from his ancestral homeland of Troy to the plain of Latium in Italy, as outlined in Virgil's Aeneid. A cartouche provides a Latin dedication to one Balthasar Robianus ("Abraham Ortelius dedicated this map to the honourable and famous Balthasar Robianus from the republic of Antwerp, known for his learnedness and spiritual and cultural qualities...") Map measures 19" X 13.5", outer frame is 27.5" X 22" with a brass plaque engraved "Abraham Ortelius / 1594". Hand-colored in attractive pastel hues, professionally matted and mounted in an antiqued silver frame, the map shows minimal signs of age aside from a slight yellowing in the central crease and a few light age spots. .

From the Collection of a Connoisseur.

Abraham Ortellius (1527-1598) was a Brabantian cartographer who is recognized for creating the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theater of the World), first published in 1570 and widely considered to have launched the golden age of cartography. Curiously, he also advanced the theory that the continents were originally joined in one large mass before drifting to their present positions, an idea only recently revisited and now universally accepted.