The Spanish humanist Arias Montano was the one who had the idea of naming Ortelius the official geographer of Felipe II. This was a title that was awarded to him in 1575. It was then that Ortelius, together with the Flemish mathematician, cartographer and geographer, Gerardus Mercator, set about offering the world of his time a more up-to-date, detailed and accurate chart of the graphic representation of the planet. The key to the success of this flamingo came when he realized that the findings of the American continent and the Pacific Ocean left behind all the maps that had been created so far. For this reason, having plans of the zones was essential to reinvent businesses. This raid quickly brought him profits, as it was a time when the discovery of new lands whetted an appetite for novel maritime and land trade routes. He found cartographies of Egypt, Asia and the Roman Empire that he later traced and colored, and to which he added new data and information.
Introduction to cartographyįrom 1560 Ortelius devoted himself to drawing and sketching maps. In the midst of this context, on several occasions in his life he visited France, the Netherlands, England and the Italian peninsula, among other countries. He also collected part of the beliefs and fears that the discoveries brought, especially from America, called the New World. Likewise, in these adventures he obtained dense cartographic material, which was his inspiration for the next few years and allowed him to give to the society of the 16th century a broader vision of what planet Earth was at that time. Even to him the chronological order that is currently used in the books of this class is attributed, organized as follows: world map, Europe, Asia, Africa and America, called at that time the New World. Your most important post is Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, recognized for being the first modern atlas. For that reason he was known as the father of Flemish cartography. His work was unmatched in its time and was a great advance in the world of maps. This nickname also indicated the weight of the work of this flamenco for its time and the importance it had within its guild.
His important work gave him the title of "the Ptolemy of the 16th century", a nickname given to him by his own colleagues and which made reference to the teacher Claudio Ptolemy, considered one of the fathers of astronomy.