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Lumen Historiarum per Occidentem

Fine map that covers most of Europe, the western Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent African coast. Frans van Haren (more commonly called Haraeus) was a theologian, historian, globe maker and mapmaker from around 1615 to 1624. He prepared two maps centered on the Mediterranean Sea for Ortelius’ classical atlas that described the world known to the ancients. The map is surrounded with columns of text with an alphabetical listing of place names occurring in the bible and other holy writings. From the 1624 final edition by Balthasar Moretus of the first historical atlas ever published. Ortelius’s Parergon began as a companion to his Theatrum but eventually it became an independent work. In fact, this collection of maps of the ancient world was so significant that it became the model for all historical atlases published throughout the seventeenth century.

Fine map that covers most of Europe, the western Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent African coast. Frans van Haren (more commonly called Haraeus) was a theologian, historian, globe maker and mapmaker from around 1615 to 1624. He prepared two maps centered on the Mediterranean Sea for Ortelius’ classical atlas that described the world known to the ancients. The map is surrounded with columns of text with an alphabetical listing of place names occurring in the bible and other holy writings. From the 1624 final edition by Balthasar Moretus of the first historical atlas ever published. Ortelius’s Parergon began as a companion to his Theatrum but eventually it became an independent work. In fact, this collection of maps of the ancient world was so significant that it became the model for all historical atlases published throughout the seventeenth century. The maps and plates in the Parergon have to be evaluated as the most outstanding engravings depicting the wide-spread interest in classical geography in the 16th century (Koeman). Unlike the Theatrum, which consisted of existing maps re-engraved by Ortelius, the maps in the Parergon were drawn by Ortelius himself. As a scholar of antiquity, a dealer in antiques, and a visitor to ancient sites, he was well prepared to execute the maps and all the maps from the Parergon reflect his passion for the ancient world.