Old Map of Transylvania and Romania by Abraham Ortelius, 1570

Abraham Ortelius’s Map of Transylvania

Abraham Ortelius first published Transilvania in Antwerp in 1570 as part of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Often described as the first modern atlas, the volume brought maps of different countries and regions together in a consistent engraved format.

The year 1566 also appears prominently on the map, but it is not the publication date of Ortelius’s plate. The inscription credits Johannes Sambucus, whose map of Transylvania was prepared in Vienna in 1566 and supplied the geographical basis for Ortelius’s engraving.

Map Details

• Original title: Transilvania
• Cartographer and publisher: Abraham Ortelius
• Source cartographer: Johannes Sambucus
• Earlier cartographic basis: Johannes Honter’s map of Transylvania, 1532
• Source map prepared: Vienna, 1566
• Ortelius plate first published: Antwerp, 1570
• Atlas: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
• Engraver: Frans Hogenberg
• Region shown: Transylvania and adjoining parts of Wallachia and the Kingdom of Hungary
• Present-day country: Principally Romania
• Approximate scale: 1:500,000
• Principal places: Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Brașov, Alba Iulia, Bistrița and Bucharest
• Format: Copperplate engraving
• Other features: Pictorial mountains, forests, rivers, settlement symbols, title cartouche, source inscription and distance scale

Why 1570 and 1566 Both Matter

Ortelius did not claim to have surveyed Transylvania personally. His importance lay in identifying respected geographical sources and transforming them into maps of a common size and visual style for his atlas.

The lower-left cartouche names Johannes Sambucus and records Vienna and the year 1566. Sambucus was a Hungarian humanist, physician and mapmaker whose geographical work circulated among European scholars.

Sambucus’s map was itself indebted to Johannes Honter’s Chorographia Transylvaniae of 1532, regarded as the first printed map devoted to Transylvania. Ortelius’s plate therefore preserves several successive stages of sixteenth-century cartography.

The correct description is consequently an Ortelius map first published in 1570, based upon Sambucus’s 1566 map—not simply a “Romania map of 1566.”

Transylvania Before Modern Romania

Modern Romania did not exist as a unified country when this map was created. Its central subject is the historic region of Transylvania, enclosed by the great arc of the Carpathian Mountains.

Ortelius extends the engraving beyond Transylvania’s borders. Wallachia appears towards the lower-right edge, while neighbouring areas associated with the old Kingdom of Hungary occupy the west and northwest. Bucharest lies close to the southeastern limit rather than at the centre of the composition.

This coverage explains why the historic name Transilvania appears prominently in the title while “Romania” does not. For today’s viewer, however, most of the map depicts places lying within modern Romania.

Mountains, Rivers and Forests

The Carpathians are the strongest visual feature of the engraving. Individual mountain symbols form long, densely packed chains around Transylvania, communicating the region’s natural enclosure even though the map predates measured contours and modern surveying.

Rivers run from these mountains into the interior and towards adjoining territories. Their winding courses provide a framework around which towns and villages are arranged.

Woodlands are represented by groups of individually engraved trees. Together with the pictorial mountains, these forests give the map depth and movement while conveying the physical barriers that influenced travel, settlement and political boundaries.

Historic Names on the Map

Many recognisable Romanian cities appear under Latin, German or Hungarian forms. Cluj-Napoca is labelled Clausenburg, Sibiu appears as Hermanstadt, Brașov as Corona and Bucharest as Bocaretz.

Alba Iulia, Bistrița and numerous smaller settlements can also be identified through their historic names. These spellings reflect the multilingual character of Transylvania and the sources available to Western European mapmakers.

The conspicuous name Burzenland does not identify a city that once overshadowed Bucharest. It is the German name for the historic Țara Bârsei region surrounding Brașov in southeastern Transylvania. Its prominence reflects the importance of this settled district rather than the relative size of one town.

Bucharest at the Edge

Bucharest appears as Bocaretz near the southeastern edge of the map. Its comparatively modest symbol is particularly striking to anyone familiar with its later position as Romania’s capital and largest city.

In the sixteenth century, Ortelius’s subject was Transylvania rather than a unified Romanian state. Brașov, Sibiu, Cluj and other Transylvanian centres consequently occupy more central positions within the engraving.

The placement of Bucharest is therefore not an error. It demonstrates how strongly the map’s geographical emphasis differs from a modern national map of Romania.

Renaissance Cartography

A restrained title cartouche sits at the top of the engraving, while the more elaborate source inscription occupies the lower-left corner. A separate scale cartouche balances the composition on the lower right.

The map contains no modern roads, administrative counties or national frontiers. Instead, mountains, rivers, forests, towns and regional names define the landscape.

Ortelius’s ability to combine this dense geographical information with a clear and balanced composition helped make Theatrum Orbis Terrarum enormously influential. This map remains an absorbing record of Transylvania and the surrounding Romanian landscape at the beginning of the modern atlas age.