Vintage Map of Great Britain and Ireland

Ortelius’s Map of Great Britain and Ireland

Abraham Ortelius presents the British Isles as a single, expansive landscape, with Ireland above Great Britain and the western seas along the top of the sheet. His Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae appeared in the first edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in 1570. The coloured example reproduced here is held in the National Library of Israel’s Eran Laor Cartographic Collection and is catalogued at about 1588, with Christophe Plantin as publisher.

Map Details

• Original title: Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar: Insularum Descriptio
• Cartographer: Abraham Ortelius
• First atlas appearance: Antwerp, 1570
• Example reproduced: Coloured impression catalogued c.1588
• Publisher of this example: Christophe Plantin, Antwerp
• Source atlas: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
• Area shown: Great Britain, Ireland and surrounding islands, with part of the French coast
• Orientation: West at the top; north towards the right
• Original technique: Copperplate engraving
• Distinctive features: Royal arms, sailing ships, stippled seas, ornate cartouches and a triangular distance scale

Britain Viewed from the West

The map’s orientation is its most immediately engaging feature. Instead of rising from south to north, Britain extends across the sheet. Cornwall is on the left, East Anglia reaches downwards and the Scottish Highlands occupy the right. The engraved direction words around the border make the arrangement explicit: Occidens marks the west at the top and Oriens the east below.

This invites a slower reading of familiar geography. The Isle of Wight lies below the south coast towards the left; the Isle of Man sits in the Irish Sea above the northern English counties. The Hebrides spread across the upper-right part of the map, while Orkney appears beyond the north of Scotland. Each island is treated as part of the larger coastal picture rather than separated into a modern inset.

Towns and the Shape of the Land

Small red-roofed buildings distinguish towns from the rivers and hills around them. London appears as Londinum, Edinburgh as Edenburg and Dublin as Dublin. York, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge and Exeter provide further familiar points among names whose spellings have changed over the centuries.

Waterways branch into the interior, and little groups of hills give the land its texture. These are pictorial signs rather than measured contours. The contrast is particularly clear between the dense settlement detail of southern England and the larger, more loosely drawn hills in Scotland. Ireland has its own network of rivers and named districts, enclosed by a coastline quite different in detail from a modern survey.

The French shore at the left provides another point of reference, bringing Calais and the Channel coast into the composition. This continental edge makes the British Isles feel part of the wider European map, even while the surrounding sea gives each island a distinct outline.

Ships and Decorative Engraving

Several vessels sail across the seas. A large, fully rigged ship fills the space beyond the Scottish islands, while smaller craft occupy the western waters and the Channel. Fine stippling gives the water a gently textured surface, broken by the sweeping lettering of sea names.

The royal arms occupy the upper-left corner. The main title sits within a long cartouche at the upper right; beneath Scotland, a second cartouche frames a short account of Britain in Latin. Their scrollwork and blue, gold and muted red colouring balance the geographical detail without overwhelming it. At the foot of the map, a triangular scale is labelled Miliaria Anglica, or English miles.

A Map from the First Modern Atlas

Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, first published in Antwerp in 1570, is widely regarded as the first modern atlas. Its achievement was to bring maps of different parts of the world into a consistent printed format, accompanied by descriptive text. Readers could consult a coherent volume rather than assemble maps made at different sizes for different purposes.

For this British Isles map, Ortelius drew on Gerard Mercator’s large map of 1564. He condensed the geography into an atlas sheet while retaining a wealth of place names and a distinctive decorative arrangement. The map continued to appear in successive editions of the Theatrum, demonstrating the lasting appeal of the design.

The Latin Description of Britain

The lower cartouche recalls the ancient name Albion and links the name England with the Angles. It also describes Ireland as subject to England’s rulers. That wording belongs to the political outlook of the map’s period; it should be read as a historical claim of authority, rather than a neutral description of the islands today.

Placed beside the ships, royal arms and older place names, the passage makes this more than a record of coastlines. It shows how a European atlas presented Britain and Ireland to its readers in the late sixteenth century.

The Fine Art Print

We reproduce the engraving and its historic colouring on 190gsm textured fine art paper, using our twelve-pigment-ink giclée process. The print is supplied unframed, ready for your own choice of frame. The landscape composition gives the lettering, coastlines and engraved ornament room to be enjoyed together.