Abraham ORTELIUS was born in Antwerp on 14 April 1527 and died in Antwerp in 1598.

He was a Flemish cartographer, geographer, cosmographer, map dealer and publisher, and one of the most important figures in the history of European cartography. Active in Antwerp, one of the major commercial and intellectual centres of sixteenth-century Europe, Ortelius built a wide network of scholars, travellers, printers and mapmakers, which allowed him to gather and organise geographical knowledge from across the known world.

Ortelius is best known for the publication of *Theatrum Orbis Terrarum*, first issued in Antwerp in 1570. This work is widely regarded as the first modern atlas, bringing together maps of uniform format in a single organised volume. Its clear structure, scholarly ambition and high-quality engraving made it a landmark in the history of map publishing and one of the most influential geographical works of the Renaissance.

His maps are valued for their decorative beauty, historical importance and role in the spread of geographical knowledge. They often combine scientific information with elaborate cartouches, ships, sea monsters, figures and ornamental details, reflecting both Renaissance scholarship and the visual richness of early modern print culture.

Ortelius was also interested in ancient geography and the relationship between classical sources and contemporary knowledge of the world. His work helped shape the Netherlandish school of cartography and contributed to the Golden Age of mapmaking in the Low Countries. He is also remembered for observing similarities between the shapes of continents, an early idea later associated with the theory of continental drift.

Abraham Ortelius remains recognised as one of the great cartographers of the Renaissance, admired for transforming mapmaking into a systematic, scholarly and visually compelling form of knowledge.