Ortelius Atlas (Asia)
The Library of Congress owns two copies of the first edition of Ortelius’ Atlas in 1570. The first edition was bound at a later date in very expensive leather, and the colors appear to have faded less. This edition also contains many more maps of Europe than in the second one with a colorful frontispiece. The image in the book comes from the unbound copy.
Asia appears on page 16 in the leather-bound copy and on page 22 of the other. In both copies, Japan is situated approximately at the correct latitude. For more information on the differing pages see this next page.
An excellent essay on Ortelius’ life and work from the Library of Congress.
The map below shows the area of Asia mapped in Abraham Ortelius’ Atlas.
View Asia in Ortelius’s Atlas in a larger map