page_title: Early modern Netherlandish cartography
hierarchical_section_title: Early modern Netherlandish cartography
caption_attribution_description: English: Ortelius World Map Typvs Orbis Terrarvm, 1570. Українська: Мапа світу Абрагама Ортелія «Typvs Orbis Terrarvm», 1570 рік.
context_page_description: In the history of cartography, especially in the 16th–18th centuries, early modern Netherlandish cartography, both as science and art, has a very special place. From both national and international perspectives, early modern Netherlandish cartographers, geographers and explorers/navigators played a highly significant historical role — who helped revolutionize and shape cartographic, geographic, navigational, cosmographic and astronomical knowledge of the modern-day world as we know today. For example, the concept of 'atlas', in its modern sense, was the brainchild of early modern Netherlandish cartographers, geographers and cosmographers; most notably Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius.
  The period of late 16th and much of the 17th century has been called the "Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography". The Netherlandish Golden Age is considered one of the most important and remarkable periods in the history of cartography and geography. Some works by Netherlandish Golden Age cartographers are considered scientific and artistic masterpieces.
context_section_description: In the history of cartography, especially in the 16th–18th centuries, early modern Netherlandish (Dutch and Flemish) cartography, both as science and art, has a very special place. From both national and international perspectives, early modern Netherlandish cartographers, geographers and explorers/navigators played a highly significant historical role — who helped revolutionize and shape cartographic, geographic, navigational, cosmographic and astronomical knowledge of the modern-day world as we know today. For example, the concept of 'atlas', in its modern sense, was the brainchild of early modern Netherlandish cartographers, geographers and cosmographers; most notably Gerardus Mercator (who first used the term 'atlas' for a collection of maps) and Abraham Ortelius (who often recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas).
  The period of late 16th and much of the 17th century (approximately 1570s–1670s) has been called the "Golden Age of Netherlandish (Dutch and Flemish) cartography". The Netherlandish Golden Age is considered one of the most important and remarkable periods in the history of cartography and geography. Some works by Netherlandish Golden Age cartographers (including atlases such as Theatrum Orbis Terrarum/Theater of the Whole World, Spieghel der Zeevaerdt/Mariner's Mirror, Mercator-Hondius Atlas, Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem, Atlas Maior, and Harmonia Macrocosmica) are considered scientific and artistic masterpieces. During the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography, mapmaking firms of Antwerp and Amsterdam, especially, dominated the art and industry of cartography in the civilized world. They were leaders in supplying maps and charts for almost all of Europe. As James A. Welu (1987) notes, "For roughly a century, from 1570 to 1670, mapmakers working in the Low Countries brought about unprecedented advances in the art of cartography. The maps, charts, and globes issued during this period, at first mainly in Antwerp and later in Amsterdam, are distinguished not only by their accuracy according to the knowledge of the time, but also by their richness of ornamentation, a combination of science and art that has rarely been surpassed in the history of mapmaking."
  This article covers the science and art of cartography by the (especially Dutch-speaking) people of the Low Countries in the early modern period, especially in the early 16th to early 18th centuries. It includes cartography of the Netherlands (i.e. history of surveying and creation of maps of the Netherlands) and cartography of the Low Countries in general (i.e. history of surveying and creation of maps of the Low Countries). It also includes Dutch colonial cartography, i.e. cartography in the Dutch overseas world, in the early modern period (especially in the Age of Discovery).
caption: World map Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theater of the Whole World) by Abraham Ortelius, 1570
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