Abraham Ortelius

Hello! My name is Abraham Ortelius. I was born on April 14th, 1527, in a busy city called Antwerp. Even as a boy, I loved books and pictures, but most of all, I loved maps! I thought they were like secret treasures that showed you the whole world. My first job was coloring in maps to make them beautiful, and I also bought and sold old maps. This was so exciting because I got to see so many amazing drawings of faraway lands and imagine what it would be like to visit them.

In my time, maps were a bit of a jumble. One map would be huge, and another would be tiny. They were all different shapes and sizes, made by different people. If you wanted to see the world, you’d have to carry around a big, messy pile of scrolls. It wasn't easy to study them or compare them. One day, my good friend, a famous mapmaker named Gerardus Mercator, gave me an idea. He told me I should gather all the best maps together. That’s when I thought: what if I put them all into one single book, where every map was the same size? That would be much easier for everyone!

I worked very hard for many years. I collected maps from all the best mapmakers I could find. I put them all together, and on May 20th, 1570, my book was ready! I called it the 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,' which means 'Theatre of the World' in a language called Latin. It was the world’s very first atlas! For the first time, people could open a book and see page after page of beautiful maps showing every known part of our planet. Everyone loved it, and my book became a bestseller!

I also had a curious thought while looking at my maps. I noticed that the coasts of the Americas and Europe looked like they could fit together like puzzle pieces! I was one of the first people to suggest the continents might have moved. I lived to be 71 years old, and my life was full of adventure and discovery. People remember me as the father of the modern atlas, and my book helped everyone see our world as one connected place.