Nearly 500 years ago Abraham Ortelius published his first maps of the world with astounding accuracy, considering he didn’t have anything like a satellite picture to guide him. He also deduced that the earth’s continents were once joined. Bonham’s will auction one of Ortelius’ “World Atlas” editions at its antiquarian sale Dec.15 in New York. High estimate is $150,000.
Over a span of 42 years, as more geographic discoveries poured in, Ortelius kept coming out with new editions, 33 in all over 42 years. Most of them are hand-colored and engraved. The edition for sale is 118-double pages, some with multiple maps on each page.
