Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570) is credited as the first true modern atlas — the first book to gather uniformly formatted, engraved maps of the entire known world into a single systematic volume, rather than a loose bundle of mismatched charts. This world map, Typus Orbis Terrarum, opened the atlas and became its most reprinted plate across the dozens of editions Ortelius's workshop issued over the following decades. What to notice: the Pacific coast of North America trails into pure guesswork, Terra Australis sprawls across the entire southern hemisphere as a vast hypothetical continent Europeans hadn't yet found, and a Latin banner across the bottom quotes Cicero — 'What can seem great in human affairs, to one who knows eternity and the vastness of the whole world?' A map that admits how much of the world it doesn't yet know, printed at the exact moment European cartography was racing to close that gap.

Maker: Abraham Ortelius
Date: 1570
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00296

As chosen: 24 x 16 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	24 x 16 in
Outside size	25.6 x 17.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
12 x 8 in	320	Excellent	Trimmed 2.1%
16 x 12 in	217	Excellent	Trimmed 9.2%
18 x 12 in	213	Excellent	Trimmed 2.1%
24 x 16 in	160	Good	Trimmed 2.1%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
10 x 8 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
14 x 11 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
20 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
24 x 18 in	145 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 20 in	128 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 15% crop
36 x 24 in	106 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 30 in	87 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
48 x 36 in	72 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
60 x 40 in	64 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 3,840 x 2,615 px, srgb, GIMP built-in sRGB
Tone: Darks 86, lights 204 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0.8% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 110.67