the world, not only by his celebrated atlas, but also through the
and Henricus Florentinus van Langren in Antwerp (plate 15). It was
personification of the continents as they made their appearance
part of Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario (Amsterdam: Cornelis
on this title page. After the Theatrum, the artistic motif of the
Claesz, 1596) and, based on Petrus Plancius’s 1594 world map,
allegories of the four continents acquired great prominence as
engraved by the Dutch master Jan van Doetecum and published by
marginalia in cartography.
Cornelis Claesz. This map is also framed with the allegories of the
Ortelius used various textual and visual sources for the allegories
continents (America is not a single figure but is represented by natives
of the continents. The iconography of America seems to derive from
of Mexico, Peru, and the Strait of Magellan, or Magallanica), but
Hans Staden’s Warhaftige Historia …, first published in Marburg
Vri ents’s are artistically more sophisticated and refined than those in
in 1557, but more specifically from Christoffel Plantijn’s translation
Petrus Plancius’s map.
into Dutch, which appeared in Antwerp (the city where Ortelius lived
The images of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America in Vrients’s
and the Theatrum was published) in 1558 as Warachtige historie …
world map derive from the Flemish designs of the four continents
(plate 14). Staden was made prisoner of a Tupinambá tribe in Brazil,
by Dirck Barendsz (1534–1592), engraved by Jan Sadeler in
and after escaping and returning to Europe, he wrote an account of
Cologne in 1581, and from those images by Maarten de Vos
his captivity, describing how he witnessed that the natives killed and
(1532–1603), which Adriaen Collaert not only engraved but also
ate their enemies and even threatened him with being eaten. Staden
published in Antwerp around 1589. While Vrients followed the
seems to have had an important role in the design of the images
setting and tone of landscape from de Vos as well as the allegories
in his Marburg edition, and they have been considered of great
of the continents riding their characteristic animals, the headdresses
ethnographic interest. The club the Tupinambá used to hit the victim’s
and some attributes, such as the cornucopia for Europe (symbol of
head is very similar to the one America is holding in the Theatrum.
abundance), derive from Barendsz.
The continents being four were very suitable to fill in the blank
Europe is sitting on the orb. She is crowned and carries the scepter;
spaces of the four corners of maps, and the subject became very
thus, as in Ortelius’s Theatrum, her superiority over the other three
popular as marginalia. Jan Baptista Vrients (1552–1612) used it
continents is again emphasized. Asia sits on a dromedary and carries
in a splendid way. Vrients, a Flemish publisher in Antwerp who
a censer; an elephant, rhinoceros, and what seems to be a giraffe
after the death of Ortelius in 1598 acquired the publication rights
are represented as Asiatic fauna. Africa rides a crocodile; her head
to the Theatrum, is responsible for the Orbis Terrae Compendiosa
is topped by a parasol and she holds balsam; in the background
Descriptio, a double-hemisphere world map engraved by Arnoldus
are elephants and lions and the Egyptian pyramids. The bellicose
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