Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)

La Florida...

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum

Antwerp, 1609

Engraving with hand-coloring

Sheet size: 18 3/4 x 23 in.

Abraham Ortelius’s La Florida is a landmark map highlighting early European exploration and cartographic representation of the southeastern region of North America. Produced within the tradition established by Ortelius’s celebrated Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, first published in 1570, the map reflects the growing European interest in the geography of the New World during the age of exploration. Florida occupies a central place in the region depicted, with the surrounding coastline, waterways, and Indigenous territories forming part of a geographical picture assembled from early accounts of exploration and discovery.

The 1609 edition is particularly noteworthy for its presentation of La Florida alongside two other regional maps on a single engraved sheet: a map of Peru and the adjoining coast of South America, and a map of the Guastecan region of present-day Mexico. Based on the work of Spanish royal cosmographer Jerónimo de Chaves, the Florida map preserves an early Spanish conception of the southeastern coastline and its river systems, incorporating place-names associated with Indigenous communities encountered during Spanish expeditions.

Although Abraham Ortelius died in 1598, his landmark atlas continued to be revised and published into the early seventeenth century, carrying his cartographic legacy into a new era of exploration. The 1609 issue of La Florida is an striking example of early European mapping of North America, documenting the geographical knowledge, exploratory ambitions, and colonial perspectives that shaped European understanding of the continent.