In the ocean on either side of the continent are whales that appear to be dragons and a war ship headed for the South African coast. In areas that are less populated and largely uncharted, Ortelius fills those spaces with larger-than-life elephants. While the map highlights different regions of the continent, South America is simply covered in mountains. OrteliusвЂ™ map is largely to scale, maps rivers, and pinpoints cities. Scan courtesy of Special Collections, Gettysburg College While John is not depicted in this map, the вЂњimaginary kingdomвЂќ of Prester John became synonymous with Africa into the sixteenth century in Western Christian thought and Western cartography. While Prester John was originally set in the Middle East, as the west discovered more about Asia and moved their colonization efforts south, Prester John moved south, too. John first appeared as a Christian priest in India and Central Asia, a вЂњNestorian Christian, a member of a sect today called the Church of the East or the Assyrian Church.вЂќ 2 Over time, mapmakers moved Prester JohnвЂ™s location to Africa to signify the shift in religious tensions. The character of Prester John dates back at least to the twelfth century, four hundred years before OrteliusвЂ™ map.

1570 and edited into a number of languages posthumously through 1612.В The atlas contained 70 maps engraved by Frans Hogenberg on 53 folio sheets. This map was published in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or Theater of the World, вЂњthe first uniformly sized and systematically collected set of maps by different mapmakers which is acknowledged as the first atlas,вЂќ published c. The вЂњ Presbiteri Iohannis Sive, Abissinorvm Imperii Descriptio,вЂќ or вЂњMap of the Kingdom of Prester John,вЂќ is a work by Abraham Ortelius, a cartographer, cosmographer, and publisher who was born and died in Antwerp, Belgium. Newbould, Class of 1958, Endowed Fund in History, Special Collections and College Archives, Gettysburg College

1570,В Engraving, 37.5 x 43.5 cm, Gift of the History Department through the generosity of The Kenneth H. Presbiteri Iohannis Sive, Abissinorvm Imperii Descriptio Abraham Ortelius, Presbiteri Iohannis Sive, Abissinorvm Imperii Descriptio, Antwerp, Belgium, c.

Ortelius map of the world