12/31/2023 0 Comments Facts about abraham ortelius![]() Mother wondered who he would turn out like. Not that our Abe was blessed with these attributes. So Mother chose something grand from the Bible that would befit such a perfect little fellow: Abraham, the father of the chosen people, the wanderer through the desert, the one blessed with sons in his old age. After just five hours, it took one almighty push and he slid out like a slug.įather wanted to name him Wilhelm after his grandfather but Mother thought he was more special than that. He was the firstborn child and only son of Leonard and Hannah Ortels. Mother always said that of signs or wonders at his birth on the fourth day of April in 1527 there were none. Charles V acted with great hard-heartedness against those who were Lutheran. It only took a few years before his ideas filtered into the Netherlands. Martin Luther first posted his theses of belief on the church door at Wittenberg in 1517. We had to be on our guard all the time, being careful what we said in public and who we said it to. So not only was our world an exciting place to live in but it was also very dangerous. In the Netherlands, more than thirteen hundred people were executed as heretics in Charles V’s reign. Both Charles V and later on his son, Philip II, were rabid protectors of Catholicism in their kingdom, largely through the workings of the Inquisition. We lived in a freedom that was greater than commonly enjoyed in most other parts of Europe.īefore this time, the Catholic Church had been dominant throughout western Europe. Antwerp on the River Scheldt had become the great trading centre of the Netherlands, and one of the greatest in the whole world.Įach province of the country was like a separate state, having its own state council and constitution. And exotic spices from the east were traded in the city of Antwerp too.Īt the time when Abraham was born, the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands were under the control of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, the King of Spain. Gold, silver and gems found their way to Lisbon and then on to the Exchange in Antwerp. Later explorers discovered fabulous riches in the Americas. He didn’t fall off the edge of the world but rather was the first to sail all the way around it. He sailed across the Atlantic and into the Pacific. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set out on an expedition to the west. From 1492 to 1503, Christopher Columbus made four voyages westwards into the unknown to reach the Spice Islands of the Far East, but discovered much of Central America and its islands. At least at first later, the new continent came to be known as the Americas. Not too long before Abraham’s story began, about thirty-five years beforehand, explorers set forth across the immense Atlantic Ocean in their little ships and discovered a whole new world, which is exactly what they called the new lands: the New World. I agree with Socrates, who said that the unexamined life is not worth living. This is his story, the story of my brother Abraham Ortels. He was so proud of all the accolades that came his way when he produced the very first atlas, or mapbook as he called it, twenty years before Mercator produced his.īut above all, he remembers the books and the wealth of knowledge contained in them. ![]() Then he turns to recall all the colouring and producing of maps, both old and new, and the collecting of beautiful things. To dwell again on the whispered endearments of his little ones, the heady conversations with friends and foe, the haggling for a better price in business dealings and the discussions over a frothy beer about humanist ideas. He has surely been blessed throughout his life, despite all the horror that recent history has thrown our way.Īnd while I sit with him, he likes to remember dear family, friends and associates, many of whom have already died. He still finds some small pleasure in remembering…remembering the journey, the good times and the bad times, for there were plenty of both. At least it’s warm inside, although it’s snowing outside. It’s not that he can’t see it’s more that he can’t concentrate as waves of gripping pain roll over him.Īll he can do is sit in front of the open fire and reflect. He’s even finding it difficult to read any more. ![]() Racked with pain and confined to his chair. ![]() He’s getting very old now, stooped and balding, and fading fast. ![]()
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