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Original fileAbout This Work
The image is a monochrome copperplate map showing the classical geography of Germanic territories. It features ornate cartouches, a decorative scale of distance, and a prominent compass rose in the center-left. The topography is rendered with stylized hatched mountain ranges and winding river systems, with the entire composition enclosed within a formal geometric border.
This map reflects the Renaissance humanistic effort to recover and map classical geography, often drawing upon Tacitus's 'Germania' and Ptolemy's 'Geographia' to reconstruct ancient political landscapes for modern scholarly inquiry.
Inscriptions(Latin)
GERMANIAE VETERIS, TYPVS, EX CONATIBVS GEOGRAPHICIS ABRAHAMI ORTELIJ [Cartouche containing dedication/publisher notes] [Scale bars] [Tribal and regional labels throughout the map surface]
Translation
Type of Ancient Germany, from the geographical efforts of Abraham Ortelius.
Connected Texts
Tacitus, 'Germania'
The map provides the geographical context for the ethnographic descriptions found in Tacitus's seminal account of Germanic tribes.
Collections
Provenance & Source
Object
IIIF Source
map
Digital Source
Allard Pierson, University of Amsterdam · Public domain
Linked Data
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