BY ADOLF VAN MEETKERCKE

OF BRUGES, JURIST

original: "ADOLPHI MEKERCHI BRVGENSIS I. C." Adolf van Meetkercke (1528–1591) was a Flemish judge, diplomat, and scholar. "I. C." stands for "Iuris Consultus," meaning a legal consultant or jurist.

original: "ΡΑΨΩΔΙΑ ΕΚΑΤΟΣΤΙΧΟΣ". A Greek title. A rhapsody refers to an epic poem or a collection of verses.

The frontispiece is the illustrated title page of the atlas, which features personifications of the continents.

Many writers among the ancients, and many of the moderns,
with outstanding talent and a rich store of knowledge,
have until now attempted to grasp the immense mass of the Earth,
the vast channels of the Ocean, and the lands scattered throughout the sea.
Yet they found only three parts of the world,
The three parts are Europe, Asia, and Africa.
which they were not even able to describe fully.
In our age, ORTELIUS has achieved this far more successfully
with much greater daring:
ORTELIUS, whom Phoebus Apollo allowed to be carried
Phoebus Apollo was the Greek and Roman god of the sun, often depicted driving a chariot across the sky. This metaphor suggests Ortelius has a "godlike" or bird's eye view of the entire world.
with him in his four-horse chariot above the air, so that he might
survey the lands lying below and the surrounding deep.
From this, they say that Apollo, who sees all things, showed him
regions entirely unknown, situated far, far beneath another
axis of the globe, and revealed only to their own
inhabitants. They say he discovered a New World, and peoples, and men,
The "New World" refers to the Americas.
and the secrets of the remote world.
He, therefore, so that he might consult the interests of students, shares this
THEATER OF THE WHOLE WORLD with the entire world.
original: "THEATRVM ORBIS TERRARVM". This is the title of the atlas. In the sixteenth century, a "theater" was a metaphor for a book that provides a comprehensive view of a subject.
In this work, he does not hand down the errors of the ancients, or uncertain
dreams, but the most certain visions from the tripod itself.
original: "tripode ex ipso". The tripod was the three-legged seat of the Oracle at Delphi. This suggests that the information in the atlas is as truthful as a divine prophecy.

THE FIVE PARTS OF THE WORLD.

And so that you may marvel more, he has added to the three
parts of the world two others here, which no one among the ancestors
had even heard tell of. Only look at the front of the book,
and you will find what the picture itself will teach you.
The two additional parts are America and the "Southern Continent" or Magellanica, which geographers at the time believed existed at the bottom of the globe.

EUROPE.

At the highest peak, Queen EUROPE sits upon a proud throne,
whose summit is brushed by the green
vine-shoot and the vine fertile with sweet clusters of grapes.
(For Europe honors Bacchus, and Bacchus honors her.)
Bacchus was the god of wine. This refers to Europe's long tradition of viticulture and wine production.
Her right hand carries a scepter, and her left a rudder
placed against a sphere; her head is distinguished by a crown.
She alone is higher than all the other Nymphs,
In this context, the "Nymphs" are the other personified continents.
and widely, under the leadership of her formerly victorious arms
The text ends mid-sentence as it moves to the next page.