If it hadn’t been for the rising trend in collecting wonders, it would have taken the world much longer to connect with one another. Collectors may have meant to simply improve their status at home, but they made an incredible contribution to our global society by connecting with each other through letters and trade. Sea travel opened the door to globalization. In other words, it meant wonders to collect. New geographic landmasses meant new plants, new animals, and new cultures to study. For example, the Americas were discovered when Europe was looking for a different route to what they called the West Indies, or modern day Asia. This was such a large movement, in fact, that the explorations planned to find easier routes to destinations lead them to discover brand new land that had never been known to them before. Explorers would bring back exotic items, people would want more, and so they sent them out again. Exploration is both a cause and a result of wealthy Europeans wanting to become collectors of wonders. The best way to learn the shape of a land was to voyage there. The ship model in the exhibit is from some editions of his atlas which also included city plans from various cartographers, astronomical plates by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr and maps of several parts of the world. In 1715, Homann was hired as a geographer to the Holy Roman Emperor and later became a member of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences. The family, located in Nuremberg, was known a Homann Heirs”. Tooley’s Dictionary describes the Homann’s in a profound way: “The most important and prolific map-makers in Germany in the 18th century was the Homann family (1702-1813). He was a self-taught copper engraver who founded his own cartographic and publishing establishment in 1702. Homann came from a family of mapmakers and publishers in Nuremberg. Hooftman was a driving force for Ortelius to create his modern world Atlas which became very successful indeed. Hooftman was notorious for buying any map he could get his hands on, and this, of course, is how Hooftman met Ortelius. His goal was to be able to determine the best times and routes for sending out his ships. His best customer became Aegidius Hooftman of Antwerp, a merchant who spent quite a large sum of time and money studying the sea, wind, and ocean tides. His work with maps began after his father died, and Ortelius would buy, color, and sell maps in order to support his widowed mother, his sisters, and himself. Ortelius did not have a stellar academic background, but nonetheless, he was highly regarded by European scholars. If you would like to explore Ortelius’s famous Theatrum orbis terrarum, click here. The world map presented in this exhibit was featured in his atlas. 1 Abraham Ortelius,Ībraham Ortelius is well known for having created the first modern Atlas: Theatrum orbis terrarum (“Theatre of the World”) in 1570. Ortelius lived from 1527-1598 and was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and Homann became famous in Nuremberg, Germany during his life from 1663-1724. StefanyĪbraham Ortelius and Johann Baptist Homann were very successful cartographers who benefitted from the rising trend in curiosity cabinets during the Renaissance. Stuckenberg, Special Collections and College Archives, Gettysburg College Abraham Ortelius, Typvs Orbis Terrarvm.Įngraved and hand colored, On loan from of Bruce R. Johann Baptist Homann, Ship Model Map (Neue tafel, yor alle liebhabers, und seefahrende perfonen) engraved and hand colored, Gift of John H.W.