Marketing details: There are currently 3 x 1st editions online for sale with prices of $7,200, $8,200 and $11,500. Conditions varying from average to fine.
Past sales data since 1983 for the first edition accounting of 36 sales with a top price paid in 2005 of $18,100US.

Background: The Abraham Ortelius' world map is a simplified one-sheet reduction of Gerard Mercator's large world map which had appeared the year before in 1569. Nearly all the legends, textual panels and decorative features, have been omitted; between the oval circumference of the map and the outer frame are now clouds, and, below, a quotation from Cicero. From surviving correspondence, it is known that Mercator generously encouraged Ortelius to make use of his published corpus of research; he also provided him with coordinates of places in America and perhaps elsewhere. South America retains the unusual bulged south-west coast drawn by Mercator. There is also a prudent comment adjacent to New Guinea querying whether this large island is part of the southern continent or not.
The original plate, like a number of others in the Atlas, were signed by the engraver Franciscus (Frans) Hogenberg and was used for the first sixteen editions of the Theatrum.
In nearly all places there is text on the reverse of the map in the language indicated but a few copies are known which lack reverse text. Between 1575 and 1579 the plate became cracked along the lower left hand corner. The crack was roughly mended and the whole border of the clouds substantially reworked; editions from 1579 to 1584 contain this revised state 2 of plate 1. Ortelius subsequently produced two further world maps, each slightly improved geographically.
Several of these states co-existed; for instance although plate 3 carries the date 1587, it does not seem to have been issued until 1592. Only one example has been sighted of the first state plate 2 of 1586. State 3 of plate 2 is also uncommon but it re-appears in the British Library's copy of the Dutch 1598 edition of the Theatrum which, as noted by Koeman, was often made up of earlier stock sheets.
Ortelius' map was copied widely, and derivatives were later used to illustrate works by Voisin, Broughton, Maffei, Bell-Forest, Petri, Hakluyt and others.

Theatrum Orbis Terrarum: For the first time, in 1570, all the elements of the modern Atlas were brought to publication in Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. This substantial undertaking assembled fifty-three of the best available maps of the world by the most renowned and up to date geographers.
Unlike earlier compositions, such as the Italian composite or "Lafreri" Atlases, each of Ortelius' maps was engraved specifically for his Atlas according to a uniform format. Through its launching, pre-eminence in map publishing was transferred from Italy to the Netherlands, leading to over a hundred years of Dutch supremacy in all facts of cartographical production.

Cartographical sources: Gerard Mercator's 1569 & Gastaldi's 1561 world map and Diego Gutierrez' portolan map of the Atlantic.
Next to the list at the bottom of the text, Ortelius mentions in his Catalogus Auctorum the world maps by Peter ab Aggere from Mechelen, Sebastian Cabotus from Venice, Laurentius Fries from Antwerp, Jacobus Gastaldi, Gemma Frisius from Antwerp, Guicciardinus from Antwerp, Doco ab Hemminga Frisius, and Orontius Finæus from Paris.
There were a total of 7300 copies of Theatrum  published between 1570 - 1612 from 31 editions. (Ref: Van Den Broecke; Tooley)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21 ½in x 17in (545mm x 430mm)
Plate size: - 19 ½in x 13 1/4in (495mm x 340mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Bottom left tear re-joined in margin without loss
Plate area: - Bottom left 160mm tear & centerfold re-joined without loss
Verso: - Restoration as noted

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