Ancient Low Countries Map 1617 Belgii Veteris Typus Ortelius Print - Antwerp, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Brussels

This Belgii Veteris Typus, from the geographical efforts of Abraham Ortelius, is a map of the Low Countries in ancient times by Petrus Kaerius, who is also known as Peter van der Keere, published at Amsterdam around 1617. The catalog calls it a scarce and superb map based on the cartography of Ortelius, taken from his Parergon. It is graphically engraved to illustrate the forested land, with a few cities and ancient place names drawn from classical sources. It is elaborately adorned with three cartouches, a sailing ship and an interesting scene showing two natives of the region, and the seas are drawn with an easy, open line. The catalog notes that the engraving is graphic and the forest is drawn with care, which makes the sheet a pleasure to study closely.

The Parergon was Ortelius's atlas of the ancient world, a companion to his great Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, and it let readers match the writings of Caesar, Tacitus and other Roman authors with a picture of the land they described. Kaerius took the design and gave it his own crisp engraving, with forests shown tree by tree and names set in Latin. The result is a map of a country that did not yet exist as a nation, drawn as scholars imagined it in the age of the Roman Empire. It sits at the meeting point of Renaissance learning and the burst of Dutch map publishing of the early seventeenth century.

A teacher or student of the classics, a family with roots in the Low Countries, or a collector of early Dutch cartography will find a scholarly gift here. TheMapVault's Kaerius map of Utrecht, also from about 1617, shows the same maker at work on a modern province, whereas this sheet looks back at the region's ancient past. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print.