The Atlas

The origin of the word Atlas in itself is no less interesting than the traditional meaning which has
come to denote a collection of maps, providing an encyclopedic wealth of information on the land,
people and cultures in different parts of the world. One of the legends in this relation state, that the
land of Mauritania was once ruled by King Atlas, a great philosopher, mathematician and
astronomer who created the first celestial globe. In 1595, the great cartographer Gerardus Mercator
first called his collection of maps as an "Atlas" in honor of this legendary king Atlas.

Another even more popular legend speaks about the Greek mythological character of Atlas, the son
of Titan Iapetus and Oceanid Asia, who was condemned to bear the burden of celestial sphere on
his shoulders by the Greek God of Zeus. The legend goes on to state that Heracles approached Atlas,
holding the world, and tempted him into collecting the apples of Hesperides by offering a temporary
reprieve from the burden of heavens in the meantime. Atlas readily agreed to the same but on
returning with the apples he wished to escape his condemned fate, but, understanding his intent
well, Heracles used a little tact to leave Atlas holding up the world once again.

Yet another version of the same legend says that Heracles instead erected the two Pillars of
Hercules, to end the punishment of Atlas, holding world forever. It is suggested that historically,
Antonia Lafreri was the first person to associate a collection of maps with the Greek legend of Titan
Atlas and from 16th century onwards, any cartographic collection came to be known as Atlas.
Commonly, the globe depicted in the caricatures of Atlas holding up the world is mistaken as earth in
what is actually supposed to be the celestial sphere.

Atlas of World
The first printed Atlas of the world was from the geographical texts of legendary geographer
Claudius Ptolemy circa 150 A.D. which includes a set of 27 maps drawn by Ptolemy himself. There is
some confusion in this relation about whether these world atlas maps are reproductions of the maps
contained in the original manuscripts or are the world map taken from earlier reproductions of the
original maps by some medieval geographers.

The first edition of this Atlas of world was published in 1477 in Bologna and some people believe
that in this Atlas, world maps might have been engraved by Taddeo Crivelli. In any case, however,
this antiquarian world maps Atlas was completely out of date with the later Portuguese and Spanish
discoveries. Other major shortcomings of this antique world map included traditional
misconceptions related to the world geography, a striking example of which can be found in the
depiction of west-east orientation of Scotland in the maps of British Isles.

Slowly, however, cartographers started introducing corrections in the further reproductions of any
classical atlas, world globe, map, etc. A good example of this can be found in an edition of
'Geographia' a celebrated work of Ptolemy, published in 1513, where Martin Waldseemuller had
included 20 additional maps of a relatively modern origin.

The process of integrating updated information in older maps continued unabated to make a large
world Atlas, some peculiar problems arose for the students of maps. The problem arose due to the
apparent lack of uniformity of sizes of various maps which made the rolling and unrolling of large
maps very difficult and handling maps in general became a contentious issue. It was the Flemish map
maker Abraham Ortelius who came up with a solution by publishing his historical work 'Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum' with 53 uniform-sized map sheets in his atlas map of the world.

The World Atlas

A world Atlas with uniform sized maps was a major breakthrough for cartographers and geographers
alike. It was only much later that an exact world atlas with latitude and longitude was drawn up
although world atlas with north, south, east, and west degrees were being drawn up earlier but with
far less accuracy. For all, the world Atlas was a major creative achievement in the progress of human
civilization which symbolizes the undying spirit of adventure, exploration and intellectual growth.

Henricus Hondius's ornately decorated world map first appeared in the 1633 edition of the Atlas that
was originally published in 1595 by the Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator and subsequently
published by Jodocus Hondius and his sons, Jodocus, Jr. and Henricus, and his son-in-law, Jan
Jansson. The world is depicted in two hemispheres, which are bordered by the representation of the
four elements of fire, air, water, and land as well as portraits of Julius Ceasar, the second-century
(A.D.) geographer Claudius Ptolemy, and the atlas's first two publishers, Mercator and Hondius.