Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp (1527–98) is well known today as a geographer and the author of Theatrum orbis terrarum (1570), the first modern world atlas. In Erudite Eyes, Tine Luk Meganck demonstrates that Ortelius was an author in a broader sense, meaning one who makes things happen. As the central figure of an international circle of scholars, artists, collectors, and printers, Ortelius functioned as a facilitator, advising antiquarians on their research, bringing artists and patrons together, and helping writers connect with printers and engravers to get their books to press. Meganck counts 245 friends and correspondents of Ortelius, of whom 10% were artists, an impressive number in an age when social media consisted of pen and paper.
The title of the book alludes to the praise Ortelius earned from his contemporaries for his combination of artistic skill and scholarly knowledge, a mixture that was also displayed by many in his circle, such as Hubert Goltzius and Pirro Ligorio. Consulted by humanists like Justus Lipsius for advice on how to furnish their historical texts with illustrations, Ortelius promoted the new visual literacy that emerged during the Renaissance, a phenomenon traced by Francis Haskell in History and Its Images (1993). He worked closely with printers and could often be found holding court among his colleagues at Plantin's shop in Antwerp, reminiscent of Elizabeth Eisenstein's insight on how the invention of printing accelerated learning and discovery, bringing together scholars, artists, technicians, and businessmen under the same roof (The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe [1979]).
Meganck organizes her book thematically, covering among other subjects Ortelius's activity as an archaeologist (he led a team that documented the Arx Britannica, a Roman fort near Leiden); as a consultant who inspired and encouraged other people's ambitious projects, such as Georg Braun's Civitates orbis terrarum (1572–1618), a survey of the great cities of the world; and as an art collector and critic. In the latter capacity Ortelius made use of classical authorities, especially Pliny the Elder's history of Greek painting, to defend and promote the German and Netherlandish masters whom he admired and collected, including Dürer and Pieter Bruegel. Meganck notes that the true heir of Ortelius's combination of artistry and scholarship was Peter Paul Rubens, who received his master's license in Antwerp the same year Ortelius died (1598). Rubens transmitted Ortelius's ideal of the cosmopolitan artist-humanist into the next generation and beyond.
Meganck emphasizes the importance of friendship in the development of these scholarly and commercial ventures, a concept associated with the rise of Neo-Stoicism among intellectuals during the turbulent period between the Council of Trent and the Thirty Years’ War. Inspired by Cicero and Seneca, Ortelius saw amicitia as a refuge from the mutability of time and fortune, a haven from religious wars, persecution, and diaspora. Though a devout Catholic, he was an irenic, numbering Lutherans and Calvinists among his intimates. This quasi-religious veneration of friendship found a tangible expression in his Album amicorum, in which friends were invited to memorialize themselves with sketches, emblems, poems, and aphorisms. Friendship albums enjoyed a vogue in northern Europe during this period, and the amicable sentiments they recorded often drifted from the collegial to the erotic, as when Ortelius portrayed himself and the painter Philips van Winghe as a married couple in the manner of a Roman sculptural relief, joining hands in intellectual matrimony.
In a book covering so many diverse topics, we can expect to find a few mistakes. Meganck has Ortelius visiting the coin cabinet of Adolph Occo in Munich (29), but that antiquarian lived and worked in Augsburg. She translates the phrase “aerea testantur” from a poem by Sambucus as “the gold coins testify” (248n28), but it should be “the bronze coins.”
Erudite Eyes is a welcome addition to any library strong in Renaissance humanism, antiquarianism, or the history of collecting. An abundance of illustrations, including many color plates, gives this book the feel of an art-history text (Ortelius would approve!). Especially useful is a lengthy appendix where Meganck transcribes or translates important documents cited in the text, such as the 1584 Itinerarium, Ortelius's account of an expedition in search of the classical antiquities of the Low Countries.
