Editing Abraham Ortelius (section)

==Life==
Abraham Ortelius was born on either 4 April or 14 April 1527 in the city of [[Antwerp]], which was then in the [[Spanish Netherlands]]. The Ortels or Wortels (latinized as Orthellius and Ortelius) family was originally from [[Augsburg]], a [[Free imperial city]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Abraham's grandfather, Willem Ortels, was a pharmacist. He had moved in 1460 to Antwerp where he married Mathilde 's Jagers, alias Reynaerts. They had five children: Imbert who inherited his father's pharmacy, Anna, Odille (or Ottilia of Odilia), who married Nicolaes van der Voorden, a merchant in Brussels, and, in her second marriage, [[Jacobus van Meteren]] from Breda, who was a Protestant and supervised the printing of English versions of the bible in England, Leonard (born in 1500 and father of Abraham Ortelius) and Josef. From his second marriage with Maria Antheard a son called Willem was born.  The family lived in the Kipdorp street in Antwerp and was fairly well off.  Leonard Ortelius married Anna Herwayers and they had three children, Abraham, Anna who would stay on her brother's side and Elisabeth who married a trader named Jacob Cool Sr., whose son Jacob Cool Jr. (known as Ortelianus) would be the principal heir of Abraham Ortelius.<ref name=wouter>Wouter Dirk Verduyn, ''Emanuel van Meteren'', The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1926, pp. 4–5</ref>

Leonard Ortelius was well educated. He spoke Greek and Latin, and worked with his brother-in-law Jacob van Meteren on the translation of Miles Coverdale's  English Bible. In 1535, they were both prosecuted for possessing suspicious books. Searches turned up nothing and the case was subsequently dismissed. Leonard Ortelius was a successful antique dealer. Following the death of his father, Abraham Ortelius' uncle [[Jacobus van Meteren]] returned from exile in England to take care of him. Abraham remained close to his cousin [[Emanuel van Meteren]], who would later move to [[London]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |first=Joost |last=Depuydt |id=20854 |title=Ortelius, Abraham (1527–1598)}}</ref> In 1575 Abraham was appointed geographer to the king of Spain, [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]], on the recommendation of [[Arias Montanus]], who vouched for his orthodoxy.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="Pedersen">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/geography-biographies/abraham-ortelius |title=ORTELIUS (OR OERTEL), ABRAHAM |encyclopedia=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography |year=2008 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |first=Olaf |last=Pedersen |via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

He traveled extensively in [[Europe]] and is specifically known to have traveled throughout the [[Habsburg Netherlands]]; in southern, western, northern, and eastern Germany (e.g., 1560, 1575–1576); France (1559–1560); England and [[Ireland]] (1576); and [[Italy]] (1578, and perhaps two or three times between 1550 and 1558).<ref name="EB1911"/>

Beginning as a map-engraver, in 1547 he entered the Antwerp [[Guild of Saint Luke]] as an [[illuminator of maps]]. He supplemented his income trading in books, prints, and maps, and his journeys included annual visits to the [[Frankfurt Book Fair|Frankfurt book and print fair]], where he met [[Gerardus Mercator]] in 1554.<ref name=ODNB/> In 1560, however, when travelling with Mercator to [[Trier]], [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]], and [[Poitiers]], he seems to have been attracted, largely by Mercator's influence, towards the career of a scientific geographer.<ref name="EB1911"/> He died in Antwerp.