On this day in 1570, the world's first modern-day atlas, called Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), was published. Google celebrated this day and its creator, Abraham Ortelius, with a doodle on Sunday.
Ortelius, a Flemish cartographer, is believed to be one of the first persons to imagine the theory of continental drift - that continents were joined together before drifting apart to their present day positions. Born in Antwerp in 1527, Ortelius started working as a map engraver. He travelled extensively across Europe. In 1564 he published his first map, Typus Orbis Terrarum , an eight-leaved wall map of the world.
While aggregating his maps, Ortelius collected information from scientists, cartographers and geographers from across the world. He made it a point to add sources and names to the creators of the original maps.
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The first edition of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum contained 53 maps. Till his death in 1598, 25 editions of the map had come out. The last edition of the atlas came out in 1612. The atlasappeared in Latin and was translated into Dutch, German, French, Spanish, and English.