The Pacific (1598)

This was the first printed map of the Pacific Ocean. The author, the flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) issued the first edition of the "Maris Pacifici" map in 1590 in Antwerp, in that time controlled by the King Phillip II of Spain. The map is based upon Mercator's world map of 1569, with details from 25 Portugese manuscript maps of Bartolomeo de Lasso which Plancius obtained and later used for his own world map.

Ortelius shows the Moluccas and the Philippines and a misprojected Japan. An odd Isla de Plata appears above Japan. Guam (Isla de Ladrones) is shown. New Guinea appears much different than on Ortelius' World map of 1588, suggesting he may have drawn additional information from an unrecorded voyage.

Among other notable features, it is detached from Terra Australis. The Solomons or Melanesia are located, as are some of the islands of Micronesia. This was the first map to focus on the Pacific Ocean. The map reflects a much smaller body of water than the true size of the Pacific. The treatment of America and most notably the Northwest Coast is reminiscent of Hondius' America.

This map and the Hondius/Le Clerc's rare map of 1589 (known only in the 1602 edition) have a curious and not fully understood relationship as to which is truly the first map of the Pacific, although because no example of the 1589 Hondius Le Clerk has been discovered, this map retains primacy