Oost ende West Vrieslandts beschrijvinghe Vtriusque Frisiorum Regionis Noviss Descriptio is Ortelius’s authoritative late-Renaissance portrait of the Frisian world in 1568, a moment when European geography was being reordered on the printed page. The title—alternating Dutch and Latin—signals the cartographer’s ambition to embrace both vernacular identity and humanist scholarship: a “newest description” of East and West Friesland unified in one learned vision. Set within an elegant, ornamented cartouche, the work showcases Ortelius’s hallmark synthesis of visual precision and historical sensibility. Across the North Sea littoral, coastlines and river mouths are drawn with scrupulous attention, while a finely engraved network of settlements, fields, and wetlands reveals a landscape defined by water and labor. This is a map intended to inform, to delight, and to invite close reading of a storied region.

West Friesland commands the left half of the sheet with a tapestry of waterways, causeways, and arable plots that made the Low Countries a marvel of organized land. Leeuwarden appears as a focal settlement amid a filigree of canals and rivers, a civic anchor for the surrounding countryside. Southward and seaward, Sneek and Harlingen punctuate the engraving, the latter poised at the maritime edge where inland routes met open water. Latin toponyms, crisply incised, lend the landscape a classical dignity while clarifying political jurisdictions and parish territories. Rivers and drainage channels are rendered with hierarchical linework, cueing the viewer to the arterial logic of Frisian life—commerce, cultivation, and communication bound together by managed water.

Turning eastward, the map carries the viewer across regional frontiers into Ostfriesland, where Emden occupies pride of place as a strategic port, its approaches threaded by estuaries and tidal rivers. Inland, Aurich and Norden are fixed within an orderly web of roads and streams that articulate authority as much as terrain—Ortelius’s marriage of the political and the physical. Boundaries are delineated with discriminating strokes, yet never overwhelm the eloquent depiction of marsh, meadow, and settled ground. The engraver’s hand captures subtle transitions in land use, guiding the eye from low-lying coastal flats to more secure inland tracts. The result is a persuasive regional tableau that reveals how East Friesland’s towns, fields, and waterways cohered into an interdependent whole.

Ortelius’s aesthetic program is on triumphant display in the design. An ornate cartouche frames the title with mannerist flourish, announcing a work that elevates geography to the rank of the liberal arts. The uncolored surface focuses attention on the disciplined elegance of the engraving, much of it executed by Frans Hogenberg and his workshop, whose burins orchestrate texture through measured hachures, stippling, and typographic hierarchy. In the lower left, a refined compass rose orients the reader’s journey, its petals a visual counterpoint to the rectilinear precision of fields and parcels. Latin place-names and calibrated lettering distinguish towns from villages and natural features, while rivers are given sinuous vitality. Every element—decorative and documentary—is tuned to clarity, legibility, and learned poise.

Abraham Ortelius, creator of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, changed how the world was seen and shared. In this Frisian sheet he distills his revolution: maps and texts conceived together to transmit knowledge with grace and authority. Issued at the dawn of the Dutch Revolt, it captures a maritime frontier whose fortunes turned on waterways, ports, and the careful stewardship of land—a microcosm of the larger transformations animating Europe. By standardizing presentation and insisting on rigorous sourcing, Ortelius invited readers beyond the scholar’s study into a new, portable theater of the world. The result endures as both artifact and instrument: a lucid record of 16th-century understanding and a timeless invitation to trace the courses of rivers, the lines of power, and the patient geometries of human settlement.

Cities and towns on this map

• West Friesland:
• Leeuwarden (modern population ~120,000)
• Sneek (modern population ~33,000)
• Harlingen (modern population ~15,000)
• East Friesland:
• Emden (modern population ~50,000)
• Aurich (modern population ~40,000)
• Norden (modern population ~25,000)

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Cartouche: An ornate decorative element containing the title and publication information.
• Compass Rose: Depicted in the lower left corner, indicating directionality.
• Geographical Labels: Numerous settlements and geographical features identified in Latin.
• Rivers and Waterways: Clearly marked, indicating their significance to the regions.
• Land Use: Representation of agricultural areas and different types of land.

Historical and design context

• Map Date: 1568
• Mapmaker: Abraham Ortelius
• Significance of the Mapmaker:
• Created Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first regularly produced atlas.
• Set standards for future atlases and advanced late 16th-century European geographical knowledge.
• Integrated maps with textual descriptions, transforming how geography was presented.
• Maps largely engraved and produced by Frans Hogenberg and his team.
• Themes Shown: Both political and physical geographical features of the Frisian regions.
• Historical Significance:
• Foundational contribution to cartography, reflecting late Renaissance geographical understanding.
• The integration of maps and descriptive texts marked a transformative period in recording and disseminating geography.
• Design Context: Uncolored with detailed engraving typical of the period.

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.