And the changing turns of things, and the ruins of the world,
When the world poorly sustains the wealth it has built.
This work unfolds many ages from past centuries,
And it restores ancient trust.
The author corrects errors for your use,
Whatever Latium: a region of central Italy, here referring to Latin literature and the Roman world possesses, and whatever Greece possesses.
Why do I delay, Ortelius? This labor will be a light
For both ancient and modern history in truth.
Hail, this glory of our age, you who can give
The whole world to readers with a generous mind.
And the Treasury, successfully unlocked by your skill,
Possesses the spirit of eternal posterity.

ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL TREASURY

OF ABRAHAM ORTELIUS, ILLUSTRATOR OF THE WORLD,

And the prince of the geographers of this age, by Johannes Gevartius of Turnhout

When you represent all the regions of the vast world,
Ortelius, the honor of your nation and the world,
You note by what name kingdoms, towns, or cities were called
By the ancients, and by what name they are called now.
Bound to live with eternal praise for your name,
You have prepared immortal and everlasting glory for yourself.
You deserve more than others from all posterity,
Because you note the places and individual kingdoms of the world.
Therefore the World will extol you with magnificent praises,
The World which you describe with such skill:
And it will add everlasting fame to your virtues,
Which no passage of time will be able to diminish.
This fame will always endure for you into coming years,
As long as the world exists, and as long as kingdoms exist.

NICOLAUS RHEDINGER

SILESIAN OF VRATISLAVIA: the Latin name for Wrocław, a city in modern-day Poland.

The Spaniard boasts of the World recently discovered:
But those things are nothing compared to your light, Ortelius.
For you join the old world and the new in a single map;
And each world is made new by your genius.
Therefore, if we call Nature the mother of the World:
Who could deny, Ortelius, that you are the father of the World?