ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL TREASURY

OF ABRAHAM ORTELIUS.

The Theatre of the World, a grand and immense work,
Completed through the long passage of many years,
With the greatest labor, care, and diligence:
You have made this a matter of public right and use,
ORTELIUS, free from malice and envy.
The names of Kings, Dukes, and Princes
Confess they owe you as much gratitude
As you deserve. Now, because you have shared
This Geographical Treasury, abundantly rich in all things,
With learned men:
What is there, kind Giver,
That can be paid back to match your merits?
Every soil, and all the seas, the steep ridges,
And the secluded valleys cry out, and the elements themselves:
That it is owed to you, that you have blessed the earth
And the very ages of men,
The sky, and an everlasting name, and that which
Might be worthier or more enduring than a name or the sky.
The author, Paulus Melissus Francus (1539–1602), was a famous German humanist poet and composer who served as a poet laureate. He suggests that Ortelius's fame will outlast the physical world he mapped.

TO THE MOST LEARNED RESTORER OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY,

The Greek word "Αναγραμματικῶς" (Anagrammatikos) indicates that the poem or its title contains an anagram, a popular intellectual puzzle in the Renaissance.

Do ancient souls now take on new bodies,
As they say it was the fate of Panthoos to have done?
Panthoos refers to a story about the philosopher Pythagoras, who claimed his soul had previously lived in the body of Euphorbus, the son of Panthous, during the Trojan War.
Indeed, this age has its Horace, Seneca, and Galen;
It is blessed with its own Cicero and Virgil.
And you see a Cosmographer: but whose soul is in that man?
He surpasses any of the ancients.
Who is present, brought back to life? Does one man
Name all the regions, lakes, and towns of the World in the ancient manner?
While meditating on these things, I see written on the leaves of the Sibyl:
MELA, ARRIAN, STEPHANUS, STRABO: this man is all of them ALIVE.
The poet names the four greatest geographers of antiquity: Pomponius Mela, Arrian, Stephanus of Byzantium, and Strabo. He implies Ortelius is their living reincarnation. The letters of the Latinized names of these ancients were often manipulated by Renaissance poets to form anagrams of their friends' names.

Jacobus Colius (James Cool, 1563–1628) was Ortelius’s nephew, a merchant and scholar living in London who helped his uncle gather geographical data.