This view of the dunes between the lower arm of the Rhine and the North Sea, then known as the ‘Germanic Sea’, is the long-lost depiction of the cartographer Abraham Ortelius from Brittenburg by the Antwerp. This print was rediscovered in 2015, in the possession of a London dealer. It shaped the contemporary image of the Roman fort near Katwijk, which was ‘sunken’ in the sea and, as described in the central cartouche, was washed away in 1520, 1552 and 1562. Ortelius was on site when the ruins were last visible. He also made drawings of the smaller material findings and used them as a basis to create this copper engraving, which in turn was inspired the numerous new editions of the Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi by Lodovico Guicciardini from 1581 onwards.
Further Reading
- Buijtendorp, Tom: Brittenburg. Verdronken hoeksteen van het Romeinse Rijk, Leiden 2018.
- Kaszab-Olschwesky, Tünde / Grimm, Gerald Volker: Brittenburg Reloaded. in: Laura Di Carlo / Johannes Lipps / Anna Pawlak / Daniel R. F. Richter (Ed.): Andere Ästhetik meets Andere Ästhetik. Visualisierungen von Antiken nördlich der Alpen in der frühneuzeitlichen Druckgraphik.
- Kaszab-Olschwesky, Tünde / Grimm, Gerald Volker: Überlegungen zur Brittenburg, in: Bonner Jahrbücher, Vol. 214(2014) pp. 43–68.
- Ketelaar 2015 = Ketelaar, Ketelaar Frederick C. J. (Eric): Eric: Ortelius’ Brittenburg. Caertthresoor, in: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis van de Kartografie 34.3 (2015).
- Ottenheym, Konrad: On Romans, Batavians and Giants. The Quest for the True Origin of Architecture in the Dutch Republic, in: Bianca De Divitiis / Kathleen Wren Christian (Ed.): Local Antiquities, Local Identities. Art, Literature and Antiquarianism in Europe, c. 1400–1700, Manchester 2019, pp. 261–285.
