CELTIC EUROPE IN THE COMMENTARY OF THE 16th CENTURY FLEMISH MAPMAKER ABRAHAM ORTELIUS

A survey deals with the Latin commentary to the 1595-year Ancient Celtica map, created by the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius in his historical atlas «Parergon». The mapmaker’s texts in verso to the ancient maps are still little studied by researchers. In the course of the study, the main parts of the source were analyzed, testifying Ortelius’ high erudition in ancient history and geography. Special attention also paid to how the humanist of the late XVI century showed his vision of the idea of European Pan-Celticism. Although he did not detail the vision of Celtic Europe, Ortelius confidently presented the arguments of his contemporaries, using a wide range of ancient, medieval, and humanistic sources: a total number of almost 70 authors. The Dutch mapmaker widely drew the arguments of Hadrianus Junius and Johannes Goropius Becanus: they biblically and linguistically spread the idea of Europa Celtica in the XVI century Netherlands. Ortelius’ great merit was a revealing of the Celtic myth through the prism of the Celtic and Germanic tribes’ identity with their languages and with their settlement throughout Europe by using methods of historical geography, linguistics, European toponymy and cartography.