World's First Atlas: Google Doodle.

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Culture
Society
History of Science
Edward Hessler

In 1570 was published the world's first atlas. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or Theatre of the World. This book of maps was the first in which all the maps were all the same size and organized geographically.

Today's Google Doodle celebrates it's author, cartographer Abraham Ortelius.  In an article about the Doodle and Ordelius CNET's Steven Musil notes that Within one Ortelius' atlas, we see the first suggestion that the world's continents were joined together before drifting to their present positions. Ortelius noted the geometrical similarity between the coasts of America and Europe-Africa and was the first to propose continental drift as the explanation.

The atlas was not intended for navigation but as a work of art and appreciation. It included a dragon or two throughout.

Here is the Wiki entry on Ortelius and here is the Doodle.