https://www.cnet.com/news/google-doodle-celebrates-abraham-ortelius-atlas/ > Before Google Maps, our ancestors were forced to pick up this thing called a book to learn about the world around them. > The first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), was published on this day by Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish cartographer and geographer. The latest map sheets and text were collected from scientists, geographers, and other cartographers, and then arranged by continent, region and state, and bound into book form.