The initial key to his proposal, the complementary shapes of the continental masses, had been observed as early as the 16th century by Abraham Ortelius, but had lacked a credible driving force.
Ortelius (in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum) placed a crescent-shaped island in the traditional location of Mayda with the name "Vlaenderen".
Among the sixteenth-century luminaries who were familiar with the work and drew upon it in their own writings were John Leland, John Bale, Abraham Ortelius, Henry Sidney, Philip Sidney, Edmund Campion, Hooker, Holinshed, Hanmer, William Herbert and William Camden.
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Strejc used description by of Iceland by Dithmar Blefken (1607), work of David Fabricius (1616) based on Blefken's work and the map and description from the 1590 atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius which was based a map by Iceland bishop Gudbrand Thórlaksson.