A former pupil of an eminent German scholar and educationist
Valentin Friedland, Helwig went on to study at the
University of Wittenberg, where as a student of
Martin Luther and
Philip Melanchthon he earned the academic degree of
Magister. In 1552, he became
Rector of St. Maria Magdalena School in Breslau (now Wrocław, in Poland). Equally proficient in mathematics and geography as well as classical languages, he produced the first woodcut map of Silesia made on the basis of surveys and data collected from local inhabitants, which he published in 1561 under the title "Silesiae Typus", and dedicated to
Nicolaus II. Rehdiger, a wealthy Silesian merchant, banker, philanthropist, governor and patron of the principality of Breslau sponsored the map. Martin Helwig's map went on to receive acclaim in a public writing by
Caspar Peucer, an eminent German scholar at the University of Wittenberg, and was later republished in several versions of
Abraham Ortelius's pioneering world atlas, "
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum". The first map of Silesia by Martin Helwig constituted until the middle of the 18th century the main model and source of information for the cartographical presentation of this region of Europe on the maps of the most famous cartographers and publishers of those times. ==Notes and references==