Johann Georg Theodor Grässe (1814–1885), a librarian, art historian, and literary scholar, published the first edition of Orbis latinus in 1861.
Although this first edition already listed a considerable number of names from around the world, it contained large gaps, especially in its coverage of more obscure locations.
There followed a 1909 edition, almost doubled in size, under the direction of the University of Breslau Professor Frederick Benedict (b.
1850), who evaluated previously published sources and historical works far more systematically.
1920), together with Sophie-Charlotte Plechl, began work on the fourth edition of Orbis Latinus, adding many names of monasteries, mountains, and bodies of water, and taking into account material dating from antiquity to the Latin literature of the nineteenth century.