The earliest knownworld maps date toclassical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuriesBCE still based on theflat Earth paradigm. World maps assuming aspherical Earth first appear in theHellenistic period. The developments ofGreek geography during this time, notably byEratosthenes andPosidonius culminated in the Roman era, withPtolemy's world map (2nd century CE), which would remain authoritative throughout theMiddle Ages. Since Ptolemy, knowledge of the approximate size of the Earth allowed cartographers to estimate the extent of their geographical knowledge, and to indicate parts of the planet known to exist but not yet explored asterra incognita.
With theAge of Discovery, during the 15th to 18th centuries, world maps became increasingly accurate; exploration of Antarctica, Australia, and theinterior of Africa by western mapmakers was left to the 19th and early 20th century.
TheSaint-Bélec slab discovered in 1900 byPaul du Châtellier, in Finistère, France, is dated to between 1900 BCE and 1640 BCE. A recent analysis, published in the Bulletin of the French Prehistoric Society, has shown that the slab is a three-dimensional representation of theRiver Odet valley in Finistère, France. This would make the Saint-Bélec slab the oldest known map of a territory in the world. According to the authors, the map probably was not used for navigation, but rather to show the political power and territorial extent of a local ruler's domain of the earlyBronze Age.[1][2][3][4]
A Babylonian world map, known as theImago Mundi, is commonly dated to the 6th century BCE.[5]The map as reconstructed byEckhard Unger showsBabylon on theEuphrates, surrounded by a circular landmass includingAssyria,Urartu (Armenia)[6] and several cities, in turn surrounded by a "bitter river" (Oceanus), with eight outlying regions (nagu) arranged around it in the shape of triangles, so as to form a star. The accompanying text mentions a distance of sevenberu between the outlying regions. The descriptions of five of them have survived:[7]
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Anaximander (diedc. 546 BCE) is credited with having created one of the first maps of the world,[8] which was circular in form and showed the known lands of the world grouped around theAegean Sea at the center. This was all surrounded by the ocean.
Hecataeus of Miletus is credited with a work entitledPeriodos Ges ("Travels round the Earth" or "World Survey"), in two books each organized in the manner of aperiplus, a point-to-point coastal survey. One, onEurope, is essentially a periplus of the Mediterranean, describing each region in turn, reaching as far north asScythia. The other book, onAsia, is arranged similarly to thePeriplus of the Erythraean Sea of which a version of the 1st century CE survives. Hecataeus described the countries and inhabitants of the known world, the account ofEgypt being particularly comprehensive; the descriptive matter was accompanied by a map, based uponAnaximander's map of the Earth, which he corrected and enlarged. The work only survives in some 374 fragments, by far the majority being quoted in the geographical lexicon theEthnica, compiled byStephanus of Byzantium.
Eratosthenes (276–194 BCE) drew an improved world map, incorporating information from the campaigns ofAlexander the Great and his successors.Asia became wider, reflecting the new understanding of the actual size of the continent. Eratosthenes was also the first geographer to incorporate parallels and meridians within his cartographic depictions, attesting to his understanding of the spherical nature of the Earth.
Posidonius (or Poseidonius) ofApameia (c. 135–51 BCE) was a GreekStoic philosopher[10] who traveled throughout the Roman world and beyond and was a celebratedpolymath throughout the Greco-Roman world, likeAristotle andEratosthenes. His work "about the ocean and the adjacent areas" was a general geographical discussion, showing how all the forces had an effect on each other and applied also to human life. He measured the Earth's circumference by reference to the position of the starCanopus. His measure of 240,000stadia translates to 24,000 miles (39,000 km), close to the actual circumference of 24,901 miles (40,074 km).[11] He was informed in his approach by Eratosthenes, who a century earlier used the elevation of the Sun at different latitudes and arrived at a result of roughly 250,000 stadia.[12] Both men's figures for the Earth's circumference were uncannily accurate, aided in each case by mutually compensating errors in measurement. However, the version of Posidonius' calculation popularised byStrabo was revised by correcting the distance between Rhodes and Alexandria to 3,750 stadia, resulting in a circumference of 180,000 stadia, or 18,000 miles (29,000 km).[13]Ptolemy discussed and favored this revised figure of Posidonius over Eratosthenes in hisGeographia, and during theMiddle Ages scholars divided into two camps regarding the circumference of the Earth, one side identifying with Eratosthenes' 250,000 stadion measure and the other with Posidonius' 180,000, which is now known to be about 33% too low. This was the number used byChristopher Columbus to underestimate the distance to India as 70,000 stades.[14]
Strabo is mostly famous for his 17-volume workGeographica, which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known to his era.[15] TheGeographica first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469. Although Strabo referenced the antique Greek astronomers Eratosthenes andHipparchus and acknowledged their astronomical and mathematical efforts towards geography, he claimed that a descriptive approach was more practical.Geographica provides a valuable source of information on the ancient world, especially when this information is corroborated by other sources. Within the books ofGeographica is a map of Europe. Whole world maps according to Strabo are reconstructions from his written text.
Pomponius is unique among ancient geographers in that, after dividing the Earth into five zones, of which two only were habitable, he asserts the existence ofantichthones, people inhabiting the southern temperate zone inaccessible to the folk of the northern temperate regions due to the unbearable heat of the intervening torrid belt. On the divisions and boundaries ofEurope,Asia andAfrica, he repeats Eratosthenes; like all classical geographers fromAlexander the Great (exceptPtolemy) he regards theCaspian Sea as an inlet of the Northern Ocean, corresponding to the Persian (Persian Gulf) and Arabian (Red Sea) gulfs on the south.
Marinus of Tyre's world maps were the first in theRoman Empire to showChina. Around 120 CE, Marinus wrote that the habitable world was bounded on the west by theFortunate Islands. The text of his geographical treatise however is lost. He also invented theequirectangular projection, which is still used in map creation today. A few of Marinus' opinions are reported by Ptolemy. Marinus was of the opinion that theOkeanos was separated into an eastern and a western part by the continents (Europe, Asia and Africa). He thought that the inhabited world stretched in latitude fromThule (Shetland) toAgisymba (Tropic of Capricorn) and in longitude from theIsles of the Blessed toShera (China). Marinus also coined the term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of theArctic Circle. His chief legacy is that he first assigned to each place a properlatitude andlongitude; he used a "Meridian of theIsles of the Blessed (Canary Islands orCape Verde Islands)" as thezero meridian.
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Surviving texts ofPtolemy'sGeography, first composedc. 150, note that he continued the use of Marinus's equirectangular projection for its regional maps while finding it inappropriate for maps of theentire known world. Instead, in Book VII of his work, he outlines three separate projections of increasing difficulty and fidelity. Ptolemy followed Marinus in underestimating the circumference of the world; combined with accurate absolute distances, this led him to also overestimate the length of theMediterranean Sea in terms ofdegrees. Hisprime meridian at theFortunate Isles was therefore around 10 actual degrees further west ofAlexandria than intended, a mistake that was corrected byAl-Khwārizmī following the translation ofSyriac editions of Ptolemy intoArabic in the 9th century. The oldest surviving manuscripts of the work date toMaximus Planudes's restoration of the text a little before 1300 atChora Monastery inConstantinople (Istanbul); surviving manuscripts from this era seem to preserve separate recensions of the text which diverged as early as the 2nd or 4th century. A passage in some of the recensions credits anAgathodaemon with drafting a world map, but no maps seem to have survived to be used by Planude's monks. Instead, he commissioned new world maps calculated from Ptolemy's thousands of coordinates and drafted according to the text's 1st[16] and 2nd projections,[17] along with the equirectangular regional maps. A copy was translated intoLatin byJacobus Angelus atFlorence around 1406 and soon supplemented with maps on the 1st projection. Maps using the 2nd projection were not made in Western Europe untilNicolaus Germanus's 1466 edition.[18] Ptolemy's 3rd (and hardest) projection does not seem to have been used at all beforenew discoveries expanded the known world beyond the point where it provided a useful format.[18]
Cicero'sDream of Scipio described the Earth as a globe of insignificant size in comparison to the remainder of the cosmos. Many medieval manuscripts ofMacrobius'Commentary on the Dream of Scipio include maps of the Earth, including theantipodes, zonal maps showing thePtolemaic climates derived from the concept of a spherical Earth and a diagram showing the Earth (labeled asglobus terrae, the sphere of the Earth) at the center of the hierarchically ordered planetary spheres.[19][20]
TheTabula Peutingeriana (Peutinger table) is anitinerarium showing thecursus publicus, the road network in theRoman Empire. It is a 13th-century copy of an original map dating from the 4th century, covering Europe, parts of Asia (India) and North Africa. The map is named afterKonrad Peutinger, a German 15th–16th century humanist and antiquarian. The map was discovered in a library inWorms byConrad Celtes, who was unable to publish his find before his death, and bequeathed the map in 1508 to Peutinger. It is conserved at theÖsterreichische Nationalbibliothek,Hofburg, Vienna.
Around 550Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote the copiously illustratedChristian Topography, a work partly based on his personal experiences as a merchant on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the early 6th century. Though hiscosmogony is refuted by modern science, he has given a historic description of India andSri Lanka during the 6th century, which is invaluable to historians. Cosmas seems to have personally visited the Kingdom ofAxum in modernEthiopia andEritrea, as well asIndia andSri Lanka. In 522 CE, he visited theMalabar Coast (South India). A major feature of hisTopography is Cosmas' worldview that theworld isflat, and that theheavens form the shape of a box with a curved lid, a view he took from unconventional interpretations ofChristianscripture. Cosmas aimed to prove that pre-Christian geographers had been wrong in asserting that the earth was spherical and that it was in fact modelled on theTabernacle, the house of worship described toMoses by God during the Jewish Exodus from Egypt.
The medievalT and O maps originate with the description of the world in theEtymologiae ofIsidore of Seville (died 636). This qualitative and conceptual type of medievalcartography represents only the top-half of a spherical Earth.[21] It was presumably tacitly considered a convenientprojection of the inhabited portion of the world known in Roman and medieval times (that is, thenorthern temperate half of the globe). TheT is theMediterranean, dividing the threecontinents,Asia,Europe andAfrica, and theO is the surroundingOcean.Jerusalem was generally represented in the center of the map. Asia was typically the size of the other two continents combined. Because the sun rose in the east, Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was generally depicted as being in Asia, and Asia was situated at the top portion of the map.
TheMappa mundi of Albi [fr] is a medieval map of the world, included in a manuscript of the second half of the 8th century, preserved in the old collection of the library Pierre-Amalric inAlbi, France.[22] This manuscript comes from the chapter library of the Sainte-CécileAlbi Cathedral. The Albi Mappa Mundi was inscribed in October 2015 in theMemory of the World Programme ofUNESCO.[23]
The manuscript bearing the card contains 77 pages. It is named in the eighteenth century "Miscellanea" (Latin word meaning "collection"). This collection contains 22 different documents, which had educational functions. The manuscript, aParchment probably made from a goat or sheep skin, is in a very good state of preservation.
The map itself is 27 cm high by 22.5 wide. It represents 23 countries on 3 continents and mentions several cities, islands, rivers and seas.[24] The known world is represented in the form of a horseshoe, opening at the level of the Strait of Gibraltar, and surrounding the Mediterranean, with the Middle East at the top, Europe on the left and North Africa on the right.
Ibn Hawqal was an Arab scientist of the 10th century who developed a world map, based on his own travel experience and probably the works of Ptolemy. Another such cartographer wasIstakhri.[25]
This map appears in a copy of a classical work on geography, the Latin version byPriscian of thePeriegesis, that was among the manuscripts in theCotton library (MS. Tiberius B.V., fol. 56v), now in theBritish Library. It is not intended purely as an illustration to that work, for it contains much material gathered from other sources, including some which would have been the most up-to-date available, although it is based on a distant Roman original (similar to the source ofanother 11th-century world map, illustrating an edition of Isidore of Seville) – on which the network of lines appears to indicate the boundaries ofimperial provinces. The date of drawing was formerly estimated atc. 992–994 CE, based on suggested links to the journey ofArchbishop Sigeric of Canterbury from Rome[26] but more recent analysis indicates that, although the information was revised about that time, the map was probably drawn between 1025 and 1050.[27]
Like the later map by al-Idrisi (see below) this map is clearly outside the largely symbolic early medieval mapping tradition, but equally it is not based on the famous Ptolemaic co-ordinate system. East is at the top, but Jerusalem is not in the centre, and the Garden of Eden is nowhere to be seen. Unusually, all the waterways of Africa, not just the Red Sea, are depicted in red (mountains are green). The depiction of the far East is ambitious, including India and Taprobane (Sri Lanka) – the latter depicted according to the exaggerated classical conception of its size. Unsurprisingly, Britain itself is depicted in some detail. Great Britain, unusually by medieval standards, is shown as one island, albeit with an exaggerated Cornish promontory, andMona, Ireland and the many Scottish islands are all indicated. The cartographer is slightly confused by Iceland, depicting it both by a version of its classical name 'Thule', north-west of Britain, and as 'Island', logically linked with Scandinavia.
An open-access high-resolution digital image of the map with place and name annotations is included among the thirteen medieval maps of the world edited in theVirtual Mappa project.
Beatus of Liébana (c. 730–798) was anAsturianmonk andtheologian. He corresponded withAlcuin, and took part in theAdoptionist controversy, criticizing the views ofFelix of Urgel andElipandus of Toledo. He is best remembered today as the author of hisCommentary on theApocalypse, published in 776. An illustrated manuscript known as theSaint-Sever Beatus, featuring theCommentary, was produced around 1050 at the Abbey of Saint-Sever, Aquitaine, France. It contains one of the oldest Christian world maps as an illustration of theCommentary. Although the original manuscript and map has not survived, copies of the map survive in several of the extant manuscripts.
Kara-Khanid scholarMahmud al-Kashgari compiled aDīwān Lughāt al-Turk (Compendium of the languages of the Turks) in the 11th century. The manuscript is illustrated with a 'Turkocentric' world map, oriented with east (or rather, perhaps, the direction of midsummer sunrise) on top, centered on the ancient city ofBalasagun in what is nowKyrgyzstan, showing theCaspian Sea to the north, andIraq,Armenia,Yemen andEgypt to the west,China andJapan to the east,Hindustan,Kashmir,Gog and Magog to the south. Conventional symbols are used throughout – blue lines for rivers, red lines for mountain ranges etc. The world is shown as encircled by the ocean.[28] The map is now kept at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
The Arab geographer,Muhammad al-Idrisi, incorporated the knowledge ofAfrica, theIndian Ocean and theFar East gathered byArab merchants and explorers with the information inherited from the classical geographers to create the most accurate map of the world at the time. It remained the most accurate world map for the next three centuries.TheTabula Rogeriana was drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154 for theNorman KingRoger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, written in Arabic, shows theEurasian continent in its entirety, but only shows thenorthern part of the African continent.
The Ebstorf Map was an example of a Europeanmappa mundi, made byGervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man asGervase of Tilbury,[29] some time in the thirteenth century. It was a very large map: painted on 30 goatskins sewn together, it measured about 3.6 m × 3.6 m (12 ft × 12 ft). The head of Christ was depicted at the top of the map, with his hands on either side and his feet at the bottom.[30] The Map was a greatly elaborated version of the medieval tripartite orT and O map; it was centred on Jerusalem with east at the top of the map. It representedRome in the shape of a lion, and had an evident interest in the distribution of bishoprics.[31] The original was destroyed in the bombing ofHanover in 1943 during World War II, but some photographs and colour copies remain.
TheHerefordMappa Mundi is a detailed mappa mundi based on theT and O map style, dating toc. 1300. The map is signed by one "Richard ofHaldingham orLafford". Drawn on a single sheet ofvellum, it measures 158 by 133 cm (62 by 52 in). The writing is in black ink, with additional red and gold, and blue or green for water (with theRed Sea coloured red). The captions demonstrate clearly the multiple functions of these large medieval maps, conveying a mass of information on Biblical subjects and general history, in addition to geography.
Jerusalem is drawn at the centre of the circle,east is on top, showing theGarden of Eden in a circle at the edge of the world (1).Great Britain is drawn at the northwestern border (bottom left, 22 & 23). Curiously, the labels forAfrica andEurope are reversed, with Europe scribed in red and gold as 'Africa', and vice versa.
An open-access high-resolution digital image of the map with more than 1,000 place and name annotations is included among the thirteen medieval maps of the world edited in theVirtual Mappa project.
Italian geographerPietro Vesconte was a pioneer of the field of theportolan chart. His nautical charts are among the earliest to map theMediterranean andBlack Sea regions accurately. He also produced progressively more accurate depictions of the coastlines of northern Europe. In his world map of 1321 he brought his experience as a maker of portolans to bear; the map introduced a previously unheard of accuracy to the mappa mundi genre.[32] The world map, as well as a map of theHoly Land and plan ofAcre andJerusalem were made for inclusion inMarino Sanuto'sLiber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis.[33]
The Catalan World Atlas was produced by theMajorcan cartographic school and is attributed toCresques Abraham. It has been in the royal library of France (now theBibliothèque nationale de France) since the time ofCharles V. The Catalan Atlas originally consisted of six vellum leaves folded down the middle, painted in various colours including gold and silver. The first two leaves contain texts in theCatalan language coveringcosmography,astronomy, andastrology. These texts are accompanied by illustrations. The texts and illustration emphasize the Earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world. They also provide information to sailors on tides and how to tell time at night.
Unlike many other nautical charts, the Catalan Atlas is read with the north at the bottom. As a result of this the maps are oriented from left to right, from the Far East to the Atlantic. The first two leaves, forming the oriental portion of the Catalan Atlas, illustrate numerous religious references as well as a synthesis of medieval mappae mundi (Jerusalem located close to the centre) and the travel literature of the time, notablyThe Travels of Marco Polo and theTravels ofSir John Mandeville. Many Indian and Chinese cities can be identified.
TheDa Ming Hunyi Tu (Chinese:大明混一图;lit. 'Amalgamated Map of the Great Ming Empire') world map, likely made in the late 14th or the 15th century,[34]shows China at the centre and Europe, half-way round the globe, depicted very small and horizontally compressed at the edge. The coast of Africa is also mapped from an Indian Ocean perspective, showing the Cape of Good Hope area.It is believed that maps of this type were made since about the 1320s, but all earlier specimens have been lost, so the earliest survivor is the elaborate, colourfulDa Ming Hunyi Tu, painted on 17 m2 (180 sq ft) of silk.
TheGangnido ("Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals (of China)")[35] is a world map and historical map of China, made inKorea in 1402, although extant copies, all in Japan, were created much later. It plays a key role in reconstructing the content of the now-lost 14th-century Chinese map of the world namedShengjiao Guangbei Tu, which was based on Chinese cartographic techniques with additional input from western sources, via Islamic scholarship in theMongol Empire. It also demonstrates the post-Mongol era stagnation of East Asian cartography as geographic information about the West was not updated until the introduction of European knowledge in the 16th and 17th centuries.[36] Superficially similar to theDa Ming Hun Yi Tu (which has been less well known in the West because it is kept in closed archive storage), the Gangnido shows its Korean origin in the enlargement of that country, and incorporates vastly improved (though wrongly positioned, scaled and oriented) mapping of Japan. Elsewhere, the map betrays a decorative rather than practical purpose, particularly in the portrayal of river systems, which form unnatural loops rarely seen on Chinese maps. Nonetheless, it is considered as "superior to anything produced in Europe prior to the end of the fifteenth century".[37]
TheDe Virga world map was made by Albertinus de Virga between 1411 and 1415. Albertin de Virga, a Venetian, is also known for a 1409 map of the Mediterranean, also made in Venice. The world map is circular, drawn on a piece ofparchment 69.6 cm × 44 cm (27.4 in × 17.3 in). It consists of the map itself, about 44 cm (17 in) in diameter, and an extension containing a calendar and two tables.
Andrea Bianco's atlas of 1436 comprises ten leaves ofvellum, measuring 29 cm × 38 cm (11 in × 15 in), in an 18th-century binding. The first leaf contains a description of theRule of marteloio for resolving the course, with the "circle and square", two tables and two other diagrams. The next eight leaves contain various navigation charts. The ninth leaf contains a circular world map measuring 25 cm (9.8 in) in circumference. And the final leaf contains the Ptolemaic world map on Ptolemy's first projection, with graduation. Some believe Bianco's maps were the first to correctly portray the coast of Florida, as a macro-peninsula is attached to a large island labeledAntillia. Bianco also collaborated withFra Mauro on the Fra Mauro world map of 1459.
Mainly a decoration piece, the Borgia map is a world map made sometime in the early 15th century, and engraved on a metal plate.
TheGenoese map of 1457 is aworld map that relied extensively on the account of the traveller to AsiaNiccolo da Conti, rather than the usual source ofMarco Polo.[38] The author is unknown, but is a more modern development than theFra Mauro world map, less intricate and complete, with fairly good proportions given to each of the continents. The map depicts the main landmarks of the time, and figures such as the legendaryPrester John in Africa, the Great Khan in China, "Xilam" (Ceylon) and Sumatra, and the design of a three-masted European ship in theIndian Ocean, something which had not occurred, suggesting that a sea-lane was a possibility.[38]
TheFra Mauro map was made between 1457 and 1459 by theVenetian monkFra Mauro. It is a circular planisphere drawn onparchment and set in a wooden frame, about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in diameter.The original world map was made by Fra Mauro and his assistant Andrea Bianco, a sailor-cartographer, under a commission by kingAfonso V of Portugal. The map was completed on April 24, 1459, and sent toPortugal, but did not survive to the present day. Fra Mauro died the next year while he was making a copy of the map for the Seignory of Venice, and the copy was completed by Andrea Bianco.
The map is preserved in theMuseo Correr inVenice.
The world map ofHenricus Martellus Germanus (Heinrich Hammer), c. 1490, was remarkably similar to the terrestrial globe later produced byMartin Behaim in 1492, theErdapfel. Both show heavy influences fromPtolemy, and both possibly derive from maps created around 1485 in Lisbon byBartolomeo Columbus. Although Martellus is believed to have been born in Nuremberg, Behaim's home town, he lived and worked in Florence from 1480 to 1496.
TheErdapfel (German:earth apple) produced byMartin Behaim in 1492 is considered to be the oldest surviving terrestrialglobe. It is constructed of a laminated linen ball reinforced with wood and overlaid with amap painted ongores byGeorg Glockendon.[39] The Americas are not included yet, asColumbus returned to Spain no sooner than March 1493. It shows a rather enlarged Eurasian continent and an empty ocean between Europe and Asia. It includes the mythicalSaint Brendan's Island. Japan and Asian islands are disproportionately large. The idea to call the globe "apple" may be related to theReichsapfel ("Imperial Apple",Globus cruciger) which was also kept in Nuremberg along with theImperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien). In 1907, it was transferred to theGermanic Museum inNuremberg.
Juan de la Cosa, a Spanish cartographer,explorer andconquistador, born inSantoña in what was then the Kingdom of Castille, made several maps of which the only survivor is theMappa Mundi of 1500. It is the first known European cartographic representation of theAmericas. It is now in theMuseo Naval inMadrid. Reproductions of it are given by Humboldt in hisAtlas géographique et physique.
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TheCantino planisphere or Cantino world map is the earliest surviving map showingPortuguese discoveries in the east and west. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for theDuke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portugal toItaly in 1502. It shows the islands of theCaribbean, as well as Africa, Europe and Asia. The map is particularly notable for portraying a fragmentary record of theBrazilian coast, discovered in 1500 by Portuguese explorerPedro Álvares Cabral who conjectured whether it was merely an island[40] or part of the continent that severalSpanish expeditions had just encountered farther north (cf.Amerigo Vespucci).
TheCaverio Map, also known as the Caveri Map or Canerio Map, is a map drawn byNicolay de Caveri,c. 1505. It is hand drawn on parchment and coloured, being composed of ten sections or panels, measuring 2.25 by 1.15 metres (7.4 by 3.8 ft). Historians believe that this undated map signed with "Nicolay de Caveri Januensis" was completed in 1504–05. It was probably either made inLisbon by the Genoese Canveri, or copied by him inGenoa from the very similarCantino map. It was one of the primary sources used to make theWaldseemüller map in 1507. The Caverio map is currently at theBibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
Johannes Ruysch an explorer, cartographer, astronomer and painter from theLow Countries produced the second oldest known printed representation of the New World.[41] The Ruysch map was published and widely distributed in 1507. It usesPtolemy's coniform projection, as does theContarini-Rosselli 1506 map. Both documentChristopher Columbus' discoveries as well as that ofJohn Cabot, including information from Portuguese sources andMarco Polo's account. There are notes on his map that clearly were from Portuguese sources.Newfoundland andCuba are shown connected to Asia, asColumbus andCabot believed. “Sipganus” (Marco Polo's Japan) is identical with “Spagnola” (Hispaniola) on the Ruysch map. The presence of codfish is noted on the Ruysch map in the area of theGrand Banks ofNewfoundland and shows the discoveries the Portuguese had made along the African coast and shows India as a triangular peninsula withCeylon in the correct proportion and position.Greenland is shown connected to Newfoundland and Asia on Ruysch's map, and not Europe as earlier maps had shown. Around the north pole, Ruysch drew islands, based on reports in the bookInventio Fortunata of the English friarNicholas of Lynne. The island above Norway is labeled 'European Hyberborea' and has similarities toSvalbard. The peninsula stretching out towards it is marked with the church of 'Sancti Odulfi', St Olaf's church inVardø on theFinnmark coast.
The cartographersMartin Waldseemüller andMatthias Ringmann from southern Germany, supported by the mapping friendRené II, Duke of Lorraine, collected map data over several years, including information on the most recent discoveries, to build up a new collective work of geography and cartography. Along with a book they further incorporated, for the first time in history, the nameAmerica on a map, holding the strong opinion that it was a new continent thatAmerigo Vespucci had discovered on his voyage and not only a few smaller islands asChristopher Columbus did in theWest Indies.
ThePiri Reis map is a famous world map created by 16th-centuryOttoman Turkish admiral and cartographerPiri Reis. The surviving third of the map shows part of the western coasts of Europe and North Africa with reasonable accuracy, and the coast ofBrazil is also easily recognizable. Various Atlantic islands including theAzores andCanary Islands are depicted, as is the mythical island ofAntillia. The map is noteworthy for its apparent south-eastward extension of the American continent to depict a southern landmass that some controversially claim is evidence for early awareness of the existence ofAntarctica. Alternatively, it has been suggested that this is actually a record of the coast as far asCape Horn, bent south-eastward simply to fit on the parchment.
The map byPietro Coppo was one of the last world maps to feature the "Dragon's Tail" extending southwards from the far eastern extremity of Asia, the last vestige of Ptolemy's landlocked depiction of the Indian Ocean, nearly 1,500 years earlier.
The editions of theSpanishroyal standard map (Padrón Real orGeneral) overseen byDiogo Ribeiro in the 1520s and 1530s are considered to be the first scientific world maps based on empiric latitude observations. Europe andCentral andSouth America are very precisely delineated, although Portuguese control of the African trade routes limited the accuracy of information on the Indian Ocean. Incorporating information from theMagellan,Gomes, andLoaysa expeditions andgeodesic research undertaken to establish the demarcation line of the 1494Treaty of Tordesillas, the maps show for the first time the real extension of thePacific Ocean and the continuous coast ofNorth America.
The originals are now lost but six copies of known provenance have survived.[42] The 1525 Castiglione Map is now held by theEstense Library inModena,Italy; the 1526Salviati Planisphere is held by theBiblioteca Medicea Laurenziana inFlorence; the 1527 Weimar Map is held by theAnna Amalia Bibliothek inWeimar,Germany; and the 1529Propaganda Map is held by theVatican Library.[42] Detailed copies of the Propaganda Map were made in the 19th century byWilliam Griggs.
Flemish geographer and cartographerGerardus Mercator world map of 1569 introduced acylindrical map projection that became the standard map projection known as theMercator projection. It was a large planisphere measuring 202 by 124 cm (80 by 49 in), printed in eighteen separate sheets. While the linear scale is constant in all directions around any point, thus preserving the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projectionconformal), the Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite. The title (Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigatium Emendate: "new and augmented description of Earth corrected for the use of navigation") and themap legends show that the map was expressly conceived for the use of marine navigation. The principal feature of the projection is thatrhumb lines, sailing courses at a constant bearing, are mapped to straight lines on the map. The development of the Mercator projection represented a major breakthrough in the nautical cartography of the 16th century although it was only slowly adopted by seafaring nations.
TheTheatrum Orbis Terrarum (or "Theatre of the World") is considered to be the first true modernatlas. Prepared byAbraham Ortelius and originally printed on May 20, 1570, inAntwerp, it consisted of a collection of uniformmap sheets and sustaining texts bound to form a book for which copper printing plates were specifically engraved. The Ortelius atlas is sometimes referred to as the summary of sixteenth-centurycartography. Many of his atlas's maps were based upon sources that no longer exist or are extremely rare. Ortelius appended a unique source list (the "Catalogus Auctorum") identifying the names of contemporary cartographers, some of whom would otherwise have remained obscure. ThreeLatin editions of this (besides aDutch, aFrench and aGerman edition) appeared before the end of 1572; twenty-five editions came out before Ortelius's death in 1598; and several others were published subsequently, as the atlas continued to be in demand until approximately 1612.
TheBünting Clover Leaf Map, also known asThe World in a Cloverleaf (German title:Die ganze Welt in einem Kleberblat/Welches ist der Stadt Hannover meines lieben Vaterlandes Wapen) is an historicmappa mundi drawn by theGermanProtestantpastor,theologist, andcartographerHeinrich Bünting. The map was published in his bookItinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel through Holy Scripture) in 1581.
Today the map is found within the Eran Laor maps collection in theNational Library of Israel inJerusalem. A mosaic model of the map is installed on the fence ofSafra Square at the site of Jerusalem's city hall.
The map is a figurative illustration, in the manner of the medieval mappa mundi format, depicting the world via aclover shape.[43] The shape is a symbolisation of theChristianTrinity and a component at the symbolisation of the German cityHanover, where Bünting was born. The city of Jerusalem is represented as the centre, surrounded by three central continents, with some more areas of the world being accordingly illustrated separately from the clover.
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Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (Chinese:坤輿萬國全圖;lit. 'A Map of the Myriad Countries of the World';Italian:Carta Geografica Completa di tutti i Regni del Mondo, "Complete Geographical Map of all the Kingdoms of the World"), printed by ItalianJesuitmissionaryMatteo Ricci at the request byWanli Emperor in 1602, is the first known European-styled Chinese world map (and the first Chinese map to show theAmericas). The map is inClassical Chinese, with detailed annotations and descriptions of various regions of the world, a brief account of the discovery of the Americas,polar projections, scientific explanation of parallels and meridians, and proof that the Sun is bigger than the Moon. Following Chinese cartographical convention, Ricci placed China ("the Middle Kingdom") at the centre of the world. This map is a significant mark of the expansion of Chinese knowledge of the world, and an important example ofcultural syncretism directly between Europe and China. It was also exported toKorea andJapan as well.[44]
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Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula is a map of the world created byHendrik Hondius in 1630, and published the following year atAmsterdam, in the atlasAtlantis Maioris Appendix. Illustrations of the four elements of fire, air, water, and land are included. In the four corners, there are portraits ofJulius Caesar,Claudius Ptolemy, and the atlas's first two publishers,Gerard Mercator andJodocus Hondius, the father of Hendrik.[45] Among its claims to notability is the fact that it was the first dated map published in an atlas, and therefore the first widely available map, to show any part of Australia, the only previous map to do so beingHessel Gerritsz' 1627Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ("Map of theLand of Eendracht"), which was not widely distributed or recognised. The Australian coastline shown is part of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, discovered byJan Carstensz in 1623. Curiously, the map does not show the west coast features shown in Gerritsz' Caert.
TheShahid-i Sadiq was an atlas composed by Sadiq Isfahani inJaunpur.[46] This included theInhabited Quarter, a map of the parts of the world which he held to be suitable for human life.[47] This is one of the only surviving maps made in India. The map stretched from the Insulae Fortunatae (Canary Islands) in the top right to Andalusia (Europe) to Sus al Aqsa (Western Africa) in the left.[46] TheShahid-i Sadiq included The 32 sheet atlas—with maps oriented towards the south as was the case with Islamic works of the era—is part of a larger scholarly work compiled by Isfahani during 1647.[47] This map measures 661 cm × 645 cm (260 in × 254 in; 21.69 ft × 21.16 ft).[48]
This engraved double hemisphere map,Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula, was created byNicolaes Visscher in 1658 inAmsterdam. It also contains smaller northern and southern polar projections. The border is decorated with mythological scenes, one in each corner, drawn by the painterNicolaes Berchem, showingZeus,Neptune,Persephone andDemeter. It is an early example of highly decorated Dutch world maps.[49][50]
Gerard van Schagen (c. 1642–1724?) was acartographer fromAmsterdam, known for his exquisite reproductions of maps, particularly of those byNicolaes Visscher I andFrederick de Wit.[51][52][53] The map is of 1689. The original size is 48.3 cm × 56.0 cm (19.0 in × 22.0 in) and was produced using copper engraving. There is only one known example, which is in theAmsterdam University.
Hamatarats Ashkharhatsuyts (Geographic Map of the World),[54] was produced in 1695 inAmsterdam by the Armenian printing firm founded byTovmas Vanandetsi [hy]. At the time, one of the most reliable maps of the two hemispheres was the first large-scale map drawn inArmenian.[55] The world map was created in a Westerncartographic style. To engrave the map's copper plates, the Schoonebeek brothers, who were considered the best masters, were employed. The map is divided into eight sections, totaling 150 × 120 cm in size. The different portions of the map were adhered to a thin canvas to guard against damage during folding. The map has conventional, astrological, and mythical symbols representing the four seasons in each of its four corners.
Samuel Dunn (died 1794) was a Britishmathematician and amateur astronomer. His map covers the entire world in a double hemisphere projection. This map follows shortly after the explorations ofCaptain Cook in the Arctic and Pacific Northwest, so the general outline of North America is known. However, when this map was made, few inland expeditions had extended westward beyond theMississippi River.[56] A southern continent is noticeably absent; earlier maps had depicted the hypothetical continentTerra Australis. These southern continents were speculative, as Antarctica had not yet been discovered.
Media related toMaps of the world before Columbus at Wikimedia Commons
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