9/2/2023 0 Comments World map prepared by ortelius![]() ![]() His own map of the world was an artistic triumph as well as an intellectual one. ![]() Mercator also saw the map as a work of art. He'd mount them on silk and render them in color. He'd decorate their borders and the empty reaches of land and sea. In 1554 he went into business buying and selling maps. Ortelius trained as an engraver - an artist/craftsman. He published a world map in that projection in 1569. He went on to become the great Renaissance mapmaker. He was an intellectual, a mathematician, and an innovator. Mercator, born in 1512, was older by 15 years. They were Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. To see how it came into being, let's meet two Flemish friends. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. Appearing at both poles are winged angels turning the world on its axis, eleven years before Copernicus published his theory of the solar system.Today, we make maps into a user-friendly information system. Cannibals, winged monsters, and natives with large deformed lips predominate. The border of the map by Holbien shows exotic scenes reflecting the prevalent European misconceptions about other continents and their inhabitants. However, ideas from previous eras are evident, including the Pacific Ocean’s diminutive size, Japan’s ( Zipangri) placement only a short distance west of North America ( Terra de Cuba), and the strait separating North and South America. Following the models of Waldseemüller and Apianus, and using Bordone’s oval projection, the New World is shown as a separate continent named America and placed between two distinct Oceans. The map carries over geographic relics from the Old World, while trying to rationalize the newest discoveries in the Western Hemispheres. Most likely prepared by geographer Sebastian Münster and decorated by artist Hans Holbien the Younger, this map illustrated the Basel edition of Novus Orbis Regionum, a collection of early voyage accounts, first published in 1532 and republished in 1555. At the same time, he popularized Verrazano’s isthmus, showing it as connecting Terra Florida with Francisca (named for France). By labeling both north and south together as Novus Orbis, Münster extended continental-status to North America. Münster thus represented an ambiguous geography. Even so, he identified a possible route to the Indies by reconfiguring the Outer Banks to be a sandy isthmus, with the Indian Ocean just beyond. In searching for a route through those islands in 1524-25, Giovanni di Verrazano ended up tracing the coast from Florida to Narragansett Bay. After the extensive lands south of the Caribbean were recognized to constitute an entirely new continent-called America-Europeans still thought of the little known northward lands as being the Asian islands. ![]() Münster’s title, Novae Insulae or “new islands,” reflects the initial belief that Columbus had reached the supposed islands off Asia. It also includes a very early appearance of the Straits of Magellan, along with his ship Victoria in the Pacific Ocean. Münster’s Novae Insulae, the most widely disseminated and influential map of the Americas during the mid-sixteenth century, is the earliest map to show all of North and South America in a truly separate, continental form. The treatment of India, Eastern Asia and Africa are all considerably modernized from the maps of Ptolemy. Interestingly, the island above Norway shows remarkable similarities to Svalbard, which would not be discovered until 1597 by Willem Barentsz. The polar regions show four large land masses in the Polar Sea, constituting the first serious attempt to depict these regions on a printed map, partly based on reports in the book Inventio Fortunata of the English friar Nicholas of Lynne. The explored regions of North America ( Terra Nova, Venlant, etc.) indicate John Cabot’s exploration of Newfoundland, but remain attached to the Asian continent consistent with the theories espoused by Christopher Columbus. Ruysch adopts Amerigo Vespucci’s name Mundus Novus (New World) in South America as well as Terra Sanctae Crucis. Depicted using Ptolemy’s first projection (coniform), Ruysch’s world map incorporates the discoveries of the Portuguese, Spanish, and English explorers in America as well as information from Marco Polo’s account of his travels. ![]()
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