1 : 80000000
Description
One of the most iconic maps of all time, this is Abraham Ortelius s 1589 map of the world,
Typus Orbis Terrarum, here in the first state of the 3rd plate. This map was published in Ortelius
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern published atlas. The map embraces the entirety of the known world and represented the most widely-disseminated and eagerly-copied image of the world available to the European reader at the end of the 16th century. In compiling this map Ortelius drew on the best cartography available, including Gerard Mercator s map of 1569, Giacomo Gastaldi s 1561 World Map, Diego Gutierrez s portolan of the Atlantic, as well as other works by Sebastian Cabot, Jodocus Hondius, Orontius Finaeus, Petrus Plancius, Gemma Frisius, Laurent Fries, and more.
1572 (dated)
1 : 12900000
Description
This is a scarce and important 1571 map of the world by Benedict Arias Montanus. Finely engraved and prepared for the eight-volume
Plantin Polyglot Bible, this elegant map was intended to bring the new discoveries of the Americas into a coherent religious context. It further established the Native American population as Hebrew descendants of Noah, and thus Children of God whom the dedicatee of the
Polyglot, Philip II of Spain, was obliged to convert. Although its alleged revelations of Australian geography have long been the map s
cause celebre, these are overshadowed by the map s actual significance as a cartographic justification of Spanish Imperialism.
1 : 120000000
Description
This is Sebastian Münster s 1550 map of the world, one of the most distinctive produced during the Age of Discovery. In the mid-sixteenth century, it was the best summation of the rapidly expanding known world available to the literate European. The map was included in Münster’s magnum opus,
Cosmographia Universalis, for over forty years was the primary source for anyone who wished knowledge of the world. Consequently, this map would have had a disproportionate impact, providing the first presentation of a circumnavigable world for nearly half a century. It would not be challenged until the 1570 publication of Ortelius