![]() ![]() Among these are a number of identified lands in Terra Australis, including 'Beach', 'Lucach', and 'Maletur'. Much of the more notable speculative geography here relates to interpretations of Marco Polo's Travels. Many explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries sought the Great Southern Continent, including Quiros, Drake, and Cook, but Antarctica itself was not truly discovered until Edward Bransfield and William Smith sighted the Antarctic Peninsula in 1820. It was thought, based upon the writings of Aristotle, that the globe was a place of balances and thus geographers presumed the bulk of Eurasia must be counterbalanced by a similar landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, just as, they argued, the Americas counterbalanced Africa and Europe. Long before the discovery of Antarctica, the southern continent, supposedly capping the South Pole, was speculated upon by European geographers of the 16th and 17th centuries. The map exhibits a host of striking features, but perhaps none stand out more than the enormous continent massing at the base of the map identified as Terra Australis Nondum Cognita (Southern Land Not Known). ![]() Terra Australis Nondum Cognita or the Speculative Southern Continent In compiling this map Ortelius drew on the best cartography available, including Gerard Mercator's map of 1569, Giocomo 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, Laurentz Fries, and more. The map embraces the entirety of the known world and, although it may seem wildly erroneous by most modern standards, it was incredibly sophisticated at the time of its publication. The map was published in Ortelius', Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, considered to be the first modern published atlas. One of the most iconic maps of all time, this is Abraham Ortelius's 1592 map of the world, Typus Orbis Terrarum, here in the premier state of the 3rd edition. ![]() Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2016-2017.Circa 1587. MB (BRL)Ĭataloging, conservation, and digitization made possible in part by The National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.Ītlas scanned by Internet Archive Notes (exhibitions):Įxhibited: "Shakespeare’s Here and Everywhere" organized by the Norman B. 1570.Įxhibited in “Journeys of the Imagination,” at the Boston Public Library, Boston, MA, April - August 2006. Cicero."Īppears in the author's Theatrum orbis terrarum. "Quid ei potest videri magnum in rebus humanis, cui aeternitas omnis, totius que mundi nota sit magmitudo. Leventhal Map CenterĬollection (local): Norman B. Location: Boston Public Library Norman B. The success of this first "atlas" publication marked the beginning of the golden age of Flemish and Dutch cartography with cartographers from the Low Countries dominating the map trade until the end of the 17th century.Ĭreator: Ortelius, Abraham, 1527-1598 Name on Item: It was also translated into six other languages - German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, and English. While the first edition of Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was published in Latin in 1570, this map book was subsequently issued in 33 editions over the next 41 years. The projected southern continent was based on the reports of Magellan sighting Terra del Fuego when he rounded the tip of South America and the accounts of early Dutch discoveries along the Australian coast. Interestingly, the map prematurely showed a southern polar continent since the southern oceans had not yet been explored. It displayed almost a century of European exploration in the Americas delineating relatively accurate coast lines in the Equatorial areas, but with greatly distorted shapes in southern South America and northern and western North America. This world map was based on a large 21-sheet world map published by Ortelius' colleague, Gerard Mercator the year before. Although most of the maps in this book pertain to European countries and provinces, it can be considered a world atlas because it also includes a map of the world (displayed here), as well as one map for each of the four continents. Rather he entitled it "Theater of the World" implying not only that the entire known world could be viewed in this one book, but that the Earth was a stage on which human actions unfolded. Ortelius did not refer to his publication as an "atlas," as we know it today. ![]() It was the first time that a set of maps, contemporary to the date of publication, was designed, drawn, and engraved with the intention of publishing them in a bound volume. Ortelius' book of maps, first published in 1570, is considered the first modern world atlas. ![]()
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