typus orbis terrarum abraham ortelius 1570

The influence of this and other Ortelius maps stems from the popularity and dominance of his atlas in the European market. Ortelius' atlas and the states of 'Typus Orbis Terrarum' The possibility of a Northwest Passage is an idea that still transfixes geographers today we are still revising our maps, just like Ortelius did. Similarly, there is a clear Northeast Passage over Russia. Here it is used to describe the entire southwest of the North America.īoth places were en route to a clear Northwest Passage that wends its way north of what is now Canada to Europe. Although he never found the cities or the gold, the name stuck on maps of southwest North America, wandering from east to west. In 1539, Coronado wandered over what today is Arizona and New Mexico, eventually heading to what is now Kansas to find the supposedly rich city of Quivira. Quivira, south of Anian, refers to the Seven Cities of Gold sought by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541. It appeared on maps until the mid-eighteenth century. The Strait then became shorthand for a passage to China, i.e. The first map to do so was Giacomo Gastaldi's world map of 1562, followed by Zaltieri and Mercator in 1567. The gulf Polo described was actually the Gulf of Tonkin, but the province's description was transposed from Vietnam to the northwest coast of North America. Anian derives from Ania, a Chinese province on a large gulf mentioned in Marco Polo's travels (ch. After a printing mistake made Java Minor seem the largest island in the world in the 1532 editions of Polo's Travels (Paris and Basel), mapmakers started to make a landmass to accommodate Java Minor, Beach, Lucach, and Maletur.Īn intriguing place name lies in the far northwest of North America. Initially, Polo used Arabic usage of Java Major for Java and Java Minor for Sumatra. This conflation of Java with the southern continent stemmed from an error. As can be seen, a Java minori is near to Maletur. They would be familiar to anyone who has read Marco Polo's Travels. Farther west, a pot-bellied depiction of New Guinea is accompanied by a cautionary note, admitting that New Guinea may actually be connected to Terra Australis.įurther east on the southern continent are several place names: Beach, Lucach, and Maletur. It was supposed to have been sighted by Portuguese sailors. Psitacorum regio appeared on Mercator's 1541 globe and his 1569 world map. Take, for example, Psitacorum regio, south of the Cape of Good Hope. Points on that continent derived from sailors' stories and observations. This was common to maps of the period, as a southern continent was thought likely to be hidden in the Pacific and near the South Pole to balance the continents of the northern hemisphere. For instance, only the Straits of Magellan separate South America from the large, unknown southern continent. Many other place names and geographic features remain that were based on dubious sources or hypotheses that have since been corrected. Additionally, Ortelius and his colleagues corrected the map as they released new editions of his atlas for example, the western bulge in South America was removed in the third state of the second edition of the world map.

The map is based most directly upon Mercator's map of 1569, Gastaldi's map of 1561, and Diego Gutierrez' portolan map of the coastlines of the Atlantic.Īlthough the map appears woefully erroneous to modern eyes, it actually contains some of the best compilation work of the period, which was a hallmark of mapmaking in the sixteenth century. Nova Francia is shown, although the map debuted well before the visits of Champlain and the Jesuits. Lawrence reaching to the middle of the continent and a similar river running from the Gulf of Mexico to the same vicinity. North America is a study in guesswork and mythical cartography, including a projection of the St. The early mis-projection of Japan is prominent, as is the equally conjectural depiction of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The map includes a massive Terra Australis Nondum Cognita, a distinctive Northwest Passage below the Terra Septemtrionalis Incognita, and other early cartographic hypotheses. Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) included the work as the first map in his atlas and it went through three editions in the later sixteenth century. One of the most famous world maps ever made, 'Typus Orbis Terrarum' featured in the world's first atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.

Striking, Finely Engraved Example of Ortelius' Landmark World Map African Islands, including Madagascar (68).

Typus orbis terrarum abraham ortelius 1570