Beschreibung
Weltkarte
Mercator, Gerardus
1578
English |
This fantastic early Renaissance map was personally engraved by the legendary cartography Gerardus Mercator. It was part of his revision of classical cartographer Ptolemy´s "Geographia". Originally "Geographia" was Ptolemy´s attempt to geographically represent the entire ancient and known world. Mercator’s version of this Ptolemaic map was one of the finest available at the time. It is framed within a decorative border containing twelve named wind heads in Latin. Interestingly this map dates from 1578 well after the Americas were discovered by European Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the Americas are not present. This particular map has not been hand colored and remains in its original black and white. While the ocean is not populated by ships and sea monsters as was popular at the time, the world is partially represented as a globe in the Ptolemic Style. |
Deutsch |