![]() Polo's description was vague enough that the cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi transposed in to the northwest coast of American on his world map of 1562. This was in fact the Gulf of Tonquin, near modern day Vietnam, which then was referred to as Anian. Polo described a Chinese province named Ania located on a large gulf. At this time no European navigator had explored these extreme Arctic seas but again, cartographers turned to Marco Polo. Similarly, the land of Anian is identified in the far northwestern part of American in what might today be considered a proto-Alaska. Attempting to reconcile the 1532 Polo geography with actual discoveries in the East Indies, cartographers relocated 'Beach', 'Lucach', and 'Maletur' were further south and attached them to the Southern Continent. This is probably related to a printing error in the 1532 edition of Polo's Travels wherein Java Minor appeared disproportionally gigantic. All three locations appear in Polo's Travels, but where Polo was describing places in Java, later cartographers ascribed them to the speculative southern continent. Among these are a number of identified lands in Terra Australis, including 'Beach', 'Lucach', and 'Maletur'. Marco Polo's GeographyMuch 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. Terra Australis Nondum Cognita or the Speculative Southern ContinentThe 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). 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. 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. This map was published in Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern published atlas. 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. Minnesota - North Dakota - South Dakota. ![]() Massachusetts - Connecticut - Rhode Island.The Cicero quote at the bottom translates “who can consider human affairs to be great, when he comprehends the eternity and vastness of the entire world?," the same quote added to Ortelius's world map of 1570. Several Sea Monsters complete this decorative and scarce map. Quivira, Tolm and Annian appear on the West Coast, along with Cevola. Lawrence River reaching to Texas and the Great Plains. Classic 16th Century cartographic representation of North America, dominated by the conjectural course of the St. An unusual Northwest coast of America is shown, with clearly delineated Northwest passage and Norheast passage, the former being obscured by two allegorical figures. The cartography of Southeast Asia includes references to the mythical lands of Beach and Lucach, based upon Marco Polo, in the general vicinity of Australia, with a note crediting the Venetian for his travels in the region. Large Terra Australis Incognita at the bottom of the map, predating the voyages of Le Maire and Schouten which identified the route around Cape Horn:with only the Straits of Magellan showing. The mythical islands of Groclant, Thule, Frischlant and S. South America includes the large western bulge, as shown in contemporary maps by Mercator and Ortelius. Shirley notes “examples of Andreas’ world map are rarely offered for sale." Lambert's map derives from Mercator's planispheric map of 1569, with the addition of a note on the size of the earth at the top right (5400 German miles) and a quote from Cicero at the bottom. Striking full color example of this fine early map of the World, which first appeared in Botero's Theatrum oder Schauspiegel.
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