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Description found in Archives

Title

Charta Cosmographica, cvm ventorvm propria natvra et operatione. [cartographic material] 

Arrangement structure

Show Arrangement Structure

Item (linked) part of

World maps [cartographic material] (R11981-1-8-E)

Date(s)

ca. 1544-1553]

Place of creation

Netherlands

Extent

1 map : ill., woodblock, hand col. ; 19 x 28 cm on sheet 25 x 32 cm.

Scope and content

This scarce early map is based on the now lost world map of Gemma Frisius [1540]. The world is presented in a cordiform projection on a cloud background filled with mythical figures and windheads. One of the deities sports the design of the Holy Roman Emperor's double eagle on his breastplate and the three cadaverous windheads at bottom represent the plague-carrying winds of the south. The continents are broadly based on Mercator's globe gores of 1541 but North America is shown as a long slender landmass labeled Baccalearium in reference to the cod fishing region. There are few geographical features other than the prominent twin lake sources of the Nile in Africa. The heart-shaped border of the map contains signs of the zodiac.

Conditions of access

Cartographic material
90: Open
Original can be viewed in the presence o
f an early cartographic archivist
Cartographic material
Microfiche NMC27658
90: Open
Item no. (creator)
Alexander E. MacDonald Canadiana Collection Item #7
Cartographic material
90: Open
Volume
7 Item no. assigned by LAC 7
90: Open
Archival reference no.
R11981-446-2-E
Other accession no.
80101/245 CA
Local class no.
H3/10000/[1544] [1545]

Terms of use

Credit Library and Archives Canada.
Copyright expired.

Creator / Provenance

Apianus, Petrus, 1495-1552.

Biography / Administrative history

Born in Leising, Saxony and died at Ingolstadt. Apianus was a geographer and astronomer Royal at Ingolstadt. In 1528 he set up a printing press with his brothers Georg and Martin. Famous for his woodcut world maps on truncated cordiform projection.

Additional information

Pictorial relief.

Includes illustrations of ships and sea monsters, windheads and mythical figures.

"I" appears in the lower right margin

Rodney Shirley's The Mapping of the World (1983), entry 82 indicates this copy was probably printed in 1544, 1545, 1548. 1550, 1551 or 1553 from the first woodblock cut for this map. This is based on the fact that the word "Europa" is at an angle and the outline for Britain lacks the names "Anglia and Scotia".

Physical condition note
On verso: ahesive tape applied along the upper margin of the map.

Custodial history
Part of the Alexander E. MacDonald Canadiana Collection purchased by the Public Archives of Canada in 1981.

Cartographic math data
Scale indeterminate

Citation / reference note
Shirley, Entry 82
Layng, Entry 278

Availability of other formats note
The microfiche version is NMC 27658

Exhibitions note
This map was part of an exhibition held at The Royal Ontario Museum, March 1954 entitled "The Discovery & Mapping of the Great Lakes 'Sweet Water' 1522-1703 showcasing MacDonald's Collection.

Subject heading

World - Maps - Early works to 1600 .

Source

Private

Other system control no.

CARTO 35015

MIKAN no.

3984408