THE MAPMAKERS WHO MADE THE 16TH CENTURY

How about one century at a time?  Over the next four newsletters, Old World Auctions will do just that, providing readers with a brief overview of the trends and developments in mapping during the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.  We will do this by identifying several key mapmakers from each era and considering their contributions to cartographic history through the lens of their most interesting maps.

We make no claim that this will be a definitive ranking of cartographers and maps (as if such a thing were even possible), or an in-depth dive into an entire century of mapmaking.  Our aim is to highlight a sampling of the major figures in the art of mapmaking and to magnify examples of their defining work.  These are some of the most significant notches on the timeline of cartographic history, but they are only a part of the story.

This month, we will by taking a closer look at three of the biggest names in 16th-century cartography: Sebastian Münster, Gerard Mercator, and Abraham Ortelius.

Sebastian Münster (1488-1550)

Münster was born on January 20, 1488, into a family of farmers in Ingelheim, Germany.  In 1505, while studying at Heidelberg, he entered the Franciscan order.  Over the course of his extended education, he studied under Konrad Pellikan, a Protestant theologian and humanist, and Johann Stöffler, a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, priest, and maker of astronomical instruments.  After five years of teaching Hebrew at Heidelberg, Münster accepted a position as chair of Hebrew at the University of Basel in 1529.  Upon moving to Basel, where the Reformed tradition had taken hold, he left the Franciscans to become a Lutheran.  His interest in Lutheranism dates back to at least 1520, when Münster created a German translation of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, printed by Adam Petri.

In 1530, Münster married Petri’s widow.  His new stepson, Heinrich Petri, had taken over the family printing press — and would in time become his stepfather’s publisher.  Heinrich published the first edition of Münster’s Geographia in 1540.  Münster prepared 48 maps, including 27 classic Ptolemaic maps and an additional 21 modern maps, among them the first set of continental maps.  These modern maps would later appear in Münster’s magnum opus, the Cosmographia.

First published in 1544, the Cosmographia was the first description of the world to appear in German.  The compendium originally featured 24 double-page maps and 2 half-page maps in addition to hundreds of smaller woodcuts throughout the text depicting town views, battles, mythical beasts, and much more.  A remarkable success, subsequent editions were published in Latin, French, Italian, and Czech until 1628.

Unfortunately, Münster did not live to see the later editions of his masterwork.  He died of the plague on May 20, 1550.  His heirs Heinrich and Sebastian Petri handled the publication of subsequent posthumous editions, consistently adding new material; their final edition included more than 260 maps and views across its 1,752 pages.

The map is the first to center on the Americas in their entirety.  North America appears in an unusual, California-less configuration.  Terra Florida is the only place name in the present-day United States, appearing in the Southeast beneath an east-west mountain range.  Eastern Canada features a few place names: Francisca, C. Britonum, and the island Corterati (likely an early depiction of Newfoundland).  In Mexico, the lake at Temistitan empties into the Gulf of Mexico, and the Yucatan is an island.  South America has a large bulge in the southwest and a truncated Amazon River.  An illustration in present-day Brazil warns of cannibals, with a head and leg ominously hanging from a hidden trap.

It is also the first printed map to name the Pacific Ocean (Mare Pacificum).  The detail in the ocean reflects the influence of Marco Polo’s 13th-century explorations.  An archipelago of 7,448 islands is located, and Japan (Zipangri) appears a short distance off the western coast of Mexico.  The map pre-dates Europeans’ first encounter with Japan by three years, so its inclusion here is interesting.  Ferdinand Magellan’s ship, the Victoria, is prominent in the South Pacific.

Münster combines Ptolemaic geography with more contemporary sources, selectively drawing on Portuguese and Arabic knowledge of the region.  Africa’s general shape is taken from Münster’s own world map of 1532.  He adheres to Ptolemy’s theory on the White Nile’s sources, tracing the river’s origins to twin lakes derived from the Mountains of the Moon.  The Blue Nile emerges from a lake in the Abyssian Highlands.  At the confluence of the Nile’s sources, Münster locates Hamarich, the capital of the mythical Christian king Prester John.  Although Europeans had been aware of Madagascar since Marco Polo’s explorations, the island is strangely absent on this map.

The map is further distinguished by its memorable decorative elements.  An iconic medieval Cyclops (Monoculi) reigns at the map’s center, a quintessential example of mapmakers adding fabulous creatures to maps of unknown regions.  Illustrations of parrots and an elephant line the southwest coast.  Scepters denote the various kingdoms.  A large galleon sails the South Atlantic, next to a strapwork cartouche with Latin text describing European explorations along the coasts.

Gerard Mercator (1512-1594)

Mercator was born on March 5, 1512, in Rupelmonde, Flanders, about 10 miles from Antwerp.  Beginning in 1530, he attended the University of Leuven, where he studied under Gemma Frisius, a key figure in the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography in his own right.  After receiving his degree in 1532, Mercator arranged an apprenticeship in astronomy and geography with Frisius and developed skills as a surveyor, cartographer, and builder of mathematical instruments.  At the same time, he learned the art of copper engraving at the workshop of Gaspard van der Heyden.  His first credited engraving job was on Frisius’1636 terrestrial globe, completed in van der Heyden’s shop.

The following year, Mercator published his first map, a six-sheet wall map of the Holy Land.  He had made an official start as a mapmaker, and other credits soon followed.  His cordiform world map of 1538 was the first to identify North and South America as separate continents (a concept first reiterated by Abraham Ortelius on his map of the Pacific, discussed in the section below).  He also found success as a globe-maker, producing his own terrestrial globe in 1541 and a celestial globe a decade later.

In 1544, as the Roman Inquisition took hold in Flanders, Mercator was accused of being a Lutheran heretic for his correspondence with Franciscan friars.  He was imprisoned in a castle in Rupelmonde for seven months, going free only after several local figures objected to the lack of evidence against him.  Following this religious persecution, Mercator was able to return to his mapmaking with his support from the court still intact.  He left Flanders for the more religiously tolerant Duisburg in 1552, pursuing opportunities at a new university planned by William, Duke of Cleve.  While plans for the university came to naught, Mercator issued some of his most important work during this time, including large-scale maps of Europe (1554), the British Isles (1564), and the world (1569).

The 21-sheet world map of 1569 is Mercator’s most significant contribution to cartography.  It is the first map to utilize Mercator’s proprietary projection.  Rather than depicting the world as a rectangular grid of longitudes and latitudes, Mercator sought to create a more useful projection for navigators.  He devised a cylindrical projection that extends the distance between parallels as they approach the poles.  This allows for loxodromes or rhumbs (lines used to show a ship’s course) to be represented as a straight line.

Mercator was appointed Cosmographer to the Duke of Cleve in 1563-64, which inspired him to begin working on his 5-part cosmography of the world.  The parts would cover creation, the heavens, geography (further subdivided into three parts: modern, Ptolemaic, and historical), history, and chronology.  He started with the Chronology (1569), his version of the history of the world, which was subsequently banned by the Catholic Church for its mentions of Martin Luther and other Protestant heretics.  Next, he tackled Ptolemy, publishing a faithful version of the Geographia in 1578.

As he put together his edition of Ptolemy, he began work on his modern atlas.  Progress was slow; Mercator largely toiled alone as he compiled sources, wrote the accompanying text, drew the maps, and cut the plates.  It would have been an ambitious project for a man of any age, but Mercator was in his seventies and plagued by increasingly bad health.  He managed to complete three sections before his death in 1594.

His son Rumold published the “complete” Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura in 1595.  Although it lacked maps of Spain, Portugal, and the continents, this atlas included 78 previously published Mercator maps along with an additional 28 maps completed by Rumold.  It was reissued again in 1602.  In 1604, Mercator’s grandson Gerard sold the copperplates for his Geographia and Atlas to Jodocus Hondius and Cornelis Claesz.

Although the map is mostly sourced from an inset on Mercator’s 1569 world map, it has been updated with information from Martin Frobisher and John Davis’ searches for northern passages to Asia.  The map includes an early reference to California, appearing for some odd reason to the north of El Streto de Anian.  Pictured here is the second state of the plate, first published in 1606, featuring updates in the region north of Russia, including undefined coastlines to one of the islands surrounding the pole and Novaya Zemlya.

Rumold scrapped his father’s tricky new projection in favor of a double-hemispheric projection, but the geography largely remains the same.  Gerard Mercator drew on an extensive list of sources for his 1569 map, including contemporaries such as Ortelius, Gastaldi, and Ramusio, as well as classical sources like Ptolemy, Pliny, and Mela.  Mercator’s son copied this blend of ancient and modern authorities and propagated the many misperceptions and myths from his father’s map.  Once again, the North Pole is delineated according to legend, and there is a clearly defined Northwest Passage.  The southwest coast of South America has a swollen appearance.  Tierra del Fuego is connected to the gargantuan Terra Australis, the fabulous southern continent that mapmakers copied for a century to come.  Lucach, Maletur, and Beach, place names originating in the travel accounts of Marco Polo, also appear along the coast of the southern continent, in the vicinity of present-day Australia.  New Guinea is depicted in a large, circular configuration.  Satyrorum Insule, a trio of small, fictitious islands, hover above a kite-like Japan.

Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)

Ortelius was born in Antwerp on April 4, 1527.  As early as age 19, he was working with maps as an “afsetter,” or colorist.  He began to support his family as a trader in books, prints, and maps.  This line of work brought him across Europe; he traveled to Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and later England and Ireland and picked up multiple languages along the way. During a trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1554, Ortelius met Gerard Mercator.  Mercator was one of the key inspirations for Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, providing critical information and support.  Mercator’s biographer Walter Ghim suggests that Mercator had conceived of his atlas before Ortelius but deliberately waited until his friend had found success with the publication of Theatrum before completing his own version.  (The more likely story is that Mercator’s progress was slowed down by the hunt for reliable sources and his meticulous engraving process.)

At the time of its publication, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was the most expensive book ever produced.  Despite its high price tag, the atlas was an enormous success.  For the first time, readers could purchase a uniform collection of maps, similar in size and bound together in one volume, with related text.  Ortelius was scrupulous about citing his sources and asked readers to submit corrections and additional maps to improve and expand his atlas.  From 1570 to 1612, 7,300 copies of Theatrum were published in 31 editions.  Ortelius amended the atlas with Additamenta and Parergons, a series of maps focused on ancient history.  The first edition included 70 maps on 53 sheets; the last edition ballooned to 167 maps.  After the successful publication of the atlas, Ortelius was appointed His Majesties Royal Cartographer by Philip II of Spain.

Ortelius died in Antwerp on June 28, 1598.  Posthumous editions were published by Jan Baptista Vrients, who purchased the rights from Ortelius’ heirs in 1601.

Because it was not widely copied, the map’s depiction of the region remains unique and novel.  Ortelius widens the gap between Asia and North America and properly locates the Philippines and Japan, although the mythical Isle of Silver (Isla de Plata) floats to the north of Japan.  Within his work, Ortelius wavered on the question of whether or not New Guinea was an island; his 1570 world map shows it as one while his 1587 map of the Americas connects it to the southern continent.  Here it is unambiguously delineated as an island.  The map accurately narrows Hogenberg’s depiction of North America at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer.  California is depicted in peninsular form, with the first appearance of the R. Grande at the head of the Gulf of California.  Following Mercator’s world map, Tierra del Fuego is part of the vast and mysterious Terra Australis.

A New Way of Seeing the World

Münster, Mercator, and Ortelius ushered in the age of the modern atlas.  Their trailblazing publications introduced the world to a new method of compiling and presenting maps.  In the 17th century, mapmakers like the Hondius family, the Blaeu family, John Speed, and Nicolas Sanson would take their lead and further develop the atlas.  We will discuss their contributions to cartographic history in our next newsletter.

References:

Betz, Richard L., The Mapping of Africa – A Cartobibliography of Printed Maps of the African Continent to 1700, Hes & De Graaf Publishers, ‘t Goy-Houten, 2007.

Burden, Philip D., The Mapping of North America – A List of Printed Maps 1511-1670, Raleigh Publications, Rickmansworth, 1996.

Ellenblum, Ronnie, “Sebastian Munster,” Historic Cities.
http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/mapmakers/munster.html (accessed 3/5/20).

Monmonier, Mark, “Mercator’s Résumé,” excerpted from Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: A Social History of the Mercator Projection, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2004. https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/534316.html (accessed 3/5/20).

Shirley, Rodney W., The Mapping of the World – Early Printed World Maps 1472-1700, Holland Press Limited, London, 1987.

Shirley, Rodney W., Maps in the Atlases of the British Library – A Descriptive Catalogue c. AD 850-1800 – Volume 1, The British Library, London, 2004.

Sigurðsson, Haraldur, Image of Iceland – Milestones in Cartography, The Culture House, Reykjavik, 2002.

Suárez, Thomas, Early Mapping of the Pacific – The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who Mapped the Earth’s Greatest Ocean, Periplus Editions, Singapore, 2004.

Van den Broecke, Marcel P.R., Ortelius Atlas Maps – An Illustrated Guide, HES Publishers, ‘t Goy-Houten, 1996.

Van der Krogt, Dr. Peter, Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici Volume I, HES Publishers, ‘t Goy-Houten, 1997.