Ruysch world map

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Ruysch's world map from 1507

The Ruysch'sche world map of 1507 was in the "southern" editions of Ptolemy ' Geographia included that were launched in the years 1507 and 1508 in Rome. The editor of the 1507 edition of Geographia was Evangelista Tosinus ; and its printer Bernardinus Venetus de Vitalibus . This ancient work was rediscovered in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. It came to Italy from the Arab region.

In the Ruysch map, as in the Contarini-Rosselli map , the Ptolemaic knowledge of projection is used. Thus the spherical shape of the earth could be taken into account in the representation.

History of origin

Between 1506 and 1507 - presumably independently of one another - three different attempts were made to realistically capture the shape of the earth when creating world maps. In addition to Ruysch's world map, it was the Contarini-Rosselli map from 1506 and Martin Waldseemüller's world map . The last two cards mentioned were also trend-setting; however, they became less widespread. So only one copy of each has survived. In contrast, the Ruysch map was published much more frequently and several copies have survived to this day. Hence it seems certain that it was much more widespread and had a much greater impact on the worldview of its time. It must remain open at this point to what extent the contemporaries were aware that the maps mentioned were largely of a hypothetical nature. What is remarkable is the different level of detail accuracy between Waldseemüller's map and the other two, which can most likely be explained by very different access options to more recent findings from the expeditions of the Spaniards and Portuguese.

description

The map is labeled Nova et universalior orbis cogniti tabula above . There is a commentary in both the 1507 and 1508 editions, entitled Orbis nouo descriptio and written by the Italian Cölestine monk Marcus Beneventanus. In this he wrote roughly (quoted from the 1508 edition):

“Johannes Ruysch from Germany, in my judgment a highly precise geographer, and a very conscientious one when sketching the globe, which I am obliged to help him with this little work, told me that he was from the south England, and about as far as he had advanced to the 53rd, the northern parallel, and he sailed parallel to this to the west, to the shores of the east, holding a little north, perceived many islands. "

The discoveries of Christopher Columbus and probably also those of John Cabot were drawn in . They also contain information from some Portuguese sources and from Marco Polo's records .

Cartographic details

Ruysch drew islands around the North Pole, which can be traced back to the explanations in the book Inventio Fortunata by the English monk Nicholas von Lynne .

The island over Norway has similarities to Svalbard . Although it was concluded from Icelandic sources that these islands were already known in northern Europe as Svalbard , it seems unlikely that Ruysch had such information. It is generally accepted that the islands were (re) discovered in 1597 by Willem Barents . Ruysch also calls the island in question European Hyperborea . It would be conceivable that this was due to the idea of Nicholas von Lynne or Ptolemy's guess that the land masses must be evenly distributed.

A peninsula extends to this island, on which a church of Sancti Odulfi (possibly Odulf of Utrecht , who was greatly venerated around Utrecht) is drawn. This could also be the church of Vardø in Finnmark , built in 1307, or the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim , in which the remains of Saint Olav are kept.

Greenland is depicted as being linked to Newfoundland and Asia, as was also believed by Christopher Columbus and Cabot. Sipganus (Marco Polos Japan ) is depicted as identical to Spagnola ( Hispaniola ). The existence of cod is recorded near the Newfoundland Bank off Newfoundland.

The map includes discoveries along the African coast made by the Portuguese. Africa is shown as a peninsula surrounded by the sea. The Horn of Africa is drawn roughly at the correct latitude. India is drawn as a triangular peninsula; Ceylon has the right proportions, but is positioned a little too far to the northeast. On the Asian continent, place names based on information given by travelers such as Marco Polo were drawn in. There are also those by authors from Greco-Roman antiquity.

To the history of the card

The map was not lost as it was published in numerous modern editions of Ptolemy's Geographia .

See also

literature

  • Ruysch World Map: Census and Commentary. In: Donald L. McGuirk, Jr .: Imago Mundi . Vol. 41, 1989 (1989), pp. 133-141.
  • Pasachoff JM & Olson RJ M: Earth, Moon, and Planets. Vol. 85-86, 1999, pp. 321-323.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ruysch World Map: Census and Commentary , Donald L. McGuirk, Jr. Imago Mundi , Vol. 41, 1989 (1989), pp. 133-141