Contarini–Rosselli map

The Contarini - Rosselli map of 1506 is the first printed map of the world showing the New World. It was drawn by Giovanni Matteo Contarini and engraved by Francesco Rosselli.

Data

The card has the dimensions 420 x 630 mm. According to the watermark paper in Florence was made. A Latin inscription refers to the date card ( 1506) and the names of designers and printers east of the Cape of Good Hope.

History

The map was made ​​in the engraving process and printed in Florence or Venice, which is in contrast to Florence marked on the map.

The only surviving copy was rediscovered in 1922, it is located at the British Library. 1924 published the trust of the British Museum, a facsimile edition of the map.

Description

The duplicated and sold by Roselli cards already take account of the curvature of the earth by stereographic projection.

Greenland is considered part of Asia, which presents itself as an offshoot of a broad band, which connects eventually to the main mass of Asia.

Southern Europe and the Mediterranean to the Black Sea are drawn quite true.

Africa is also presented in detail and accurate.

The Indian and Indonesian coastline is marked as discontinued in several peninsulas. India is not as well made ​​, as in the Ruysch'schen card. Instead of letting Asia into a " dragon's tail " leak in the area of present-day Indonesia, smaller islands are located at this point. This is closer to reality than many other comparable tickets of that time.

The Caribbean- North American region is drawn as Cuba, Zipangu and the coasts of Asia and is in marked contrast to the work Waldseemüller.

They also show a southern continent, extending from known today South America to the Antarctic. There is therefore a vague agreement with the map of Piri Reis of 1513, the. Lopo Homem - map of 1519, the Juan Vespucci map of 1524 and other cards Antarctica was indeed discovered in the early 19th century. Terra Australis Incognita is however shown on many maps from the 15th to the 18th century, because the Greek philosophers (beginning with Pythagoras ) indicate that there should be located a continent. This came in the 3rd century BC to the conclusion that the Earth had to be spherical and calculated its diameter with a fairly good accuracy. Since there was land in the northern hemisphere, it was thought that also had to be in the south country; Otherwise, the earth would be in an imbalance.