Nova, et integra universi orbis descriptio

Acquired From: Gowrie Galleries

Colouring: Uncoloured

Condition: Fair

Confirmed: Yes

Date Acquired: 11/2/2004

Dealers ID No.: M777 (STK 1438.01)

Description: Oronce Fine, an esteemed French physician, mathematician, and mapmaker, created this woodcut world map using a double cordiform (heart-shaped) polar projection. Dated 1531, it was likely sold as a loose sheet at the time but has survived because it was included in the 1532 Paris editions of Johann Huttichs Novus Orbis (New World), a collection of travel accounts. Earlier that same year, the book was published in Basel but featured a different world map, attributed to Sebastian Münster ( #119).nFines map presents the northern hemisphere on the left, depicting Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America as a single landmass. The North Pole is illustrated as a ring of four islands. In the right or southern hemisphere, Fine includes southern Africa, South America, and a large landmass labeled Terra Australis recenter inventa, sed nondum plene cognita (Southern Land recently discovered, but not yet fully known). This unknown landmass is separated from South America by a narrow waterway named Mare Magellanicum, in honor of its discovery by Ferdinand Magellan. Fine also incorporated two toponyms: east of the Cape of Good Hope is identified as Brasielie regio (Region of Brazil), while a vast peninsula extending almost to the Tropic of Capricorn is labeled Regio Patalis (Region of Patala).nThe map is adorned with a floral-patterned background, featuring the French royal coat of arms at the top and a decorative cartouche at the bottom.nSix editions of this double cordiform map, all printed from the same woodblock, are known to exist. This particular map is the first edition, retaining Fines name and the date 1531 in the lower cartouche. The second state also bears the 1531 date but replaces Fines name with that of Hermannus Venraed. Four later issues (1536, 1540, 1541, and 1555) were published with modifications to the name and date in the cartouche.

Engraver: Fine, Oronce (1494-1555)

First published: Novus orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum, una cum tabula cosmographica, Paris: Antoine for Jean Petit Augerelle, 1532

Mapmaker: Fine, Oronce (1494-1555)

Other states: Six

Price: A85,000 plus gst

Primary Category: World

Purchase Reference: Insurance Ledger June 2015. Letter 11 Feb 2004

Rarity: R2 Very rare – one or two copies appear on the market

References: Robert W. Karrow, Oronce Fine, in Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and Their Maps: Bio-Bibliographies of the Cartographers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570 (Chicago, IL: Speculum Orbis Press, 1993), 16891. nThomas Suárez, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who First Mapped the Regions Between China and India (Hong Kong: Periplus Editions, 1999), 12527. nMonique Pelletier, Die herzförmigen Weltkarten von Oronce Fine, Cartographica Helvetica 12 (1995): 2737.

Shirley ID #: 66 Mapping of the World

Technique: Woodcut

This state: 1532


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