Benedetto Bordone, a Paduan-born miniaturist and illustrator active

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Uncoloured

Condition: Excellent

Confirmed: Yes

Date Acquired: 19/2/2017

Description: Benedetto Bordone, a Paduan-born miniaturist and illustrator active in Venice, is best known for his Isolario (Book of Islands), a landmark compendium first published in 1528. Drawing on classical geographies, medieval travel narratives, and early exploration accounts, Bordones Isolario catalogues 111 islands and peninsulas across the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Oceans. His maps, while schematic rather than navigational, reflect a transitional cartographic visioncombining compact, stylised layouts with speculative elements characteristic of the early modern imagination.nThese double-page maps, drawn from the third part of the Isolario, depict the islands of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. The first map features Scilam (often identified with Sumatra or, less commonly, Ceylon) and Dondina to its south. Thomas Suarez suggests Bordone may have adapted descriptions from Mandevilles Travels, particularly the notion of a land where corpses were ritually consumed to prevent spiritual unrest. On the verso, Bordone introduces the fantastical paired islands of Imangla and Inebilainhabited solely by women and men respectively, with boys transferred at the age of threealongside schematic representations of Maidegascar (Madagascar), Zanzibar, and Scorsia (likely Mauritius).nThe accompanying map of Java Minore (Lesser Java) further demonstrates early European efforts to conceptualise Southeast Asias geography following the era of Portuguese maritime expansion.nSee also maps #218 and View Record (#7).

First published: Isolario, nel qual si ragiona di tutte lisole del mondo… Venice: Nicolò d'Aristotile detto Zoppino, 1528

Image Size (cm): 24.5 x 15

Mapmaker: Bordone, Benedetto (1460-1531)

Other states: 1534, 1547 and 1565.

Price: 300

Primary Category: Asia-Pacific

Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022

Rarity: R1 Extremely rare – occasionally seen on the market

References: Skelton, Benedetto BordonenSuárez, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia 120, fig 67.nKarrow (1993), Bendetto Bordone'

Sheet size (cm): 30 x 20.5

Technique: Woodcut

This state: 1528