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Description

Important early map of the World, being the first world map to appear in an "Isolario" and the second earliest map published on an oval projection.

Bordone's world map, one of few pre-Munster world maps that are reasonably obtainable for collectors, was responsible for popularizing the oval projection. It is preceded in use of the projection only by the separately-published map of Rosselli, which is known in only a few examples. Bordone's was thus the first widely disseminated map to employ this projection and was later followed by a number of major mapmakers, including, Grynaeus (1532), Munster (1540), Gastaldi (1546), a number of Lafreri maps, and Ortelius (1570/1587).

Benedetto Bordone was originally granted a privilege to print his world map as early in 1508, however no earlier work is known prior to 1528. Bordone's map is similar to the Rosselli map of ca. 1508, but with an evolved view of America. Whereas the Rosselli depicts North America as part of Asia, Bordone shows open water between the two continents.

Bordone depicts a modern Africa, but a Ptolemaic India and Ceylon. Southeast Asia is modelled after the typical thinking of the time, a large subcontinent offsetting the Austronesian islands to the south. Japan is shown hypothetically after Polos' textual account. The island of Madagascar is duplicated, and the Indus and Ganges Rivers are reversed.

Benedetto Bordone Biography

Benedetto Bordone (1460-1531) was a polymath who was born in Padua and worked in Venice. He was an illuminator, engraver, miniaturist, editor, and geographer. It is possible he made the first globe in Italy. His most famous work is the Isolario, or Book of Islands, which included many of the earliest printed maps of islands in the New World.