A Superb Example of One of the Earliest Acquirable World Maps

SCHEDEL, Hartman. [Nuremberg, 1493]

World/ Age of Discovery.  SCHEDEL, Hartmann [Nuremberg: 1493] Secunda etas mundi.  14 ½ x 20 inches.  Original woodcut; usual thread hole mends, else fine condition.                                                                                                                         
An exceptional example of the first of the two 1493 issues of this striking, very early world map. This visually evocative woodcut was published roughly 40 years after the invention of printing and presents the world as many Europeans conceived of it just prior to Columbus' voyage and the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Dias. 

The sometimes grotesque, semi-human images to the left of the map and on the back of the sheet depict the medieval conception of the inhabitants of distant lands. Drawn from the works of the Roman authorities, Pliny the Elder and Julius Solinus, one can see how some of these figures might have had some basis in reality, while others were clearly drawn from myth and legend.  In any case, these figures in the imaginations of Europeans at the time may have colored their view of indigenous peoples encountered in the years to come.

The general contours of the map were derived primarily from the most important geographical work of antiquity, Ptolemy's Geographia, which was recovered in the Renaissance.  More specifically, it follows Pomponius Mela’s iteration of the Ptolemaic depiction of the world that appeared in Mela’s Cosmographia of 1488. However, the inclusion of illustrations of Japhet, Shem, and Ham in the corners suggests a more theology-centered view of the world.  Their presence is also a reminder of one of the functions of the map in the Nuremberg Chronicle, in which it was published, as an illustration of the section of the work on Noah, the Flood, and the re-population of the earth by his sons.  Also on the map is the familiar decorative motif of the twelve wind-heads that is found on many early printed world maps.

In addition to its historical importance, the Schedel world map is a striking example of woodblock engraving. The Nuremberg Chronicle, in which it appeared, was a chronological narration of the history of the world by a Humanist-educated physician of that city.  It was the most extensively illustrated work published to date, and the great woodcut artist, Albrecht Durer, served as an apprentice in the preparation of this work. 

Shirley, Mapping of the World, No. 19, pl. 25; The World Encompassed, No. 44; Wilson, A. The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle, p. 115.

Price: $19,500.00