1598 Rosaccio Double Hemisphere Map of the World

This is Giuseppe Rosaccio’s 1598 double-hemisphere map of the world. Although it was included in Rosaccio's 1598 edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, it is not a Ptolemaic map. Unlike most of the maps in Rosaccio's Ptolemy, which are amended versions of those that appeared in the 1561 Ruscelli Ptolemy, this one is superficially a reduction of the 1587 Mercator world map, but with parallel latitude lines, presenting a more pronounced, elongated South America and Africa - a unique and visually distinctive projection.

Terra Australis or the Speculative Southern Continent

Following Mercator and Ortelius, there is a massive Terra Australis dominating the Southern Hemisphere, extending from Tierra del Fuego nearly to New Guinea. This imaginary continent capping the South Pole was long supposed to exist by European geographers despite the lack of any evidence to support the notion. It was thought, based upon the writings of Aristotle, that the globe was a place of balances and thus geographers presumed the bulk of Eurasia must be counterbalanced by a similar landmass in the Southern Hemisphere. Many explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries sought the Great Southern Continent, including Quiros, Drake, and Cook, but Antarctica itself was not truly discovered until Edward Bransfield and William Smith sighted the Antarctic Peninsula in 1820.

Northwest and Northeast Passages

Far to the north an open Arctic Sea passage winds its way around the globe. These are the much sought-after Northwest (to the north of America) and Northeast Passages (over Asia). It was hoped that high-latitude maritime routes or 'passages' would provide quick access to the rich markets of Asia, which offered both an outlet for European silver and furs from the American colonies, as well as produced spices, silks, and other trade goods coveted in Europe. When Mercator included this on his map, no one had successfully navigated such a passage, but many scholars argued that it must exist. Countless explorers lost their lives in search of the apocryphal routes. Today, with the advent of global warming reducing the size of the Polar Ice Cap, a navigable passage has indeed formed.

Publication History and Census

This map appeared in both the 1598 and 1599 editions of Rosaccio's Ptolemy, both entitled Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino. Over a century later the plate was reutilized in Lasor a Vareas' 1713 Universus Terrarum Orbis Scriptorum. This late printing included the text 'T.2.pag.284' at the top right of the map, not present here. The separate map is cataloged only once in institutional collections, and the in the 1713 state. According to OCLC Ruscelli's Ptolemy is scarce, with the 1598 appearing in five or six and 1599 eight or nine institutional collections.