You’re looking at one of the most extraordinary maps ever created. It’s a 10-by-10-foot digital image of a 60-sheet world map drawn by hand in 1587 by Italian cartographer Urbano Monte–the largest known early map of the world.
Talking over email, Rumsey told me that it “was amazing how well [the map] fit together without too much digital correction.” He says that the 60-plus sheets “were digitally assembled by Brandon Rumsey using Photoshop” totally by hand, without having to use distortion or custom programming, just “alignment of layers and edges” tools. Monte’s craftsmanship was simply outstanding, and he wanted for all the sheets of his mapamundi to fit together as a whole.
When we georeference Monte’s map and then re-project it into the Mercator projection, we immediately understand why he used the north polar projection instead of Mercator’s: Monte wanted to show the entire Earth as close as possible to a three-dimensional sphere using a two-dimensional surface. His projection does just that, notwithstanding the distortions around the south pole. Those same distortions exist in Mercator’s world map, and by their outsized prominence on Monte’s map they gave him a vast area to indulge in all the speculations about Antarctica that proliferated in geographical descriptions in the sixteenth century.
Rumsey argues that this polar projection gives a better idea of the relationships of land and water masses than Mercator’s, even while the latter became the standard “due to its ability to accurately measure distance and bearing.” Nowadays, he says that the north pole projection is a favored view for showing the Earth. “Monte would have been pleased to see a modern version of his map used in the official emblem of the United Nations,” he adds.
According to the historian, Monte’s planisphere is part of a geographical treatise that encompasses several volumes on the world and cosmology, compiled from other sources of that era just like the map itself. This copying and referencing process was common at the time–all cartographers copied each other to complete their works. Mr. Rumsey hopes that “further research will better join the text in the treatise to the text and geographical descriptions on the map itself,” uncovering the sources of Monte’s work and the criteria that guided him in the creation of this stunning piece of geographical art.