Ptolemaic World Map
Title
Ptolemaic World Map
Description
A world map showing Europe, Africa, and Asia, with the Indian Ocean bounded on all sides by land, which shows the influence of the maps associated with Ptolemy's Geography. The map is a woodcut, and the only element of color within the map are mountains which alternate between green, yellow, and red/brown. Some river origins and confluences are indicated with a circle, but others are hidden behind mountains. In some cases, rivers flow underneath mountains.
Mountains in southern Africa and eastern Asia appear larger than those elsewhere. Regions, oceans, and seas are labeled with names contemporary in the 15th century (e.g., Anglia instead of Britannica); rivers are unlabeled. The Nile and Indus show deltas with multiple divisions. The oceans and seas are filled with undulating parallel lines.
The map is shaped as an upward-facing crescent with a double-lined frame enclosing heads and names of the winds. On the top-left, top-right, and bottom-right corners behind (and in the case of the bottom-right, below) the frame, the sons of Noah, Japhet, Shem, and Ham, corresponding with their continents, hold the edges of the map. The bottom-left corner is occupied by a text about the winds taken from Isidore of Seville.
Mountains in southern Africa and eastern Asia appear larger than those elsewhere. Regions, oceans, and seas are labeled with names contemporary in the 15th century (e.g., Anglia instead of Britannica); rivers are unlabeled. The Nile and Indus show deltas with multiple divisions. The oceans and seas are filled with undulating parallel lines.
The map is shaped as an upward-facing crescent with a double-lined frame enclosing heads and names of the winds. On the top-left, top-right, and bottom-right corners behind (and in the case of the bottom-right, below) the frame, the sons of Noah, Japhet, Shem, and Ham, corresponding with their continents, hold the edges of the map. The bottom-left corner is occupied by a text about the winds taken from Isidore of Seville.
Creator
Printing by Erhard Ratdolt, copied from painting by Pomponius Mela
Source
Schedel, Hartmann. Liber Chronicarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493.
Format
Map in a book
Publisher
Schedel, Hartmann. Chronicle of the World: the Complete and Annotated Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. Introduction and Appendix by Stephan Füssel. Köln, London: Taschen, 2001.
Date
1493
Medium
wood cut
Contributor
Special Collections, Carleton College, Northfield, MN.
snyders2
Relation
https://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/images/Cities%20Provinces%20Kingdoms%20and%20Countries/index.htm
Language
German
Type
World map
Spatial Coverage
Europe, Africa, Asia
References
The History of Cartography Vol. 3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Rights
Rights for maps held by individual publishers and institutions. Thumbnails displayed constitute fair use.
Citation
Printing by Erhard Ratdolt, copied from painting by Pomponius Mela, “Ptolemaic World Map,” Mapping the World, accessed August 7, 2026, https://hist231.hist.sites.carleton.edu/items/show/18.