In the annals of cartographic history, the 1587 world map by Urbano Monte of Milan stands out as a masterpiece of Renaissance geography, artistry, and ambition. Spanning a colossal 10 feet in diameter, Monte‘s 60-sheet manuscript map is the largest known early map of the Earth and a fascinating portrait of how Europeans saw the world in the late 16th century.
The State of Geography in Monte‘s Time
To fully appreciate Monte‘s cartographic achievements, it is important to understand the state of geographical knowledge and mapmaking in his era. The late 16th century was a time of major advances and upheavals in European conceptions of the world, driven by the discoveries of explorers like Columbus, Magellan, and Vespucci, and the rise of scientific cartography led by Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator.
Some key developments in Monte‘s time included:
- The realization that the Americas were separate continents distinct from Asia
- Magellan‘s circumnavigation of the globe in 1519-22, proving the Earth was round and far larger than previously thought
- The development of more sophisticated surveying and mapmaking techniques, including improved latitude and longitude measurements
- The influence of Ptolemy‘s Geography and rising interest in projections, coordinate systems, and mathematically accurate maps
- The publication of the first modern world atlas, Abraham Ortelius‘s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, in 1570
At the same time, much about the world‘s geography remained uncertain or unknown to Europeans in Monte‘s day. Vast expanses of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific were still blank spaces on maps, inviting speculation and imagination. Sea monsters, mythical kingdoms, and legendary figures like Prester John still haunted distant reaches of the globe.
It was in this context that Monte set out to create his definitive map of the world, drawing upon the latest geographic knowledge and discoveries while also indulging the fantasies and ornamental flourishes typical of Renaissance cartography. The result was a singular work of unprecedented scale and scope for the time.
Assembling a Cartographic Colossus
Monte‘s planisphere, as originally envisioned, was not meant to be viewed as 60 loose sheets, but rather painstakingly assembled into a massive 10-foot disc. This posed immense technical and logistical challenges in the 16th century.
The map was designed with a central pivot at the North Pole, allowing it to be rotated and viewed from different angles. Monte provided detailed instructions for mounting the assembled map on a large wooden panel, over 10 feet wide and 6.5 feet tall, using small pieces of paper or cloth to join the sheets.
The 60 sheets, when put together in Monte‘s specified arrangement, form a north polar azimuthal equidistant projection of the world. This innovative projection, which Monte devised through complex geometric calculations, was centuries ahead of its time and enabled him to depict the entire Earth on a plane with the North Pole at the center and continents radiating southward.
Table: Urbano Monte‘s 1587 World Map by the Numbers
| Characteristic | Value |
|---|---|
| Number of map sheets | 60 |
| Diameter of assembled map | ~10 ft (3 m) |
| Height of wooden mounting panel | ~6.5 ft (2 m) |
| Approximate number of place names | 1,000+ |
| Approximate number of decorative elements | 100+ |
Creating a map of this immense size and detail was an ambitious undertaking that required great skill, planning, and resources. The fact that Monte was able to complete it in just one year, working with the limitations of 16th-century surveying and drafting technology, is a testament to his cartographic genius and dedication.
Synthesizing Renaissance Geographic Knowledge
One of Monte‘s main goals for his 1587 map was to synthesize the latest geographical information and theories of his time into a single authoritative image of the world. His chief inspirations and influences included:
- Gerardus Mercator‘s 1569 world map, featuring a new projection well-suited for navigation
- Abraham Ortelius‘s 1570 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas
- Giacomo Gastaldi‘s maps of Asia, which pioneered showing the continent as a single landmass
- Accounts of recent Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian voyages to the Americas, Africa, and Asia
- Mathematical geography texts by ancient authors like Ptolemy and modern thinkers like Mercator‘s teacher Gemma Frisius
Monte aimed to advance and perfect these earlier models of the world. His map depicts the latest state of geographic knowledge, such as the Spanish discoveries in the Philippines in the 1560s and Dutch encounters with Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean in the 1580s.
At the same time, Monte was not afraid to deviate from his contemporaries on major cartographic questions. Perhaps most strikingly, he broke with Mercator‘s influential 1569 portrayal of four distinct landmasses around the North Pole, instead postulating an open polar sea. This reflected a minority theory at the time, and although eventually proven wrong, underscores Monte‘s willingness to think beyond established conventions.
As historian Dr. Katherine Parker explains, "Monte‘s map embraces a complicated paradox wherein the mapmaker aimed to be as precise, accurate, and up-to-date as possible, but also to make a map engaging and understandable." His work is a fascinating compromise between scientific rigor and artistic license that exemplifies the spirit of late Renaissance cartography.
Flights of Fantasy
For all its impressive synthesis of cutting-edge geography, Monte‘s map is perhaps most captivating for its rich ornamentation and fanciful embellishments. Across the map‘s 60 sheets are hundreds of illustrations that blend the real with the mythical, revealing as much about the European imagination as the physical Earth.
Alongside familiar animals like elephants and camels are fantastical beasts like griffins, giants, and a great sea serpent menacing hapless ships off the coast of South America. Armies of miniature soldiers march across the steppes of Central Asia, where Monte also locates the courts of legendary figures like Prester John and the Great Khan.
In the uncharted southern reaches of Africa and South America, Monte unleashes his fanciful sense of possibility, sketching in speculative mountain ranges, cities, and kingdoms with evocative names like "Neuw Zealand." He draws upon both classical mythology and the travel accounts of Marco Polo to populate his map with wondrous places and peoples.
At the same time, Monte‘s flights of fancy also have a more serious side, reflecting European assumptions, prejudices, and ambitions toward the wider world. His use of decorative icons like crowns, scepters, and thrones projects European power over distant regions, while his placement of 22 portraits of kings and emperors around the map‘s perimeter imposes a distinctly Euro-Christian political order on the globe.
As historian Dr. Anna Conforti notes, Monte‘s map presents "an imperial vision celebrating the power of the Spanish crown at the height of its dominion." The pride of place given to King Philip II of Spain and the coat of arms of his son underscores Monte‘s consciousness of his imperial patrons.
Legacy and Rediscovery
Despite its impressive craftsmanship and innovations, Monte‘s 1587 map had little influence on the history of cartography, and the mapmaker himself remains an obscure figure about whom little is definitively known. The map‘s colossal size and manuscript format likely prevented it from being widely disseminated or imitated.
In her essay "A Mind at Work", historian Dr. Katherine Lanzone Parker hypothesizes that "Monte‘s map project seems a monumental undertaking to modern eyes, yet during his time he was simply a gentleman scholar embarking on a deeper study into one of the most popular areas of scholarship, geography." The map was more of a virtuoso demonstration of geographic skill and knowledge than a practical navigational aid.
As a result, Monte‘s magnum opus faded into obscurity over the centuries, until being rediscovered by scholars in the late 20th century. In 1994, collector and map historian David Rumsey purchased the original 60 manuscript sheets and undertook their digital preservation and reassembly, working with the Stanford University Libraries.
Using high-resolution imaging, a team of experts digitally stitched together the sheets into a single 10-foot planisphere, allowing Monte‘s unified vision to be seen and studied for the first time since 1587. This digital resurrection has sparked new scholarly interest in the long-overlooked masterpiece.
Today, researchers marvel at the ambition, intricacy, and ingenuity of Monte‘s map, which stands out even in an era of remarkable cartographic feats. His north polar azimuthal projection, as geodesist Dr. John W. Hessler has observed, "forces the viewer to reconsider the nature of a map projection and how it structures both conceptual and visual thinking about the Earth‘s surface."
At the same time, Monte‘s vibrant artistry and fabulous embellishments capture the wonder, romance, and terror with which Europeans viewed the wider world in an age of exploration. His map, in the words of historian Dr. Susan Shulten, reflects "a rather fevered imagination about the far reaches of the Earth" and epitomizes the Renaissance fascination with the exotic and unknown.
While Monte himself remains elusive, his 1587 planisphere has rightfully taken its place as one of the most remarkable and revealing maps of the 16th century. It stands as a monument to a visionary mapmaker‘s skill and scholarship, and as an evocative portrait of a Renaissance worldview brimming with as much fantasy as fact.
Sources
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Conforti, Anna. "A New World on Paper: The Cartography of North American Exploration, from the Middle Ages to Mercator." PhD diss., Columbia University, 2020.
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Hessler, John W. "Warping Waldseemüller: A Phenomenological and Computational Study of the 1507 World Map." Coordinates Series B, no. 7 (2005).
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Parker, Katherine Lanzone. "A Mind at Work – Urbano Monte‘s 60-Sheet Manuscript World Map." Imago Mundi 70, no. 1 (2018): 27-47.
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Schulten, Susan. "The Scholarly Roots of American Globalism." William and Mary Quarterly 74, no. 1 (2017): 121-150.
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Suárez, Thomas. Early Mapping of the Pacific: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who Mapped the Earth‘s Greatest Ocean. Singapore: Periplus, 2004.
