A 16th century woodcut world map on a cordiform projection

An unusual woodcut world map, prepared by Frisius for inclusion in Peter Apian's Cosmography. This is an example of the first of three very similar woodblocks, used 1544-1553. The world is shown on a cordiform (heart-shaped) projection, within a border that marks the temperate zones on the left and the figures of the zodiac on the right. Outside the map's border are a pair of god-like figures, one of whom has the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Emperor on his breastplate, and wind-heads including skulls, representing the plague-carrying winds blowing from the south. There are few names on the map. North America is shown as a narrow peninsula named 'Baccalearum', a reference to the cod fishing that was already so important, and Mexico City is called 'Themistitan', a Germanic phonetic rendering of Tenochtitlan. In Africa are the 'Mountains of the Moon' and, in Asia, 'Taprobana' has moved east to Sumatra. Gemma Frisius (1508-55) was a Dutch mathematician, cartographer and scientific instrument maker. In 1533 he was the first to describe the use of triangulation as a surveying method; and, about the time this map was printed, suggested the use of a clock to determine longitude, two centuries before John Harrison achieved the necessary accuracy.