Name: T-O map from Rolewinck’s World Chronicle
Author: Werner Rolewinck

In 1474 printer Arnold Ther Hoernen of Cologne, Germany issued the first dated printed edition of the 'Fasciculus Temporum'. During the fifteenth century there were thirty-three different printed editions including translations into French, German, and Dutch, making it one of the bestsellers in print of the fifteenth century and undoubtedly the best-selling printed book of the fifteenth century by a living author. 

’s chronicle contained diagrams, Ratdolt instead included a woodcut map of the world. The map is modeled after the medieval T-O map type, but his map does not name the three dividing waterways normally comprising the 'T'. The focal point is the city of Jerusalem ('civitas hierusalem') and Palestine, which are prominently set in the middle of the map. 

The graphic also includes precise information on the subdivision of Asia (twenty-seven parts), Europe (fifteen parts), and Africa (thirty parts). Above the T-O map is a diagram of the heavens and the days of creation. To the left, a woodcut depicts the creation, featuring God in a mondorla of clouds surrounded by angels floating above a globe surrounded by a rippling sea; the Sun and the Moon jointly hovering on the horizon. Collectively, the woodcuts provide an encompassing expression of time and space in Christian cosmology. 

Within the book, many of the woodcuts are earthly views of built environments of European cities. Especially notable is the double view of England, among the earliest of the British Isles. Another remarkable image is what is likely the first known printed view of Venice showing gondolas and gondoliers in the Gran canale and the Piazza San Marco, which bears similarities to the earliest known drawing of Venice attributed to Niccolo da Poggibonsi (a mid-fourteenth century monk). Other woodcuts include images of: Rome, Verona, Jerusalem, Toledo, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the Temple of Solomon.

Small folio. Gothic type, double-column; fifty-five woodcuts (including repeats), diagrams, white-vine intaglio woodcut initials all with fine contemporary hand-colour; rubricated.

While stunning maps on Ptolemaic projections were being steadily produced in the late fifteenth century, simple T-O maps remained a popular illustration in contemporary texts. This example from 

’s highly successful world chronicle entitled 'Fasciculus Temporum' ('Bundles of Time') is an especially engaging example. 

The T-O map at the bottom of the page presents the earth divided into three parts, each labeled within the map’s outer rim. Jerusalem ('civitas hierusalem') is in the center, Europe to the left and Africa on the right. In this version, the three continents are associated with the names of the sons of Noah, who were responsible for populating them, Shem (Asia), Ham (Africa), and Jafet (Europe). Above the map is a diagram of heaven and a woodcut of the creation, collectively expressing a comprehensive Christian cosmology. 

The 'Fasciculus Temporum' ('Bundles of Time') was first printed in 1474 in 

’s hometown of Cologne. It presents both ecclesiastical and secular world history, from Genesis to 1475, during the reign of Pope Sixtus IV and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. His schema, a series of linear charts better suited to printing as a scroll rather than in book form, was so complicated that the first printing attempt was a failure. To accommodate Rolewinck’s ambitious work, the publisher 

 pioneered a page design that could succinctly ponder the importance of each historical episode within the larger narrative of Christian history. Each page was divided between biblical and ecclesiastical history in the upper half and secular history below. To delineate between these two histories, Ratdolt used a horizontal woodcut strip with inset circles containing the names and biographical details (starting with Adam) of important characters from the Old Testament, popes, and saints. Immediately above the inset is the date of the event from the creation of the world, 'Anno Mundi', determined to be 5199 BCE, and below the inset, printed upside down, the number of years before or after the birth of Christ.

The 'Fasciculus Temporum', was an instant success and more than thirty editions were published over the next century, and greatly influenced 

's 'Liber Chronicarum' (1493), the now better-known Nuremberg 

, which it preceded by two whole decades. 

T-O map

Illuminated letter

Timeline

Timeline and Noah's Ark

Timeline and Tower

Timeline and city views

Religious illustration

Timeline and city view

City view

Lineage diagram

An exceptionally rare example of the publishing pioneer 

’s edition of Rolewinck’s world chronicle with woodcuts coloured throughout in a fine contemporary hand.

Acquired in a modern calf-skin binding; replaced with contemporary, soft vellum to be more sympathetic to its original binding.