The authorship and date of this map are enigmatic. The engraving has traditionally been attributed to the miniaturist 

, the supposed mapmaker behind the 1477 Bologna edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘

’. A year after this publication, a contract between Crivelli and Francesco dal Pozzo, dated 22 April 1474, obligates Crivelli to fifty copies of an unidentified world map, and it has been suggested that this map and those mentioned in the document are the same. However, stylistic differences between the maps in the Bologna Ptolemy (1477) and the present map raise doubts that they were made by the same engraver.

Three other copies of this map are known in the Newberry Library, Chicago, the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. All are restrikes from the original plate made by Pietro de Nobili of Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century, possibly 1590. While each of these bears Nobili’s imprint, the present example lacks any printer’s mark, since the lower border is cut away. The watermark found on both leaves, a star surmounted by a cross, closely corresponds to Briquet 6089, which is datable to the 1580s and a Fabriano paper. However, it also bears a similarity to Briquet 6080, which is datable to 1479 and a Bologna paper. Though probably from Nobili’s restrike, it remains possible that this map is an original copy.

Pietro de Nobili (sometimes Latinised as Petrus de Nobilibus) was a print dealer, active in Rome in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. He and Peter Spranghers formed a partnership in 1575 and may have acquired the plate for this map in 1584 from the collection of Antonio Lafreri, a Roman engraver and cartographer. The partnership dissolved soon after this and Nobili began issuing prints with his printer’s mark around 1590. 

The map bears hallmarks of other late fifteenth-century Ptolemy maps (see: SC-TM-1478-Anon-PWorldMap). The Earth is surrounded by allegorical personifications of ten winds among clouds, framed by a scrolled border on the left. Geographically the map shows the world as it was known in the classical era, extending from Great Britain in the northwest, the Canary Islands in the west, mid-China in the east, and northern Africa in the south; the Indian Ocean features a large island, Taprobana (Sri Lanka), lettered in Roman capitals. The Americas are not represented, and a large southern continent, ‘Terra Australis’, landlocks the Indian Ocean.

This world map drawn on Claudius Ptolemy’s first conical projection was originally executed in Bologna in the late fifteenth century, probably by the illuminator 

. Over one-hundred years later, it was restruck by the Roman printer Pietro de Nobili, testifying to the enduring legacy of Ptolemy’s work despite significant technological advances and geographic discoveries. 



 (fl. 1450 – 1479) is best known as the illuminator of the ‘Borso Bible’ made for his patron Borso d’Este Duke of Ferrara. After the death of the Duke in 1471, Crivelli relocated to Bologna, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life. In 1477 he was contracted to create map engravings for the first edition of Ptolemy’s ‘

’ including a world map related to this one. In a document dated 22 April 1478, Crivelli committed to producing fifty copies of an unidentified world map for Francesco dal Pozzo (Puteolano), a humanist printer for whom he had created globes in 1474. The world map mentioned in this document could potentially be the same as the present map. However, stylistic differences between this map and the Bologna Ptolemy complicate Crivelli’s authorship. 

This Ptolemaic map was printed at the end of the sixteenth century, but its prototype is at least one hundred years older, a lost fragment of one of the earliest printed Ptolemy maps in Italy. Printed on a broadsheet, rather than part of an atlas, the map is bounded by twelve curly-haired windheads who float amid the stars. The topography, seas and rivers are richly depicted and the remnants of a filigree border decorates the left-hand edge of the sheet. 

Although authorship of this map is traditionally attributed to 

, a celebrated illuminator, there is no signature or printer's mark. Even the watermark in the paper is ambiguous. Thus, the map’s origins remain shrouded in mystery.

During Claudius Ptolemy’s lifetime, Alexandria was an intellectual centre of the ancient world, and it was also a vital point on trade routes between the Far East and Europe, giving Ptolemy access to the knowledge of travellers from all over the empire. While other Greco-Roman geographers distrusted contemporary accounts of sailors and merchants, Ptolemy eagerly consulted their first-hand knowledge. This is likely why his description of many features of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal are surprisingly accurate. A Greek sailor named Alexandros was a particularly key source in Ptolemy’s account of the Golden Chersonese (Malay Peninsula) and the Magnus Sinus (Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea).
 
Although the information conveyed is conventional the map has no direct model. Even its closest comparison, the Ptolemy atlas of 1477 has noticeable differences. The present map is generally richer in geographic details; for example, it shows additional branches of two Asian rivers, the ‘Orchardes' and the 'Bantisus', both of which flow off the map at its north-eastern extremity.

A well-preserved example of Crivelli’s exceptionally rare map of the world, only known in four copies, with a distinguished provenance extending back to the early decades of the twentieth century.


 engraved map of the world on 2 half-sheets, joined, each sheet watermarked with a six-pointed star within a circle beneath an open cross (most closely corresponds to Briquet 6089, which is datable to the 1580s and a Fabriano paper but also remarkably similar to Briquet 6080, which is datable to 1479 and a Bologna paper).

World Map Engraved by Taddeo Crivelli