’s 'Margarita Philosophica', first published in 1503, was the first modern encyclopaedia to appear in print and a landmark in the history of Early Modern science. Constructed as a dialog between teacher and student, it provides an overview of many subjects. Reisch divides his work into twelve books: grammar; Dialectic; Rhetoric; Arithmetic; Music; Geometry; 

; Principles of Natural Philosophy (‘de principiis rerum naturalium’); Origin of Natural Objects (‘de origine rerum naturalium’) containing references to minerals, metals, and mining; Psychology; Logic; and Ethics.



 (1467–1525), studied at the University of Freiburg in 1487 and received the degree of magister in 1489. Following his matriculation, he entered the Carthusian Order. From 1500 to 1502, he was prior at Klein-Basel, and from 1503 to shortly before his death he was prior at Freiburg. Reisch was confessor of Maximilian I. In his travels, he became friends with the most celebrated Humanists of the time: Erasmus, Wimpfeling, Beatus, Rheananus, Udalricus Zasius, and the celebrated preacher, Geiler of Kaisersberg. Reisch developed a good reputation for adaptability and his knowledge was so broad and profound he became regarded as an ‘oracle’.

From 1503, Reisch was the author of a popular handbook of moral and natural philosophy which appeared in many editions throughout the sixteenth century, the 'Margarita Philosophica'. From all accounts, it was one of the most widely-read textbooks for university students. The printer of the first edition, Johannes Schott, also produced works on geography, most notably 

’s 1513 edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘

This map depicts a simplified world according to Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘

’, significantly featuring, in the lower right-hand corner, an intriguing landmass that connects subequatorial western Africa and Southeast Asia, which greatly influenced Europeans’ quest for a westward route to Asia.

Medieval Geography of Asia typically placed India and Sri Lanka as their southeastern extreme, often with the terms ‘India’ and ‘Asia’ being used interchangeably. The cartographical enlargement of the continent as a result of the reports of travellers such as Marco Polo, and the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s ‘

’, led to geographers adopting Ptolemy’s terms ‘India within the Ganges’ and ‘India beyond the Ganges’ to distinguish ‘further’ Asia from that to the east of India.


This untitled world map with twelve windheads was published in the first seven editions of 

’s ‘Margarita Philosophica’, an encyclopaedic textbook widely used in universities throughout Western Europe. It is particularly significant for its very first cartographic reference to European voyages west to the Caribbean and east around Africa. An inscription written across the land bridge connecting subequatorial West Africa with Southeast Asia reads, "hic non terra sed mare est: in quo mare magnitudinus Insulae sed Ptolemeo fuerent incognitae" ("here, there is not land but sea, in which sea there are a mass of islands unknown to Ptolemy").

While often described as the earliest reference on a map to the discoveries of Columbus in the West Indies, it is more likely that the statement refers to the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and entry into the Indian Ocean by Bartolemeo Diaz and Vasco da Gama. These new discoveries would force a reappraisal of Ptolemaic geography, which for centuries had been the bedrock of geographic knowledge. Reisch's simple line of text is the first cartographic depiction of a quest that would continue for hundreds of years.

This characterful map combines whimsy and creativity with the latest geographical information from European expeditions west to the Caribbean and east around Africa. Expanding on Claudius Ptolemy's projection, the map notes a sea and islands that ‘were not known to him’. This allusion to new frontiers captures the excitement and curiosity of European explorers to dream of what might lie beyond Ptolemy's calculations.

Decorating this relatively simple map are wonderfully creative, detailed windheads that are depicted in a highly naturalistic style. Each windhead has its own personality; one is even wearing glasses, the first known appearance of eyewear in a map.

The map is surrounded by twelve striking windheads, one of whom, Vulternus, is sporting a splendid pair of spectacles. Spectacles were invented in Pisa, Italy in around 1285. The first known illustration of them occurs in a mural in the chapter house in San Nicolò in Treviso, Italy, 1352, and the first known printed image is a person, variously identified as Philo, Empedocles, Seneca, or Pythagoras, in the ‘Rudimentum Novitiorum’ of 1475 (see SC-B-1475-Anon-Rudimentum-WorldMap). Glasses may also be found adorning characters in 

’, and there are no fewer than ten incunable illustrations of people wearing spectacles. 

, however, holds the honour of their first depiction on a map.

First edition and state of the first map to make direct reference to European voyages around Africa and to the Caribbean.

 map of the world on the Ptolemaic projection with finely engraved, individually characterised windheads including one wearing spectacles.


Reisch's Windhead Map, showing lands unknown to Ptolemy