’s geography is based on a now lost, multi-sheet, 1545 wall map by Caspar Vopell, as acknowledged in the legend below the map. It also employed the same cordiform projection used on 

’s great wall map of the world of 1507. Girava’s world map is one among relatively few examples using this projection. The motif of two geographers atop the map is also the same as found on Waldseemüller’s map. 

's world map of 1507, but the geography is very different. North America labelled ‘Nueva Espana’ shares a land mass with Asia and Labrador is connected to ‘Grutlandia’. The map features lines of latitude and longitude based on the Ferro meridian, surrounded by a broad border of windheads, including southern windheads (the bringers of plague), represented as skulls. Men holding a globe and armillary sphere and two smaller projections of a celestial and astrological sphere complete the decoration.



 acknowledges Caspar Vopell’s influence, particularly in his rendering of the conjoining of the Asian and 

 landmasses. He notes Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean in 1513, and intriguingly mentions that the great southern landmass ‘Terra incognita’ had been sighted in 1499.

 (c. 1500–1556) was a Spanish mathematician, cosmographer, and engineer who worked for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He authored several important works on cosmology and geometry before dying suddenly in 1556 while traveling by boat to Naples from Milan.

Published posthumously in Milan as part of Girava's ‘Dos Libros de Cosmographia’, a work which describes Brazil (‘India ó Nuevo Mundo’), the map is on a cordiform projection and based on the now lost large twelve-sheet wall map by Caspar Vopell.


This densely engraved cordiform map was created by 

, the cosmographer to Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire. This map was published posthumously in his ‘Dos Libros de Cosmographia’ which describes Brazil, India, and the 

.

The woodblock print is based on Caspar Vopell’s legendary twelve-sheet wall map, of which all known versions have been lost. The map is richly decorated and surrounded by distinctive windheads. It rests on two celestial charts of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres in the lower corners. Atop the map, a cartographer and an astronomer look down onto the Earth. 

Caspar Vopell's legendary twelve-sheet wall map, supposedly published in 1545, 1549, and 1552, are no longer known. Along with 

’s map, other derivatives of Vopell created by Giovanni Andrea Vavassore and Bernaerd Van den Putte have survived.

Girava World Map