Also known in proof state. Although Cimerlino was a Veronese artist, it has been argued that the map was most likely published in Venice due to the paper and ink used. Biographical information on Cimerlino is scarce. His few signed works, among which there are no other maps, are all dated between 1566 and 1570.

Rich in geographic details, the map is significant for the accuracy it shows of the eastern seaboard of North and South America but also for its cordiform, or heart-shaped projection. The map is surrounded by a  magnificent border of angels, cherubs, and putti; columns supporting the map on either side include Cimerlino's dedication to Henry Fitzalan, on the left, and his arms on the right. Cimerlino's imprint appears within a table upper left, with the initials ‘IP’, on the lower right.

Giovanni Paolo Cimerlino (sometimes Cimerlini) (1534–1609) was an engraver and designer active in Verona in the second half of the sixteenth century. He is best known for prints of scientific interest, including this world map and a group of paper instruments.

Cimerlino’s map ultimately draws from the work of Johannes Stabius (1450–1522), a professor of mathematics in Vienna, who invented a series of three cordiform (heart-shaped) projections later published by Johannes Werner of Nuremberg in 1514. All three were mathematically of equal area (unlike Ptolemy's projections) and were developed into several influential maps in subsequent decades. The first Werner-Stabius projection was apparently never used, while the third was first employed by Orance Fine for a world map in 1534–1536 that was subsequently reused here by Cimerlino in 1566.

This gorgeous map is significant both for its accuracy and its cordiform (heart-shaped) projection. Following the European discovery of the Western Hemisphere and the general recognition that the earth was round, European mapmakers struggled with how to capture both hemispheres on a two-dimensional surface. One solution was the cordiform projection, which also had symbolic meaning to humanist scholars, linking the human heart, the innate source of reason, with the grander theatre of the world. 

Rich in geographic details, the map is significant for the accuracy it shows of the eastern seaboard of North and South America. It is framed by a magnificent border of angels, cherubs, and putti with architectural columns supporting either side. The map is dedicated to Henry Fitzalan, godson of Henry VIII of England (his arms on the right) whom Cimerlino might have met while Fitzalan was traveling to Italy to escape political pressure in England.  

Cimerlino dedicated his beautiful map to Henry Fitzalan, twelfth Earl of Arundel and Lord Maltravers who was a godson of King Henry VIII and a leading nobleman at the Tudor Court, serving Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. As a leader of the Catholic nobility, he fell into disgrace in 1564 and Fitzalan bridged the troubles at home by a tour to Italy, where he may have met Cimerlino.

First edition of this visually stunning map, on a cordiform, or heart-shaped projection, significant for the accuracy it shows of the eastern seaboard of North and South America.

Double-page engraved map of the world on two joined sheets, each sheet watermarked with a double-tailed mermaid within a sphere.

Cimerlino's Heart-shaped Map