This map is based on Rosaccio’s own world map prepared between 1598–1599, which was in turn derived from Mercator’s double hemisphere world map of 1595. It retains the characteristic but now discounted ‘bulge’ to South America. The western hemisphere is surrounded by windheads with lower ones depicted as grinning skulls reflecting the belief that the plague, always prevalent in the summer, was blown in from the south.

Beneath the two larger spheres is the Medici coat of arms; the six balls represent the continents as well as the conjectural southern and northern lands. The vignettes below illustrate geographical and natural phenomena. In the center is a map based on Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographica’. The smaller maps that surround include a climate map that divides the globe into temperature zones ordered according to 

’s theory, as well as a map depicting the positions of the Tropics.

Double-page engraved copperplate double-hemisphere map of the world, surrounded by vignettes of alternative projections.

A 'curiously elaborate' map, this work was published in conjunction with 

’s final cartographic work ‘Discorso’. It is roughly based on Rosaccio’s previous world map prepared in 1598–1599, which was in turn derived from 

’s double hemisphere world map of 1595. The only map to accompany the work, it conveyed a variety of concepts centred on a double hemisphere projection, eight diagrams, and four vignettes in addition to the decorative and dedicatory elements.

It is the rich decorative borders which make this map so unique. Dominating the centre of the map is the medallion portrait of Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and ruler of Florence. In about 1610, Cosimo adopted a fashionable moustache and beard, necessitating Rosaccio to amend the copperplate accordingly; the addition of the moustache distinguishes the First and Second 

This map was published in Rosaccio’s 1610 'Discorso,... nel quale si trattabrevemente dell nobilita,...' ('Dialogue on Nobility') and was engraved by his son, Alouisio Rosaccio, who signed the map in the lower right ‘Alouisio Rosaccio fecit’. His signature also appears on the frontispiece to the text.

Rich in cartographic details, especially considering the smaller size of the map. A medallion crowns the top centre border and depicts Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and ruler of Florence, to which the map is dedicated.

Rosaccio’s World Map