Andreas Lambert

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Andreas Lambert was a well-known publisher from Cologne.

With the help of Bertram Buchholtz and Gottfried von Kempen, Lambert transformed Cologne into one of Europe’s great mapmaking centres. His work had a profound effect on the cartographic literacy of the public.

In 1596, Lambert created a beautiful world map called the ‘Typus Orbis Terrarum’. It used Mercator’s planisphere projection and is inscribed with a quotation from the classical thinker, Cicero, which prompted the beholder to ruminate on their mortality. The map includes a series of fictional islands around Greenland: Groclant, Thule and Friesland. Complete with a colossal sea monster and other fictional places recorded by Marco Polo in Southeast Asia, the map depicts the world as immense and even mythical.

Black and white map of the world by Andreas Lambert