Asiae Nova Descriptio

One of the earliest European maps of Asia and the standard map of the continent for more than forty years. Published in Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, widely regarded as the first modern atlas, having all the maps in a similar size and format. Ortelius was the first to separate ancient and recent geographic knowledge in his maps and to indicate the changes from the old nomenclature to the new. Beautifully embellished with an ornate title cartouche, galleons and spherical meridians of longitude and latitude.

The map is drawn on a cordiform projection but the continent has been extended too far to the east, based on Ptolemy’s miscalculation of the longitude of Eurasia. The sources of the map are Gastaldi 1560, Mercator 1569 and portolan charts by the Portuguese mapmaker Fernao Vaz Dourado who was based in Goa. This map, along with Ortelius’s map of the East Indies were the first published works to chart the island of Formosa (Taiwan) and to identify it by that name. Only the tip of Terra Australis Incognita is shown, the remainder being beyond the scope of the map.

This is the second plate of the map, which Ortelius published in his atlas from 1575 onwards. It is identified by the removal of ‘Cum priuilegio’ in the lower left corner, the replacement of ‘La Farfarna’ in the upper right corner in the sea, with a lower case ‘farfarna’ and the removal of the town ‘Ara’ above ‘Aden.’ His decision to make a new plate appears to have been the result of substandard engraving, with a number of the earlier states showing a faint impression, especially in the lower right section of the maps.The engraving of all the copper plates was done by Frans Hogenberg.

References: Broecke 7, Clancy p.25, ill.1.12, Moreland pp.98-99, Quirino p.96, Richardson p.201, ill.p.202, 212-213, Suarez (A) pp.164-167, ill. Fig. 85, Sweet 5, Walter 11C. (Ort 6 (Koeman/Meurer: 3 Karrow: 1/8, van der Krogt AN: 8000:31A))