Beschreibung:

WORLD - SALAMANCA, ANTONIO ( c. 1500-1562).
WORLD - SALAMANCA, ANTONIO ( c. 1500-1562). [ The World ]. Rome: Antonio Salamanca [Rome, c.1550]. Engraved map of the World, 340 x 504mm, trimmed with original extended margins (Some discolouration and creasing, a small tear at centre fold of map.) A HIGHLY IMPORTANT MAP OF THE WORLD, AND ONE OF THE GREAT EXPRESSIONS OF CARTOGRAPHIC ARTISTRY. This map is the rare first state of Antonio Salamanca's interpretation of the bi-cordiform world map; closely following Gerhard Mercator's masterpiece of 1538, which in turn was based on the world map of Oronce Fine of 1531. Like its predecessors, Salamanca's rendering bisects the world on the Equator, with the southern hemisphere featuring a mysterious continent centred on the South Pole, centuries before the discovery of Antarctica. Following Mercator, Salamanca showed the Americas as being two continents, labelled north and south, and being entirely separate from Asia. A large ice-mass is shown covering the world's Arctic regions. Salamanca's rendering is distinguished from Mercator's by his use of stipple engraving for the seas. Beyond being a most elegant artistic concept, cordiform maps were considered to be imbued with great emblematic significance by contemporary humanists, in that they linked the human heart, the innate source of reason, with the grander theatre of the world of human action (Giorgio Mangani: Imago Mundi 50, 1998). A second state was printed by Salamanca's former partner, Antonio Lafreri around 1564. Karrow 56/4.1, Shirley:1983 no.91, Tooley:1939 no.1, Woodward:1996 watermark 292