MAPS AND MAP-MAKING BEFORE MERC AT OR. 493 



that had preceded it to convey upon a plane surface a general idea of 

 the earth's globular form. In this map the newly discovered continent 

 of America,, under the name of " The Land of the Holy Cross," was laid 

 down more fully and accurately than in the preceding map of Ruysch, 

 In the following year, 1512, a Polish geographer, John de Stobnicza, 

 in an introduction to Ptolemy, published a map which I regard as of 

 great interest, as it was, as far as I have been able to ascertain, the 

 first attempt to project the spherical surface of the earth upon a plane. 

 If I am right in this supposition, it was the parent of the mode now in 

 use in all atlases of representing in a map of the world both sides of 

 the globe upon a flat surface by two planispheres, or circular maps 

 joined together, one of which includes Europe, Asia, and Africa, and 

 the other America, North and South. This map was constructed to 

 represent that half of the globe which was unknown to Ptolemy, or 

 substantially what is now known in maps of the world as the Western 

 Hemisphere. 



The main object of this interesting map was to show where this new- 

 ly discovered land was situated, and place it in its true position with 

 respect to the whole globe. The map is but a partial or subspherical 

 projection, being cut off at the seventieth degree north latitude, and 

 at the fortieth degree south latitude. The Continent of America, North 

 and South, is represented as running northwesterly to the center of the 

 map, and as extending from 70° north latitude to 40° south latitude, 

 the shape of the continent as then understood being evidently derived 

 from a chart, not then published, which, from an inscription upon it, is 

 supposed either to have been drawn by Columbus, or under his direction. 

 The breadth and general shape of South America, though rudely given, 

 are remarkably correct. The isthmus separating South from North 

 America is laid down, but exaggerated in length ; and a small portion 

 of North America is given, its extension to the west being left unde- 

 fined. The position which the whole continent occupies as a part of 

 the globe is, as would be expected, not correctly laid down, but, as a 

 conjectural representation of its exact position, the map was for that 

 time (a. d. 1512) a very remarkable production. 



I have dwelt upon this map, because it has not received from ge- 

 ographers the attention it deserves ; and for the further reason that it 

 furnishes a striking illustration of the slow progress of geographical 

 knowledge ; for the projection of maps of the world, upon the same 

 scientific method, did not come into general use until about the begin- 

 ning of the last century, or nearly two hundred years afterward. 



In 1520 Peter Benewitz constructed a map of the world in the 

 form of a heart, after the method of Sylvanus, which has acquired a 

 celebrity as the first map upon which the name of America appears. 



In 1531 Oronce Fine undertook to improve this by a projection in 

 the form of a double heart, so as to give, by that method, upon a plane 

 or flat surface, both sides of the globe ; and in 1538 Mercator, then a 



