Description
'Secunda etas mundi': incunabula world map published by Hartmann Schedel and printed by Anton Koberger in July 1493, from the first edition, published in Latin, of the 'Liber Chronicarum' (popularly referred to as the Nuremberg Chronicle, based upon the city of its publication). Schedel's work is illustrated with over 1800 woodcut images (by Michael Wohlgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff) and this map is not only one of the earliest world maps but also the last to be produced without any indication of the New World (in fact, the book was published some months after Columbus returned to Spain after discovering the New World, but it doesn’t include the discoveries of Columbus in the Americas). Although not giving particular attention to details, these are some features of the map: the shape of it is based on Ptolemy's “Geographiaâ€; Europe is shown with the Mediterranean countries, northern Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia; Jerusalem is at the center of the map; the Indian Ocean is an enclosed area; Scandinavia, southern Africa and the Far East are not shown; etc. Twelve 'windheads' (whose mouths blow wind) surround the map (a decorative motif that is found on many early printed world maps), they and major places are named, and the outline of the map is held up by Noah's sons (Japhet, Shem, and Ham – biblical figures), from whom humanity in the three known continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe) was believed to descend (given that they were the ones who repopulated the earth after the Flood, according to the Old Testament). To the left of the map is a panel representing seven grotesque, bizarre creatures situated to suggest that such beings/peoples inhabit the edges of the earth, in unexplored areas of Asia and Africa (as the text describes). Such mythological humanoid creatures have their origin not only in ancient cosmographies (Pliny, Pomponius Mela, Solinus, and Herodotus), but also, probably, in popular legends based on medieval travellers' tales. The seven figures include: (1) a six-armed man; (2) a hairy woman; (3) a six-fingered hands man; (4) a centaur; (5) a bald but bearded lady; (6) a four-eyed man; (7) a bird man (creature with long S-shaped neck and beak in lieu of mouth).
