Maris Pacifici, more accurately named the ''Descriptio Maris Pacifici'' ("Description of the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
"), was the first dedicated map of the Pacific to be printed. It is considered an important advancement in
cartography
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...
.
This map was drawn by
Abraham Ortelius in 1589, based upon a map of America from the same year that was drawn by
Frans Hogenberg
Frans Hogenberg (1535–1590) was a Flemish and German painter, engraver, and mapmaker.
Hogenberg was born in Mechelen in Flanders as the son of Nicolaas Hogenberg. . Some details of the map may have been influenced by an 1568 description of
Japan in a manuscript by
Vaz Dourado, rather than a map, hence its peculiar shape.
Swaen old maps High resolution zoomable image Ortelius, Abraham Maris Pacifici
/ref>
The landmass illustrated to the south of all of the Pacific and South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
is a representation of Terra Australis
(Latin: '"Southern Land'") was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that ...
.
See also
*Mappa mundi
A ''mappa mundi'' (Latin ; plural = ''mappae mundi''; french: mappemonde; enm, mappemond) is any medieval European map of the world. Such maps range in size and complexity from simple schematic maps or less across to elaborate wall maps, th ...
*Early world maps
The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuries BCE still based on the flat Earth paradigm.
World maps assuming a spherical Earth first appear in the Hellenistic period.
The developments ...
References
{{Reflist
Ocean maps
Historic maps of the Americas
Pacific Ocean
16th-century maps and globes
Early modern Netherlandish cartography