The Contarini–Rosselli map of 1506 was the first printed world map showing the New World. The Contarini–Rosselli map was designed by

Giovanni Matteo Contarini Giovanni Matteo Contarini (1452-1507) was a cartographer and likely a member of a prominent Republic of Venice, Venetian family. In 1506, Contarini created a world map that Francesco Rosselli later engraved. The Contarini-Rosselli map is the firs ...

and engraved by

Francesco Rosselli Francesco Rosselli (1445 – before 1513) was an Italian miniature painter, and engraver of maps and old master prints. He was described as a cartographer, although his contribution did not include any primary research and was probably limi ...

. It is a copper-engraved map and was published in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

or Florence in 1506. The only surviving copy is in the British Library.

Age of discovery

There had been many voyages of discovery in the immediately preceding years: * Dias’ rounding of Africa (1487) * the discovery of Newfoundland by

John Cabot John Cabot ( it, Giovanni Caboto ; 1450 – 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest-known European exploration of coastal North ...

(1497) *

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

's travel to India (1499) * the explorations of the Caribbean and South America by

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

(1492–93, 1493–94, 1498, 1502–04) * visits to the Caribbean and South America by Vespucci (1499, 1501–02) Although there had been maps created after these voyages, such as Juan de la Cosa's map of the world in 1500 (based on Columbus' second voyage) and the

Cantino The Cantino planisphere or Cantino world map is a manuscript Portuguese world map preserved at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, Italy. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for the Duke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portug ...

world map (circa 1502), the information on these maps was closely guarded. These maps were commissioned by the Portuguese and Spanish governments, which wanted to create trade monopolies over the regions they depicted. The royal powers worried that leaked information about geography could make it easier for other nations to challenge their supremacy. Often a limited number of copies was made, to be held under lock and key.

Publicizing the shape of the world

This situation changed drastically from 1506 to 1507 when three separate efforts to produce world maps were published. The Contarini-Rosselli map of 1506 (now in the British Library) and Martin Waldseemüller's map of the world and globe of 1507 were influential, but not very widely published. There is only one original copy of each in existence, and both of these copies were discovered in the 20th century. By contrast,

Johannes Ruysch Johannes Ruysch (c. 1460? in Utrecht – 1533 in Cologne), a.k.a. ''Johann Ruijsch'' or ''Giovanni Ruisch'' was an explorer, cartographer, astronomer, manuscript illustrator and painter from the Low Countries who produced a famous map of the world ...

's 1507 map of the world was much more widely published and many copies were produced and still exist. It therefore had a very large influence.

References

* ''A Map of the World Designed by Gio Matteo Contarini Engraved by Franc. Rosselli 1506'', London 1924. * ''On the Cartographic Work of Francesco Rosselli'', Roberto Almagia, Imago Mundi, Vol. 8, 1951 (1951), pp. 27–34.
''The New World in Maps: The First Hundred Years'', John T. Day (St. Olaf College), The Newberry Library, 1988.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Contarini-Rosselli Map Age of Discovery History of geography 16th-century maps and globes Historic maps of the world