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1492

World Map by Macrobius

Macrobius

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Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius [fifth century AD]
World Map after Macrobius
The inhabited world north of the equator balanced by a southern continent and divided from it by water.
wood-cut; 12.3 cm diameter
Venice: Joannes Rubeus Vercellensis, 1492
State Library of New South Wales

See also: nla.gov.au/nla.map-ra277

The map by Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, a fifth-century Roman philosopher, shows a symmetry, in land and climate, between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Europe, Africa and Asia are shown in the upper hemisphere, with a vast southern continent (Antipodum Nobis Incognita) in the lower hemisphere. They are separated by an intervening great ocean (Alveus Oceani). Macrobius further labels his map with climatic zones according to the theory of Parmenides: two zones close to the poles are subject to frigid air (frigida), either side of the equator a torrid zone (perusta) and between these two moderate or temperate zones (temperate). Decoratively, there are 14 winds blowing across the globe.

The map is part of a treatise by Macrobius, in which he discourses upon many points of physics in a series of essays which show the astronomical notions then current. His view of a large southern land mass was an early and important part of the long tradition of unknown south lands that influenced Pacific exploration and charting.

The works of Macrobius were popular in the Middle Ages, and a favourite subject in the early mass printing market.