Gateways logo
ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 39 | June 1999


The collections

Ancient world map in Macrobius work

fifth-century  world map

iDetail of fifth-century world map showing climate zones from Ambrosius Macrobius’ In Somnium Scripionis, Lib II, Saturnaliorum, Lib. VII. Venetis: Ioan Gryphius Exudebat, 1560?

A sixteenth-century edition of a book by an influential Roman philosopher of the fifth century, who promulgated the idea of a round earth with northern and southern hemispheres divided by an equatorial ocean, has been purchased by the Library. The book is in remarkably good condition, given that it is more than 400 years old.

Ambrosius Macrobius’ In Somnium Scipionis, Lib. II, Saturnaliorum, Lib. VII was published in Venice, probably in 1560, by Ioan Gryphius Excudebat. As well as a map of the world that appeared in manuscripts and printed works for 1200 years, the book contains the text of Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, with Macrobius’ commentary.

Macrobius was a follower of the Neoplatonists, philosophers originating in Alexandria around the third century, who believed in blending Plato’s ideas with theosophy. His commentary on Cicero and Plato includes several chapters dealing with his own conception of the world and the universe.

Macrobius’ map of the world is the first to be printed denoting ocean currents and also identifies ‘frigid’ and ‘temperate’ zones. His idea of a spherical earth derives from the second-century theory of Crates of Mallus.

A fragment of a late fifteenth-century manuscript of Macrobius’ works fetched $US48 875 ($A75 195) at auction in San Francisco last year. Fortunately, this recent acquisition by the Map Section cost considerably less!

| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |

Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

Gateways logo