Cartographic Wonders
The Heart-Shaped World
The whole Earth, drawn as a heart.
- Map
- Recens et integra orbis descriptio
- Mapmaker
- Oronce Finé
- Date
- 1531
- Held by
- Published Paris
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
In 1531 the French mathematician Oronce Finé projected the entire globe onto the shape of a heart. The cordiform projection was a serious attempt to flatten a sphere with less distortion — but the result is unforgettable for another reason: the whole world, oceans and continents and a vast imagined southern land, folded into a single valentine. Science and beauty meeting by happy accident. Of all the ways cartographers found to picture the Earth, none is lovelier or stranger than this.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain map held by Published Paris — the work is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper or 400gsm canvas; framed pieces sit behind acrylic.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed and linen-backed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our maps cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans in existence, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the sea monsters, the tiny place-names, the burin lines — on matte paper that holds every line without glare.
