The Great World Maps
Visscher's World with the Poles
Two hemispheres, two poles, four myths.
- Map
- Orbis terrarum nova et accuratissima tabula
- Mapmaker
- Nicolaes Visscher
- Date
- c. 1690
- Held by
- Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library · via Digital Commonwealth
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
Visscher added two small spheres to the familiar double hemisphere, one for each pole, and filled the margins with four scenes by the painter Nicolaes Berchem: Persephone carried off against a sky of flame, Zeus in a chariot drawn by eagles, Poseidon rising from the sea with his train, Demeter receiving the fruits of the land. Each stands for one of the elements. The map first appeared in Jan Jansson's Novus Atlas of 1658 and was reused unchanged for decades. It still shows California as an island. The geography was ordinary for its day, and the margins are why it was bought.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain map held by Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library · via Digital Commonwealth — 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.
