Hello there !

[BenB]

This is my first message in the forum ! Hello everyone !
My name is Benjamin, I live in Paris.

I registered on this site in the hope of getting advice on the history of the South Pole representations (including Australia at a time when one believed in a huge austral continent).

Interested in the "pre-modern" mapping and imaging of Antarctica, I am trying to apprehend how (and why) the evolved (before James Cook and the end of the myth).

I had the opportunity to read the excellent survey ("Early Antarctica", 1963) by Tooley, from the publication of the Map Collector's Circle, and discovered a few references of maps I was not aware of.

In particular, I would be very glad to locate a few ancient maps (in order to see the originals, good copies or a good scans of them). Among them :
- the "sarcastic" map of the World by J.B. Hall in 1643. Where can it be found (besides the small copy circulating on the net) ?
- the "Typus Orbis Terrarum" edited by Weigel Johann Christoph (close to, if not similar to the mappemonde of Chatelain, with a southern continent described as "Terres Australes Inconnues").

Besides, I read about the presence, in the Sz?ch?nyi National Library of Budapest, of two 1621 parchmen portolan maps of Hessel (probably Hessel Gerritz), representing Australian coasts (which is an early date). Does anybody knows if this is the same map as Hessel Gerritsz's portolan "Mar del Sur" of 1622 (i.e. the "Map of the Great South Sea"), or as the "Chart of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch discoveries in Australia" ? I doubt it, since the last seems to be in the National Library of Australia, and the first is at the Biblioth?que Nationale de France, whereas the 1621 is described as a parchmen.

Sorry if I was too long and if nobody cares about those ancient visions of the Antarctic !!

Maybe all these interrogations would fit more in another area of the forum...

Nevertheless, if anybody has a suggestion / idea / answer, thank you so much in advance !

Benjamin

[Alan]

As you may know, it was well known in ancient times that the world was a globe, and philosophers even had a good idea of the size.

However, they still did not have a good grasp on many of the details, so some of them decided that there HAD to be a southern continent to balance the weight of the continents they knew about. That's the primary reason why they assumed there must be a southern continent prior to the discovery of Australia. Even in Dante's "Inferno" there is reference to a southern continent.

Can't help you with the maps, though. Many globes and maps of the time included this theoretical southern continent, as well as quite a few other oddities.

[Alan]

As you may know, it was well known in ancient times that the world was a globe, and philosophers even had a good idea of the size.

However, they still did not have a good grasp on many of the details, so some of them decided that there HAD to be a southern continent to balance the weight of the continents they knew about. That's the primary reason why they assumed there must be a southern continent prior to the discovery of Australia. Even in Dante's "Inferno" there is reference to a southern continent.

Can't help you with the maps, though. Many globes and maps of the time included this theoretical southern continent, as well as quite a few other oddities.