A Complete Portrayal of the Earth

This 1795 impression of a woodcut based on Oronce Fine’s 1534 heart-shaped map of the world is attributed to a cartographer from Tunis named Hajji Ahmad. At first glance, the map’s accompanying Ottoman Turkish text appears to be a captivating, first-person account of Hajji Ahmad’s remarkable odyssey across the Mediterranean. Upon closer inspection, cartography scholars have questioned the map’s authenticity and authorship. The text contains errors, and European sources such as Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (Travels and voyages) appear to have influenced the geographical details of the map. Most likely it was printed for commercial purposes by a group of Venetian cartographers that included Nicolò Cambi and Michele Membré, the official Turkish translator for the Venetian Republic. Whatever its true provenance, the map highlights the remarkable cross-cultural influences in the early modern Mediterranean world, especially among Tunis, Venice, and Istanbul. World maps

Date

1795

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

1,024 × 1,051 pixels

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