Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum Discovered

[Doug Fisher]

The Map At The Bottom Of The World

I have discovered what is likely the sole remaining copy of Agrippa's long lost 2,000-year-old Orbis Terrarum. In bizarre fashion, it has been preserved for five centuries on the bottom of Schöner's 1515 World Globe as a depiction of an hypothesized southern continent. As you will find in my arguments here and in the following set of posts, it is virtually a mathematical impossibility that Schöner derived the design for his southern continent from thin air and included the specific elements of an ancient world map in their precise arrangement and scale by mere chance.

After my original posting of the discovery in the old Maphist forum back in '09, I received a very interesting email from Chet Van Duzer, author of the scholarly work "Johann Schöner’s Globe of 1515 Transcription and Study". He had reached a similar conclusion regarding a unique element of the southern landform which I will address later in this submission, but he began his message by offering his singular argument against my find:

"To me the idea that Schöner has a Roman world map at the bottom of his globe seems far-fetched." - Chet Van Duzer

And I agree, on its face, the idea of a skilled 16th century cartographer plastering a Roman world map onto the bottom of a globe to depict a southern continent does appear suspect, so I will also be addressing this concern and demonstrating within the context of the period how the documented and observable 16th century cartographic method, a contemporary report implying the existence of a vast southern land, and the chance discovery of an incomplete copy of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum set the stage for Schöner to logically misidentify a world map as a large polar landform. I believe it will also prove Schöner had performed a more astute and responsible cartographic action than the alternative of inventing the entire design from thin air.

Let’s begin by considering what we know of the shape of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum. It was a large map located on the wall of Porticus Vipsania, a portico named after Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The specific overall shape is unknown, but has been argued by some scholars to be rectangular while others prefer round. The only thing that we can state with great certainty is that the map maintained an overall 'C' form with Europe, Asia and Africa wrapping around the Mediterranean Sea with the singular opening in the 'C' positioned between Western Europe and Northwest Africa representing the Strait of Gibraltar. Even the orientation of the 'C' is an uncertainty, but many believe north would be oriented toward the top of the map forming a reverse 'C' with Europe toward the top, Africa toward the bottom.

A more distinguishing characteristic of the map would be the incorporation of two lone prominent peninsulas, which on a north oriented map would extend from the upper portion of the reverse 'C' as representations of Italy and Greece.

So now let us review the southern landform in question. Below you can see the imposing landform highlighted on the globe gores which form the southern hemisphere of Schöner's 1515 World Globe:

Click on images to enlarge.
Schöner’s southern landform highlighted on gores from his 1515 world globe

In the image below you can see how well Schöner's southern landform conforms with other ancient C-shaped maps. Here the Greek Hecataeus map (left) is set alongside Schöner’s southern landform (right). Note that aside from the Iberian peninsula, both feature ONLY TWO prominent peninsulas (1 and 2) inside the 'C' and they similarly extend off the upper portion of their C-shaped forms. Both maps include a depiction of the Gulf of Izmir (3) just above a cantilevered southern coast of Turkey (4). Significantly, the perpendicular coastline sets the midpoint on each 'C' with the upper portion protruding over the lower in both instances. And finally both round the coast between Israel and Egypt (5) and raise up the western end of North Africa comprising Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco (6).

Hecataeus' world map (left) shares all the basic elements of Schöner’s
C-Shaped landform

Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

The Mediterranean

Here in greater detail are images of the highly identifiable elements of the Mediterranean that are included on ancient as well as modern day maps. The first two images compare Schöner's two prominent peninsulas of Italy and Greece alongside comparative modern depictions lying off to the right. Note that these lone prominent peninsulas not only accurately extend from the upper half of the reverse 'C' and well out into the Mediterranean, but their order is also accurate with the peninsula resembling Italy correctly located to the left or west of the one sharing characteristics of the Greek peninsula.

Comparative images of Schöner’s depictions of the Italian and Greek
peninsulas (left) alongside modern depictions

Schöner's design also includes an accurate portrayal of Turkey with an undulating southern coast cantilevered out into the Mediterranean opposite the Strait of Gibraltar while also incorporating an accurately proportioned and aligned portrayal of the small hook-shaped peninsula which extends out and then northward from the western coast of Turkey defining the Gulf of Izmir. The depiction of the gulf even details the small bump of land or cape that extends upward from the bay's southern shore.

Comparative images of Schöner’s depictions of Turkey's southern shore
protruding out into the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Izmir

At this point I believe any reasonable person should be able to grasp that Schöner’s southern landform comprises the essential basic elements of an ancient C-shaped world map. It would be difficult to dismiss the significance of the two prominent and one minor peninsula accurately placed above the cantilevered coast of Turkey with all three closely resembling their Mediterranean counterparts in their correct order and relative proportion to each other and to the overall map. The near impossibility of arranging these internal coastal features in correct order and scale strictly by the luck of a freeform drawing initially had me convinced that I was looking at a world map, but due to the unique circumstance of being affixed to the bottom of a world globe as a southern landform, it would certainly prove beneficial if there existed another level of validation.

As it turned out, proof positive arrived in the form of two additional elements on Schöner’s map, an extremely unique feature set only found on ancient C-shaped maps that not only prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was indeed originally a world map, they also establish that the map was of ancient Roman design.


Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

The Trans-African River And Mountain Range

In the image directly below, a stripped down rendering of the Hereford Mappa Mundi—one of the many medieval maps believed to have been based on the Roman world map known as Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum—sits alongside a stripped down rendering of Schöner’s southern landform. Highlighted in red on both maps is a highly unique prominent water feature. This water feature is significant not only in the fact that it is completely landlocked, unlike most waterways which empty into a surrounding sea, but also notably both waterways are 1) truncated at each end by circular lakes 2) are similarly arced away from the center of their C-shaped surrounding, and 3) span the portion of their C-shape lying opposite the Greek and Italian peninsulas, the portion of the map which coincides with Africa. It is quite certain that the waterway made its way onto the mappae mundi via Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum as this landlocked waterway represents the Roman belief that the Nile River originated in the mountains of Mauritania and ran laterally across the continent dividing the African continent in two with Libya to the north and Ethiopia to the south. Interestingly enough, the feature currently is unique to medieval mappae mundi...and Schöner’s southern landform.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi and Schoner's landform shared depiction of a
Trans-African River And Mountain Range

With the only known depictions of a large downward arcing lake-truncated waterway existing on medieval C-shaped maps and Schöner’s C-Shaped southern landform, in both instances spanning the portion of the 'C' corresponding to the African continent, it would appear that the case for a world map existing on the bottom of Schöner’s 1515 globe is all but in the bag.

But if there were even the slightest chance remaining that we were witnessing an extremely extraordinary coincidence, take note of the arcing line of mountains on the Hereford map that parallels the arced waterway. Schöner’s map also features a prominent range paralleling it, that similarly lies above the waterway toward the center of the map.

There is a slight difference in the two renderings of the range, with the Hereford range divided into two sections while Schöner portrays a single unbroken range, but this does not prove overly problematic as Schöner's design actually falls more in line with ancient Roman world maps upon which mappae mundi like the Hereford map were based. This is another clue that the design is premedieval, leaning more toward being a Roman original.

Following are portions of two ancient Roman world maps, the Ptolemy and Peutinger maps. In both instances we find this mountain range depicted as a continuous unbroken chain extending the full width of the continent separating Northern Africa from Southern Africa very much like Schöner's design. Ptolemy's design is very similar to Schöner's, not only in the style in which the mountains are drawn, as if they are an extruded flow, but they are also placed very closely just inside the northern coast of the continent leaving only a thin sliver of the continent sitting above. Note that the Peutinger Table, or Tabula Peutingeriana, also portrays the lateral mountain range as separating Northern Africa from Southern Africa, but crops the southern portion of the continent from the map at the base of the mountains.

Ptolemy World Map displaying an unbroken chain of mountains just inside
the North African coast much like Schöner’s depiction of the range

An enlarged section of the Tabula Peutingeriana displaying the same
unbroken chain of mountains lining the bottom of North Africa

So taking in all the key elements and their accurate depictions described thus far, it would be hard to deny that Schöner’s southern landmass is a copy of an ancient Roman C-shaped world map.


Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

Van Duzer's Nile Hypothesis

As I mentioned in my initial post, in '09 I was contacted by Chet Van Duzer regarding my theory. Incredibly, Chet informed me that he had also identified the lateral waterway on Schöner's southern landform as the source waters of the Nile. While it was truly gratifying to find that someone at his level of expertise had arrived at a similar conclusion, unfortunately, Chet only found significance in respect to the landlocked waterway's location outside and south of Africa, but did not grasp the significance of its relationship within the encompassing landform.

Chet asserts that "the cartographic and geographic evidence clearly show that Schöner thought the river in his ring continent to be a branch of the Nile." (The Cartography, Geography, And Hydrography Of The Southern Ring Continent, 1515-1763) As proof he offers up a few medieval maps or mappae mundi like the Hereford map which exhibit a very similar waterway—these maps were the same ones which lead me to similarly deduce that Schöner's waterway was a branch of the Nile—and then theorizes that the landform and waterway were Schöner’s interpretation of an obscure Roman belief that the Nile's source waters existed on a southern continent lying south of the African continent. The waterway on the southern continent was believed to empty into a subterranean channel running beneath the ocean which eventually rose to the surface of the African continent as the Nile River.

There are however several problems with this theory:

1) First and perhaps foremost is Schöner's own apparent disregard for such a belief. If one of the key driving forces in Schöner's decision to introduce a southern continent was indeed the belief that a southern continent contained the source of the Nile, how do we reconcile this with his 1524 redesign of the continent which not only excludes the unique water feature, but is devoid of any inland bodies of water? Schöner makes absolutely no effort at all to suggest that his 1524 depiction of the continent sourced the Nile River.

2) Unlike renderings on the mappae mundi which depict the waterway arcing toward the south this would be the only depiction that arcs the waterway northward in relation to the African continent.

3) All the depictions of the landlocked waterway Van Duzer submits as proof consistently place the waterway on the continent of Africa and there are absolutely no other maps in existence which place this unique water feature outside of the African continent.

And finally:

4) Chet claims, "The similarity between Schöner's southern river and these medieval representations of the Nile is striking," but the reality is that, in relation to the African continent on Schöner's globe, the waterway is rotated 180 degrees from the medieval representations in every possible way.

Aside from Schöner's obvious inversion of the waterway's arc, medieval maps consistently place the larger lake at the western end, whereas within Chet's theory, the larger lake is found at the eastern end. Even more significantly the river flows eastward out of the western lake on the mappa mundi, but again Chet's theory sees the river flowing in the opposite direction, from the eastern lake westward.

On the other hand, if we view the southern landform as a separate world map we find that Schöner depicts the western lake as surrounded by mountains with a very well defined opening or gap where the lateral waterway clearly flows out on its eastern side. (See B&W inset on the left side of the image below.) This 'mountain lake' as it is named on the map, conforms to the Roman concept that the Nile River originated in a large mountain lake in Mauritania and flowed eastward. The full color backdrop is the western lake as depicted on an extremely large and highly detailed mappa mundi known as the Ebstorf map. It does not depict the surrounding mountains, but clearly depicts the open flow out from the lake heading eastward. Nothing too unusual here, both C-shaped maps clearly depict the water flowing freely out from the larger lake in West Africa and flowing eastward.

Where things get interesting are in the depictions of the eastern end of the lateral waterway. Schöner's portrayal of the eastern end may at first appear identical to the western end, it too is depicted as a large mountain lake terminating one end of the waterway, but there is a key difference in the design of the eastern end. If you closely examine this lake, which is inset on the right side of the image below, you will notice that there is no opening or gap in the lake's mountain enclosure. The Ebstorf map also renders the smaller eastern lake different from the western lake by truncating the lateral waterway over the lake. In both instances it appears to suggest that the eastern end of the waterway is being directed underground in accordance with the Roman belief that the Nile's source waters traveled east from Mauritania and eventually dropped into a subterranean channel before rising up one last time as the Nile main which flowed to the sea entirely above ground.

Schöner’s western lake inset beneath the Ebstorf's western lake (left) and
Schöner’s eastern lake inset above the Ebstorf's eastern lake demonstrating
the shared concept of source waters flowing out from the west and
submerging in the vicinity of a lake in the east

So it seems very clear that if we regard the landlocked waterway in the fashion Van Duzer suggests, outside of a river terminated by lakes at both ends, there is very little in common with other depictions that exist: It lies outside of Africa, arcs in the opposite direction, places the two lakes at opposite ends, and flows in the opposite direction.

But when we flip Schöner's globe upside down and see the southern landform as a world map, suddenly the waterway correctly arcs downward, places the two lakes at their appropriate end according to size, and flows to the east where it drops underground all fully in line with medieval maps where we find the only other known depictions of this unique landlocked waterway.

Couple this with the mountain range lying parallel above it and the fact that the waterway traverses an area that would correspond with Africa on a C-shaped landform brandishing two prominent peninsulas extending from the opposite side—a unique landform which in every single other instance in which it exists is a world map—and it would require a willful suspension of logic to deny the likelihood of Schöner’s 1515 southern landmass being a copy of an ancient Roman world map.

Yet the question remains, "How did this ancient world map find its way onto the bottom of Schöner’s 1515 World Globe?" The answer begins with the identification of the map and an understanding of its unique geometric design.


Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum Reconstructed

The following two images represent the two stages of my reconstruction of a world map based on Schöner's southern landmass. The first image highlights the map's internal framework. The map was designed around three aligned symmetrical zones. Zone 2, the center of the map, which we will be keying in on later, is one of a series of concentric circles (A,B,C, and D) used to layout internal coastlines as well as the Nile source arcing across Africa. These are centered on the intersection of a series of evenly spaced lines (E,F,G, and H) dividing the zone into eight equal sections. These guidelines are similarly used in the layout of internal coastlines, setting the western coasts of Spain and Greece in the north and setting the width of the lower North African coastline in the south—the location of zone 3.

Zone 1 is an arch and has been oriented toward the top of the map, returning the map to its original northern orientation with the arch in its natural upward arcing form. This is the most prominent position on the map and along with the preceding evidence of this being a world map, further confirms that this was indeed a Roman map. Greek and medieval maps were Greco- and Christocentric in nature, placing Greece and Jerusalem in the center of the map, but this map accords prominence to Rome by locating the city at the top of the map at the base of the arch.

The internal geometric framework of an ancient Roman world map

Seeing that this is a Roman world map sharing many similarities with the mappae mundi, it is logical to assume that Schöner's southern landmass is a copy of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum, the Roman world map upon which the mappae mundi were based. Proceeding in our evaluation with this in mind we can gain insights into how the mappae mundi arrived at their final design.

When medieval Christians began creating the mappae mundi they borrowed heavily from Agrippa's map as well as Greek designs. I believe the central zones on Agrippa's map had to be eliminated when the Christians decided to adopt and adapt from Greek maps the concept of cartographic centricity by distorting the map to position the holy city of Jerusalem at the map's center. When Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum was originally created and put up for display on the wall of a portico, extensive commentary was likely consolidated within the center circular zone (2), but extending Jerusalem and Asia Minor into the map's center displaced much of the central text and necessitated the text's redistribution about the mappa mundi's new design, relocating comments within the region to which each pertained, which is why we find the mappae mundi littered with commentary.

This design adjustment may also explain the Expositio mappe mundi (EMM), manuscripts which are a collection of the data items appearing on the mappae mundi. Some believe that these manuscripts were instruction sets used to construct a mappa mundi based on the fact that the text is spatially specific. But it may actually be that the EMM were based on the original text found on Agrippa's map with the locative terms such as "above," "opposite," and "to the south of" being necessary for a consolidated text set apart from the map, while the mappae mundi's placement of these data items directly onto the map logically allowed the removal of the spatial references.

In the reconstruction below I have returned the text to its original central location.

Reconstruction of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum based on Schöner's southern
landform

Zone 3, a downward arcing band below the central text, likely carried a matrix housing depictions of the world's flora, fauna and many races. Like the central commentary, the Christocentric design necessitated redistribution of these images directly onto the mappae mundi. Some of this matrix appears to have been kept intact, even maintaining the shape of an arcing band and quite conveniently lies directly below Zone 3 on the mappae mundi. On the mappae mundi we consistently find these images still consolidated together in Africa sandwiched around the predominant arcing waterway. (See lower portion of the image below.) Thus in the reconstruction I have also returned the map's images of flora, fauna and races to their original location below the central circular commentary.

Sections of the Ebstorf mappa mundi with inset images of Agrippa's Orbis
Terrarum demonstrating how the upper and lower zones of Agrippa's map
were maintained but relocated out into the body of the mappae mundi

Finally, one last element common to the mappae mundi is a depiction of Christ located at the top of the map. (See upper portion of above image.) If you are keeping count, this makes three elements on the mappae mundi that make them unique from Greek maps. So perhaps it is not surprising that I believe this too was inspired by Agrippa's map and the content of its third and final zone (1). I believe the arched zone placed as it is occupying the map's most prominent position above Rome and the remaining two zones, was intended to honor someone of great importance and have therefore inserted an image of Emperor Augustus, the man who commissioned the creation of the map. A sizable image in the bottom left corner of the Hereford mappa mundi references Emperor Augustus suggesting it may have been inspired by a tribute found originally on Agrippa's map.


Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

Early 16th Century Cartographic Methodology

Having evaluated the symmetrical internal design around which Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum was constructed, let us consider how this may have played a part in Schöner's affixing the map to his globe. First we are going to look at the cartographic method employed at the time by reviewing a map from the same era, the Piri Reis Map of 1513.

The Piri Reis World Map of 1513

Contrary to a belief popularized by academic Charles Hapgood, the Piri Reis map does not portray the Antarctic continent. It is an incomplete map, consisting of only the lower left portion, the remainder being nonextant. While the map's full portrayal of the world is not entirely known, it can most reliably be discerned by viewing another map of the same period, after which it can be stated with almost complete certainty that the 1513 Piri Reis map in its original complete form depicted the concept of a nearly enclosed southern sea very similar to the Lopo Homem map of 1519.

The Lopo Homem World Map of 1519 which likely reveals the overall
design of the complete Piri Reis map with a nearly enclosed southern
sea

Not only does the nearness in dates suggest that the cartographers would have been aware of similar contemporary cartographic designs, but the unique depiction of the Rio de la Plata and the arced coastline immediately beneath shared only between these two maps is a clear indication that the maps were based on the same design, implying that the complete Piri Reis map would have also depicted the same lateral extension of the South American continent which ultimately wrapped around a southern sea.

So where did this unorthodox design originate? What inspired this vast enclosed sea in the south? It appears to have been a map by Claudius Ptolemy from the 2nd century A.D.

Claudius Ptolemy map from which the Piri Reis and Lopo Homem borrowed
the concept of a southern enclosed sea. Based on an inscription on the Piri
Reis map, the southern sea was incorporated by scaling it laterally,
substituting the coast of South American for the coast of Africa

Ptolemy's map, however, depicted a fully enclosed sea with the African continent forming the western shore and extending down and laterally across the sea's southern perimeter, so why would Piri Reis suddenly substitute the South American continent as the western shore?

Piri Reis and other cartographers of his time were well aware that Africa did not extend out in the manner Ptolemy depicted, as sailing around Africa was commonplace in his day with this being the lone sea route to the Spice Islands in the east. The Americas were currently being explored in hopes of establishing an alternate route.

The problem cartographers like Piri Reis were running up against was how to depict new partial discoveries. The Strait of Magellan had not yet been reached or discovered, so no one knew the full shape or extent of the South American continent. So Piri and others of his day apparently referenced older source maps in hopes of filling in the gaps. In this instance, Piri very openly informs us of this technique with an inscription included on his map:

"No one now living has seen a map like this. I have composed and constructed it using about twenty maps and mappaemundi; these are the maps which were composed in the time of Alexander of the Two Horns, and which show the inhabited portion of the earth. The Arabs call these maps ja'fariya.

I have used eight ja'fariya map, an Arab map of India and four recent Portuguese maps - these maps show the sea of Sind (Sindhu-sagara), India (Arabian Sea) and China according to mathematical principles - and also a map of the western regions drawn by Colombo (Columbus). The final form was arrived at BY REDUCING ALL THESE MAPS TO THE SAME SCALE. Therefore the present map is as accurate for the Seven Seas as the maps of our own countries used by sailors."

With a range of maps, some allegedly dating all the way back to Alexander the Great's day, Claudius Ptolemy's world map or some form of it was undoubtedly among the mix. In fact the reference to Alexander is almost certainly an error in confusing Ptolemy I, one of Alexander's generals and future ruler of Egypt, with Claudius Ptolemy. Therefore, if he was indeed seeking inspiration from a collection of Claudius Ptolemy based maps in hopes that there might be a previous charting of the region, Piri obviously surmised that Ptolemy's erroneous depiction of an enclosed sea might have had merit and been based on a legitimate geographical concept. Consequently it appears that he rescaled the sea laterally substituting South America for Africa as the sea's western shore.

The process in itself is very logical and straightforward. For the most part Piri Reis would draw upon recent maps for his design, but when these maps failed to provide details of new discoveries, Piri would look to older maps for possible enlightenment. If the ancient concept or design seemed reasonably suited, the design was scaled to his map to conform with the contemporary find.

Enter Johannes Schöner a mere two years later...


Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

Schöner's Folly

Just two years after the Piri Reis map was created, Johannes Schöner introduced his 1515 world globe with Agrippa's world map attached. The landmass is set just beyond the tip of South America forming a strait between the two continents. Some have assumed that the incorporation of this strait proves that the Strait of Magellan was discovered five years prior to Magellan's entry into the strait, but upon closer examination it is obvious that this is not true. The strait on Schöner's globe is 350 miles north of Magellan's strait and actually represents an erroneous description of the San Matias Gulf which, though not fully explored, was purported to be a strait with a large southern shore.

The misleading information appeared in a 1508 German tract titled 'Copia der Newen Zeitung auss Presillg Landt', or 'New Tidings out of the Land of Brazil'. The Portuguese sailors responsible for the report had been blown out of the San Matias Gulf by a strong north wind before they were able to realize they were in a truncated waterway, yet in spite of their limited knowledge of the waterway they chose to provide an overly optimistic description of their discovery:

"They have sailed around that point, and ascertained that the country lay, as in the south of Europe, entirely from east to west. It is as if one crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to go east in ranging the coast of Barbary."

Sprinkled with a pinch of optimism and a dollop of exaggeration, the gulf was suddenly transformed into a strait similar to the Strait of Gibraltar, and forming the southern shore of the strait lie a vast coastline similar to the Barbary Coast that extended west beyond the mouth of the waterway, mirroring Gibraltar and the Barbary Coast.

Seven years later Johannes Schöner working out of his Bamberg workshop was tasked with incorporating the alleged strait and its associated large southern shore onto a new globe. In fulfilling this task, there's little doubt Schöner followed a similar process used by Piri Reis. As a cartographer he no doubt researched many recent as well as older maps to piece his globe together. That a lost map like Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum might be at Schöner's disposal is not that unrealistic. In fact just a few years earlier and a mere 100 miles away in a library in Worms, Germany, Conrad Celtes, another German scholar, discovered the only known copy of another early Roman world map which would later come to be known as the Tabula Peutingeriana.

Similar to Piri Reis, I imagine Schöner began researching older maps for portrayals of this alleged strait and, like Conrad Celtes, discovered a copy of an ancient map, in this instance Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum. Now keep in mind that these maps were not always in ideal condition. For example Celtes' map was missing a section portraying the Iberian peninsula. It was reconstructed almost 400 years later and can be discerned from the rest of the map by its white background.

For Schöner to not recognize this mapped land as a Roman world map, it would have had to have been devoid of any Latin inscriptions of familiar toponyms. I believe the map he found had been abandoned in the early stages of construction, still awaiting text which was typically the last detail applied to a map after it was drawn and color added. Below I have provided a facsimile of how it might have appeared at the time Schöner discovered it, partially constructed with linear and concentric guidelines still visible. To the best of his perceptible knowledge, Schöner was gazing upon a map of an unknown land and the only identifying references were a series of concentric circles with a series of lines at 45° intervals traversing the center and one other very important feature, a strait separating this unknown land from a small tip of land. (Upper right corner of the map.)

Facsimile of Schöner's source map

In this scenario the concentric grid used as a guide to draw the map still remained visible because color had not been added to the map which would overlay the guides in much the same way a painter might paint over a sketched outline of his subject. The feature which Schöner identified as a strait was of course the English Channel and the tip of land was the southeastern corner of Britain. This complied very well with the report by the Portuguese sailors who described the northern shore of the strait, allegedly the tip of South America, as a point:

"After they had navigated for nearly sixty leagues [180 miles] to round the Cape, they again sighted the continent on the other side, and steered towards the northwest."

Schöner had located a map which had all the potential of being an ancient charting of the recent find, but the strait in itself would not necessarily be enough to convince him. That grid of concentric circles with crisscrossing lines through their center created a different situation altogether. There was only one place in cartography where you could find such a pattern and that was on a polar projection where the concentric circles represented latitudes, the crisscrossing lines represented longitudes and of course the point where they intersected at the center of the concentric rings represented one of Earth's poles.

A polar projection which exhibits an array of latitudinal and longitudinal
delineations resembling the concentric grid used in the design of Agrippa's
map.

Schöner would now be convinced that he had found what he was looking for, a large continent encircling the South Pole that also depicted a strait at the tip of South America. All that was left to do was scale it to his globe, which was accomplished by simply centering and anchoring the map's concentric rings over the South Pole, and enlarging the map until the English Channel reached the 40th parallel, the location of the alleged strait.

(Click on image to see animation)
Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum affixed to Schöner's 1515 globe by centering the
map's concentric rings over the South Pole, and stretching the English
channel up near the 40th parallel, the location of an alleged strait.

Continued . . .

[Doug Fisher]

Conclusion

Within the context of the early 16th century, it seems apparent that Schöner found himself caught up in the perfect cartographic storm. Just two years prior we have a recorded account of a cartographer referencing ancient maps and scaling their geographic features into new maps and globes to depict recent finds, e.g., Piri Reis 1513 World Map. First century Roman maps like Agripa's Orbis Terrarum, which had existed throughout Europe, disappeared during the medieval period, but at least one copy was discovered in Germany just a few years prior to the arrival of Schoner's 1515 globe, the Peutinger Table, and therefore it is not unreasonable to believe that Schöner might have had access to an unfinished copy of Agrippa's map. And finally, based on Schöner's design Agrippa's map was built around a concentric grid that resembled a polar projection which he as a globe maker would have readily recognized.

All these parts were in place when an errant 1508 report of a strait at the tip of South America with a large southern continent lying beneath inspired Schöner to unwittingly preserve the only copy of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum on the bottom of his 1515 world globe.

Until now the reconstruction below was the only available representation of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum:

Popular reconstruction of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum

It was reverse engineered from the mappae mundi, but plays it relatively safe in its assumptions. It orients the map with east towards the top like the mappae mundi. The mappae mundi maintained this orientation because medieval Christians held Eden, which they believed resided in the east, in high esteem. Ancient Roman maps like the Peutinger Table, however, oriented the map with north to the top similar to the reconstruction based on Schöner's design.

Another curious adjustment concerns the lateral African waterway. The reconstruction acknowledges that the waterway originated on Agrippa's map as it is common to most mappae mundi, but it assumes that the Roman original was far less imposing, whereas Schöner's design suggests that the mappae mundi are far more accurate in their depiction of the waterway spanning most of the continent. The reconstruction also omits completely the lateral mountain range above the waterway, which seems like a rather large oversight as both the Peutinger Table and Ptolemy's map, two ancient Roman maps, incorporated a trans-African range as does Schöner's design.

The new found design also provides for the first time insights into the inspiration for key design aspects on the mappae mundi such as the tribute to Jesus at the top of the map, the transition from a separate commentary requiring locative terminology to commentary overlain onto the mappae mundi no longer requiring spatial references, and the distribution of images from a consolidated arced matrix lying above Africa on Schöner's design to areas throughout the mappae mundi. All three adjustments were based on their Roman counterparts, but reflect necessary adjustments as the makers of the mappae mundi opted for a Christocentric design.

In conclusion, I believe that I have presented a solid logical case for the historic discovery of a long lost 2,000-year-old Roman world map at the bottom of the world, Schöner's world that is. But should some doubts still linger, I offer for one last review two earlier images comparing the landmass to other C-shaped maps, the Greek Hecataeus and medieval Hereford world maps, and ask that you consider the mathematical probability that Schöner would incorporate the precise elements of these maps in their precise order and placement without an ancient world map as his template. I believe such a notion is impossible and with the presentation of a sound argument for the circumstances contributing to Schöner's error, there remains little reason to doubt that because of his grand error we are able to gaze upon Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum for the first time in many centuries.

[Strebe]

This curmudgeon does not find the cartographic resemblance or chain of reasoning convincing. Far too much “This sort of looks like that if you stretch it a whole bunch and twist it around…” Anything looks like anything then. See Charles Hapgood. Not that the conjecture impossible, but I do not agree the case sound, let alone solidly logical.

Regards,
— daan Strebe

[Doug Fisher]

Thanks for the reply daan and I do appreciate your candor.

I agree that Charles Hapgood's methods left a lot to be desired. His evaluation of the Piri Reis map was premised on the unproven belief that Antarctica had been charted in the ancient past. He also unrealistically believed ancient maps could somehow match the standards of accuracy developed on modern maps, with every bump in the coastline linked to an identifiable real world coastal feature. And then suddenly, to support his hypothesis, he would make the extraordinarily contradictory claim that these supposed masters of cartography omitted large chunks of coastline.

My evaluation, however, is based on the fact that copies of Agrippa's Orbis Terrarum did indeed exist and were at one time distributed throughout Europe becoming the model for the medieval mappae mundi. It also maintains a more realistic belief that ancient maps did not maintain the accuracy of modern maps, but retained a basic design and set of elements common to nearly all ancient maps.

There might be portions of my argument that lean toward the extreme, but I am not sure any portion lacks solid logic. Consider this basis for a conditional based on both Chet Van Duzer's and my own recognition of the uniqueness of the lake-truncated waterway:

Based on the design of ancient maps, all ancient C-shaped landforms incorporating a lake-truncated waterway spanning the portion of the 'C' corresponding to Africa are world maps.

This is an entirely true statement which would find Schöner's southern landform being the lone exception. If this were the singular basis of my hypothesis I could see this being somewhat of an issue, but the evidence is compounded with many clear and obvious shared attributes which do not resort to the "This sort of looks like that if you stretch it a whole bunch and twist it around…” sort of logic you are making reference to.

In comparing Schöner's southern landform to other ancient C-shaped world maps:
1) The landlocked waterways arc outward from the center of the 'C',
2) The landlocked waterways visibly flow out from the western lake and are diverted underground in the east.

Thus we have a far more specific and tighter basis for our conditional:

All ancient C-shaped landforms incorporating a lake-truncated waterway spanning the portion of the 'C' corresponding to Africa which arc outward, flow eastward, and are diverted underground in the east are world maps.

Again, we have to ask ourselves is Schöner's southern landform the lone exception to this very complex rule? Personally, I do not see how anyone can overlook the significance of the waterway's very clear subterranean portrayal which is shared only with the mappae mundi and was clearly a Roman concept for the Nile's source waters.

Then again, what of the two lone prominent peninsulas that happen to protrude off the opposite side of the 'C'? In a separate conditional we can state that:

All ancient C-shaped landforms incorporating two prominent peninsulas protruding into the center of the 'C' opposite the side corresponding to Africa are world maps.

Compound this even further with the fact that these peninsulas reside above a cantilevered region resembling Turkey which exhibits a rather accurate portrayal of the Gulf of Izmir where Smyrna, a principal city of Roman Asia, was located, and it becomes a virtual impossibility that Schöner's southern landform could somehow be the sole exception to such a precise observable rule.

I fully understand and respect your opinion, but I think that while your "anything looks like anything" argument aptly applies to Hapgood's analysis, I believe my analysis to be more a "specific geographic features look like specific geographic features," one-to-one argument. It does not require us to overlook extra peninsulas which Schöner could have easily added anywhere internally as part of a freeform design, or purport the existence of peninsulas where they do not clearly exist—a technique used by Hapgood. Nor does it require a complex convoluted explanation for why the waterway flows in the wrong direction or is located on the wrong continent, which could have also easily occurred if this were truly a random design.


All the best,
Doug