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\nThe first map of Japan, based on the hearsay account of Marco Polo. Let’s be clear: Marco Polo has never been in Japan either. It’s existence was doubted by many cartographers until it was rediscovered by the Europeans when first Portuguese ships arrived in 1543.<\/p>\n
Born in Padua, Bordone trained as an \u201cilluminator and wood-engraver, working in Venice where, in 1508, he was given permission by the Senate to print maps of Italy and the world. No copies of these maps seem to have survived and he is known, therefore, only for his Isolario, printed in Venice in 1528.<\/p>\n
Although issued as an \u2018Island Book\u2019 it gave prominence to discoveries in the New World and contained three full-size woodcut maps: the World, on an oval projection probably devised by the Florentine engraver, Francesco Rosselli, a map of Europe as a whole, and one of Greece and the North-Eastern Mediterranean. The remainder, about 80 woodcuts, are small maps or \u2018charts’ set in the text of the book\u00a0 (Moreland & Bannister).<\/p>\n
The verso side contains a map of Java, then called Iava Maggiore, as it was incorrectly believed to be larger than iava minore, or Sumatra.<\/p>\n\n
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Very rare: oldest map of Japan, and … based on Polo’s description<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7137,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_cat":[133],"product_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n