1511 Bernard Sylvanus / Ptolemy East Asia

This is a rare example of Bernard Sylvanus' 1511 Ptolemaic map of the eastern reaches of the Silk Road. Printed in a single edition, it is one of the most visually distinctive early woodcut maps to detail parts of modern-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, the northeastern part of Mongolia, and the Xinjiang province of China. For Ancient Romans, this was the most remote part of the known world: Serica, named after the precious silk understood to originate there.

A Closer Look

The map is drawn on Ptolemy's trapezoidal projection, from 35° N to 63° N. The western boundary of the map is the Imaum mountains, a range that includes the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush. To the northeast are the Annibi Mountains, known today as the Altai Mountains. The central region, Issedon, is the Tarim Basin. In the southeastern corner of the map, a heavily populated region surrounds the Bautifus River, likely the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Ptolemy's information for Asia beyond the Euphrates River was a synthesis of several centuries of reports, mainly derived from journeys reaching the trade posts of the Tarim Basin, with additional verbal descriptions of the lands beyond travelers' direct experience.

The Eastern Leg of the Silk Road

The western limit of this map is dominated by the Imaum Mountains. At about 43° N, this massive obstruction was passable: at this point was noted a town inhabited by ' those who set out from Sera' - Sera being the chief metropolis of Serica, the eastern terminus of the Silk Route. Sera Metropolis appears further to the southeast, near a tributary of the Bautifus (Yellow) River. Roughly between these two points, the trade posts of Issedon Scythica and Issedon Serica appear, both believed to have been located in the Tarim Basin in the modern Xinjiang province. In Ptolemy's era, the region would have been a recent conquest of Han China.

An Innovative Production

This map is a woodcut printed on two sheets, each from two blocks. Sylvanus' maps are unique in that they were systematically printed in two colors, with the topography and some of the place names printed in black and additional toponymy and the cardinal directions printed in red. Although this method did not catch on among other mapmakers, it represents a milestone as one of the earliest maps printed in multiple colors. Moreover, the land masses on Sylvanus' maps display an unusual level of artistry, boldly evoking Ptolemy's imagined mountains and the many rivers snaking through them. Maps of this edition stand apart from the scantly decorated, earlier printed Ptolemies.

Publication History and Census

This map is among the rarest of its kind. It was cut by Jacopo Pencio (fl. 1486 - 1530) and represents the formschneider's sole known cartographic work. It was prepared for Sylvanus' Ptolemy, printed in a single edition in 1511. We see three separate examples listed in OCLC. Fourteen examples of the complete book are listed in institutional collections.