1511 Bernard Sylvanus / Ptolemy Southeast Asia

This is a rare example of Bernard Sylvanus' 1511 Ptolemaic map of Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula. Printed in a single edition, it is one of the most visually distinctive early woodcut maps of the Far East, an area known to ancient geographers as 'India Extra Gangem' or 'India Beyond the Ganges'. By Ptolemy's reckoning, this map depicted the easternmost extreme of the Indian Ocean. This part of the world would soon be revealed to contain the East Indies and the Spice Islands.

A Closer Look

The map thus embraces Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam, reaching from the tip of the Malay Peninsula to the Himalayas in the north. The Ganges River is clearly shown and named and forms the western limit of most of the detail. The regions of Aurea Chersonensis (the Malay Peninsula, possibly inclusive of Sumatra) and Aurea regio (Burma, generally) speak to the allure the region held to European armchair explorers (Aurea = Golden). The map portrays two major bodies of water, both with an array of named islands: the Indian Ocean (Indicum Pelagus) and the Sinus Magnus (the Great Bay). To the south, both of these give way to the Prassodes Mare, a sea given its name from the southernmost point of the African east coast in Ptolemy's geography. Beyond the Sinus Magnus to the east is another coastline: This, according to Ptolemy's geography, was contiguous with both China and Africa.

Cartographic Context

Ptolemy considered the Indian Ocean to be an inland sea, with the southern part of Africa continuing eastward to meet China beyond the Malay Peninsula. The Sinus Magnus was the body of water enclosed by the Malay Peninsula and the landmass encircling the whole of the Indian Ocean. Contemporaries of Sylvanus knew by this time that such a 'land bridge' between Africa and China did not exist - although some early mapmakers speculated that the eastern shore of the Sinus Magnus might actually have been the newly-discovered American Pacific coastline. The city of Cattigara, appearing in the extreme southeast of the present map, would be found on the South American coastline on the Münster America and the Oronce Fine 1540 world map.

An Innovative Production

This map is a woodcut, printed on two sheets. Sylvanus' maps are unique in that they have been 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. While the earlier printed Ptolemies were scantly decorated, Sylvanus' maps were embellished with elegant decorative work. Flanking the map's top-center title cartouche is a pair of well-engraved, glowering tigers.

Publication History and Census

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