1628 Angelocrator Dual Octant Projection World Map: a Unique Work

This rare, dual world map, projected in octants by Daniel Angelocrator in 1628, is among the most unique and distinctive 17th century depictions of the world.

A Closer Look

Angelocrator, in the title, cites Nicolas Geelkercken as the source for the map's topography. However, he took credit for the projection itself (despite its possible composition by Leonardo da Vinci and a mid-16th-century iteration by Oronce Fine.) Angelocrator seems to have sourced (or devised) this model because it avoided the distortion at the poles caused by the Mercator Projection. The four sheets presented here utilize the octant projection to present the world in two different ways. One pair, joined, presents the Western and Eastern Hemispheres in a manner similar to a double-hemisphere map. The other pair organizes the octants in polar projections. Angelocrator thus demonstrated that the octants could be reorganized, without substantial change, to show the world in equatorial or polar orientations without altering the projection - possibly an argument in their superiority over the Mercator projection, but also a keen illustration of the sphericality of the globe.

The World in Outline

As Shirley notes, the map here includes little geographical detail: the continents are shown in outline, with few rivers and very few place names on the main map, and virtually none on the polar projections. This focus on the general outlines of the world's landmasses is consistent with Angelocrator's apparent object of simply illustrating his novel projection. Angelocrator included these maps, not in a geographical work, but in his Doctrina de Ponderibus, Monetis et Mensuris per Totum Terrarum Orbem Usitatis, a book discussing international weights and measures, coinage. They appeared explicitly in the context of his discussion of comparative measures of distance and the historical measures of the size of the globe (Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, Plato, and others.)

Standard World Map of the Early 17th Century

The outline is partially derived from Geelkercken's 1617 map. Similar to that work, the North Atlantic includes Iceland and the phantom island of Frisland. The Southern Continent joins with New Guinea. Although the Geelkercken has Tierra del Fuego connecting to Antarctica, Angelocrator has separated these landmasses. Japan and Insular Korea also reflect their mapping on the 1617 source map. North America shows a peninsular California - although the Briggs and the Speed maps had been published by the time this map was printed, Angelocrator's model pre-dates the propagation of the California-as-an-island myth.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved for inclusion in the 1628 second edition of Daniel Angelocrator's Doctrina de Ponderibus, Monetis et Mensuris per Totum Terrarum Orbem Usitatis. We see only two examples of this map in institutional collections, both lacking the polar projections. The 1628 edition of the book is reasonably well represented in OCLC.