Globe, Southern Hemisphere - Johan Schöner (1515)

Beautiful map of the southern hemisphere by Johan Schöner. There are four globes by Schöner that are known. They were made in 1515, 1520, 1523 and 1533. So here is the first of his globes reproduced. The print shows the southern hemisphere laid out in flat form.

The southern hemisphere is interesting as it was the part of the world least explored by European cartographers during the period. This means that the southern hemisphere is more of a fantasy image of what the world could look like down south. Admittedly, Aphrica, India and South America are found, but without particularly great precision. There are also wonderful illustrations of elephants, mermaids and other exotic things that could conceivably live down south.

The paper used is so-called surveying paper, handmade from Lessebo. A type of paper originally intended for land surveying documents, and therefore produced in a larger format than usual. What identifies a surveying paper is that in each corner there is a special wire mark of a right-angled triangle/protractor. The paper is of very high quality, has a fantastic surface structure and is of course archive-resistant. Below the map is Lessebo's watermark and in the lower right corner is the year and place of printing indicated. Tecknargården 1970.

Independent text with historical background included on a separate sheet (in Swedish).