Middle Ages Gallery

Al-Idrisis world map, 1154

Al-Idrisi's world map. This world map, known as the Tabula Rogeriana, dates from 1154, and is orientated with North at bottom. It was drawn by Muhammad Al-Idrisi (1100-1165), an Islamic and Andalusian scholar working for King Roger II of Sicily. It is considered to have been the most accurate world map for the next three centuries. Regions shown include Europe (lower right), the Mediterranean Sea (centre right), North Africa (upper right), the Arabian Peninsula (upper centre), the Black Sea and Caspian Sea (lower centre), and parts of Asia (left). This is a restoration and transliteration carried out in 1927 by the German scholar Konrad Miller (1844-1933)

© LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, GEOGRAPHY AND MAP DIVISION/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Oronce Fines world map, 1531

Oronce Fine's world map. Map of the world's northern and southern hemispheres by the French mathematician and cartographer Oronce Fine (1494-1555). Published in 1531 as A New and Complete Description of the World, this is a double polar cordiform (heart-shaped) projection. It shows an unknown southern continent, Terra Australis, and excludes most of the Americas. The text box names the publisher (Hermannus Venraed), gives Fine's Latin name (Orontius Fineus), and mentions the Ancient Greek geographers (Ptolemy, Eudoxus, and Erastothenes), whose accounts Fine had tried to reconcile with the new discoveries being made

© LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, GEOGRAPHY AND MAP DIVISION/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

1551 Gesner armoured rhino after Durer

Gesner Woodcut "Icones Animalium" 1560, reproduced from 1551. Published Christoph Froschover, Zurich. Gesner reproduces this image faithfully from the famous 1515 woodcut by Durer, (who himself had only sketches to go on). The particular individual featured here was the gift of a Sultan, taken from India in January 1515 and arriving in Lisbon in May. People were astounded to see this animal - hitherto the only existing reports were in the accounts of the ancients such as Pliny. None had been seen in Europe for over 1000 years. Confirming Pliny's account was a vital validation of the texts from antiquity for renaissance scholars. The king of Portugal sent the rhino on to the Pope but it drowned, chained to the deck, in a shipwreck off Italy - hence the rather fanciful drawing of Durer and Gesner who never actually saw it. This image remained an icon for for centuries

© PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY