16th century world map made by Pierre Desceliers in 1546 on a commission by King Francis I for Henri II of France. Most noticeable is that the Norther

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16th century world map made by Pierre Desceliers in 1546 on a commission by King Francis I for Henri II of France. Most noticeable is that the Northern hemisphere is upside-down. The distorted nature of much of the world excluding Europe is due to the lack of accurate mapping. A large continent at bottom, Terra Australis, represents the unknown areas, which were later found to be Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica.

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Size: 4657px × 2461px
Photo credit: © SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1546, 16th, 2nd, age, ancient, artwork, cartography, century, commission, compendiosa, continent, continents, dauphin, desceliers, descriptio, discovery, distorted, distortion, earth, exploration, exploring, france, francis, geographical, geography, globe, henri, historical, history, ii, illustrated, king, map, mapping, maps, pierre, science, sciences, sixteenth, world