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[Page 15]
This remarkable Monument is not a Map drawn with a Pen, but a round Plate of about two feet in diameter, on which is represented, by means of colord Enamel, the Hemisphere of the Earth, as far as it was then known, in the form of a circular plane. The Countries & places are markd with their Names, without the addition of the boundaries to the former, there are represented on it the Mountains Rivers, People & all sort of remarkable things, such as Animals, Battles, Caravans, Slave Markets, Camps of Nomadic Nations etc explaind by inscriptions in Latin, but in German handwriting. This interesting Monument which at the same time exhibits not a common degree of art, can scarcely have been executed for the use of a private individual. Though it is without a date its antiquity can so far be stated with certainty that it was made in the first half of the 15th Century. Among the events recorded the most modern is the Victory of Timur over Bajazet 1402; but there is no mention made of the Siege of Constantinople, not the least trace of the Portuguese discoveries. Of all the known Maps of the World only that of Marino Sanudo at the beginning of the 14th Century is older; that of Andreas Bianco (1436 publishd by Formaleoni is nearly cotemporary with ours. The original source which its Author has drawn his information cannot be tracd. Ptolomy is certainly not taken for the basis; more probably the Arabic writers have been usd - especially with respect to Africa: of those names that occur in Marco Polo & other Asiatic travellers, only some few are mentiond. The circumference of Europe is far greater than that of Africa & at least