In 1507 Martin Waldseemuller created a remarkable Early Modern world map loaded with religious symbols. The cartographer depicted the papal keys, which according to the map's companion text, the Cosmographiae Introductio, "enclosed almost the whole of Europe for the Western Church." However, beyond the boundaries of Europe's Christendom, the map pictured Nestorian churches in China and the legendary Christian ruler Prester John in India. His subsequent Carta marina (1516) amplified the descriptions of these religious traditions. Waldseemuller's maps, like almost every other world map of the...
In 1507 Martin Waldseemuller created a remarkable Early Modern world map loaded with religious symbols. The cartographer depicted the papal keys, whic...