Oronce Fine's 1531 world map, folded onto a globe

What it is. Nova, et integra universi orbis descriptio, a world map by Oronce Fine, dated 1531. It is drawn as two hearts, one for each hemisphere. A large southern land labelled Terra Australis lies at the bottom.

The globe is not a redraw. Each point on it is a pixel of the real woodcut scan. We used the map's own printed latitude rings, 10 degrees apart, to place every pixel. Fine's printed Antarctic Circle falls on the 66.5 S ring of the globe.

Is it Antarctica?

This is debated. In 1966 Charles Hapgood argued that the southern land matches the coast of Antarctica without its ice, and that Fine copied it from older maps. Others point out that a large southern land was an old idea, a balance for the northern lands. Antarctica was first seen in 1820. Neither side has settled it.

The coast trace shows today's Antarctic coast at true scale. Hapgood argued that Fine's continent is drawn too large. Compare the two yourself.

Our choices

The one setting not printed on the map is the longitude offset. We put Fine's Strait of Magellan on the real strait. Fine's Old World follows Ptolemy and fits no single offset, so make no claim from its longitudes. A thin smeared strip shows where each heart's edges meet.