Castiglioni World Map

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he Castiglioni World Map is a large nautical map dated 1525, drawn on four sheets of vellum joined together to make up a single 815x2140 mm sheet, originally titled Carta del navegare universalissima et diligentissima: ‘the most universal and accurate navigational map’ - the first adjective indicating the description of the whole then-known world, and the second, the particular technical care employed by the cartographer. The map, crossed by lines defining nautical routes and forming rhombic patterns, is considered to be of great historical and cartographic interest in that it gives visual and documentary support to the theories of the curvature of the Earth. It has been attributed to Diego Ribeiro, head cartographer (‘piloto maior’) of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville - the government office of the Spanish royal family authorised to compile innovations in official nautical maps deriving from geographic discoveries. The Castiglioni World Map displays the world immediately after the discoveries made by Magellan and Pigafetta, during their circumnavigation of the globe, and from the explorations of the North American coast by Estevan Gomez.

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