From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Carta Marina (Latin: map of the sea) is the earliest map of the Nordic countries that gives details and placenames. In production for 12 years, the first copies were printed in 1539 in Venice. The map was printed from nine 55x40 cm woodcut blocks to produce a document that is 1.70 m tall by 1.25 m wide.

The Carta Marina, drawn by Olaus Magnus

The map was created in Rome by the Swede Olaus Magnus (1490–1557), who arrived on a diplomatic visit for the Swedish government and stayed on, likely because his brother Johannes Magnus became involved in a religious feud with King Gustav I of Sweden.

All of the map's copies passed out of public knowledge after 1574, and the map was largely forgotten – perhaps because only a few copies were printed and because Pope Paul III asserted a 10-year "copyright." It was later widely questioned whether the map had ever existed.

In 1886, Oscar Brenner found a copy at the Hof- und Staatsbibliothek^[1] in Munich, Germany, where it currently resides. In 1961, another copy was found in Switzerland, brought to Sweden the following year by the Uppsala University Library; as of 2007 is stored at Carolina Rediviva.

The notes on the map in Latin were translated by Olaus into Italian and German. It is generally considered that the "A description of the Northern peoples" (Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, Rome, 1555) is a much larger commentary on the map.

Only two earlier maps of Scandinavia (or Schondia) are known, those of Ziegler and Clavus.

1. ^ Current Location[1]

1. (Swedish)"Geografiens och de geografiska upptäckternas historia / Geography and The Geographical Voyager's history" (1899)
2. "Carta marina et descriptio : the commentary by Olaus Magnus to Map of the Scandinavian countries 1539", Provisional ed. (1988)

• "Carta Marina"- Antoine Lafréry's (1512 - 1577) edition from 1572, digitalized by the Royal Library in Stockholm
• "University of Minnesota Carta Marina" - the original or Pope Paul III (1468–1549) map from 1539, in jpeg images. The site contains more information on early printing process.