The 1587 map that shouldn't exist

0:00 The map that should not exist 1:09 The scholar behind the map 3:46 Building a rotating world 4:53 The projection seen from space 7:16 The Terra Australis mystery 10:01 Monsters, empires, and meaning 11:36 Reconstructing the lost planisphere 17:58 What remains unknown I explore the extraordinary planisphere created by Urbano Monte in 1587, a rotating map assembled from sixty hand-drawn sheets. I look at how a scholar in Milan built such an ambitious work without voyages, aircraft, satellites, or modern instruments. I examine Monte’s sources, the map’s azimuthal equidistant projection, its detailed depiction of Japan and the Americas, and the Terra Australis drawn at its outer edge. I also look at the monsters, political imagery, and geographic ideas embedded throughout the map. Finally, I follow the reconstruction of the planisphere by the David Rumsey Map Collection and consider the competing explanations for its most difficult details. Where did the knowledge behind Monte’s coastlines come from—and what can this remarkable map still tell us about the unknown?