The Fries map of South Asia

WÄLDSEEMÜLLER, Martin.

Indiæ Tabula Moderna.
Vienne, Gaspar Trechsel, 1541. Woodcut, printed area 320 x 440mm.

Southern Asia, with Eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. Of interest is the transferral of Taprobana to the coast of the Malay Peninsula, and the appearance of Indo-China as a tiny peninsula marked 'fulicandora'. Over India is a depiction of 'suttee', Hindu widow-burning; however Fries has added a horned devil to add to the titillation.

This is the last issue of Fries' reduction of Wäldseemüller's map of 1513, prepared not for a Ptolemy edition but for a new 'Chronica mundi' being written by Wäldseemüller. His death c.1520 caused the project to be shelved, so the woodcuts were used to publish a smaller sized and so cheaper edition of the 'Geography'.

TIBBETTS: Arabia in Early Maps, 17.
Stock ID : 17910