De Virga World Map - Structure

Structure

The map is circular with a diameter of 410mm. It is drawn on a piece of parchment 696x440 mm which also includes a calendar and two tables. One table was for calculating lunar changes, the other the date of Easter.

The map is oriented to the North, with a wind rose centered in Central Asia, possibly the observatory of Ulugh Begh in the Mongol city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, or the western shore of the Caspian sea. The wind rose divides the map into eight sectors.

The map is colored: the seas are left white, although the Red Sea is colored in red. Continental land is colored in yellow, and several colors are used for islands. The mountains are in brown, the lakes are in blue, and rivers are in brown.

The extension shows a calendar with depictions of the signs of the zodiac and a table to calculate lunar positions.

The map is generally consistent with the Fra Mauro map (1457), also drawn before the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, and today visible in Venice.

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