Typus universalis terrae, juxta modernorum distinctionem et extensionem per regna et provincias

Gregor Reisch was a German humanist scholar and Carthusian monk who taught at the University of Freiburg from 1502 until his death in 1525. His students included Martin Waldseemüller and Sebastian Münster, both central figures in early sixteenth-century printed cartography and represented in the collection (61, 63, 5, 91, 119, and 232). Reisch’s Margarita philosophica, first published in 1503, was an encyclopaedic textbook organised around the liberal arts and philosophy: the trivium of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric; the quadrivium of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy; natural philosophy; and moral philosophy. Geography therefore appeared within a wider educational programme, as part of the ordered study of the world.

This “modern” world map was introduced into the 1513 edition associated with the Strasbourg printer Johann Grüninger. It presents the world according to modern divisions by kingdoms and provinces. Parts of both North and South America are shown at the far left, with the southern landmass labelled Paria seu Prisilia, but without a separating strait. Africa, Europe, Asia, India, Calicut, Cananor, Taprobana, Java, and Zipangri appear within a broad Old World framework that combines classical, medieval, and early modern geographical information.

One of the map’s most distinctive features is the use of straight lines to divide countries and regions, especially across Europe and Asia. These boundaries are not intended to follow coastlines, rivers, mountains, or other natural features with precision. Instead, they organise the world into clear political and territorial compartments, many of them identified by letters keyed to the explanatory list below the map. This reflects the map’s educational purpose within the Margarita philosophica: geography is presented as ordered knowledge that could be read, memorised, and fitted into a wider programme of learning.