National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

year 1459, where Ptolemy is easily discernible and where the name of Tibet ap-
pears. Even when new journeys of exploration proved the Alexandrian geographer
to be in the wrong, one felt reluctant to reject him. A giant stride in the right
direction is marked by Jacopo Gastaldi's epoch-making map of India from the year
1561. It is only in the hydrography of the Ganges and the Indus that Ptolemy can
be traced, but for the rest he has completely disappeared. Gastaldi is not satisfied
with the classical names of the Himalayas, he speaks instead of Monte Dalangver,
M. Naugracot and M. Ussonte. Of Tibet he has nothing to tell, but of the regions
surrounding it he gives so ingenious a representation, that one almost has a fore-
boding that the unknown land will soon appear of its own accord.
The world map of Gerard Mercator from the year 1569 is the most important
one from the 16th century, constituting the foundation of cartography for many
years to come. He finds it difficult to renounce his faith in Ptolemy, and does all
that is possible to make the new discoveries harmonize with the time-honoured map
of the old Alexandrian. Thus he is induced to shape the preposterous representation
of the course of the Ganges, which he draws out as far as to the sea, East of the
peninsula of Farther India. Mercator believes the Taprobana insula of Ptolemy to
be Sumatra and consequently makes out the Hsi-chiang to be the lower course of
the Ganges. A similar mistake was committed 260 years later by Klaproth, when
he led the Tsangpo to the Irrawaddi and not to the Brahmaputra.
Ortelius and Hondius, together with other geographers, followed in this respect
the unfortunate lead of Mercator. The orography of Ortelius is an inheritance from
Gastaldi, but his hydrography is derived from Mercator. Therefore the Indus is,
also according to Ortelius, of the Ptolemeyan type. The representation of our region
by Ortelius, as compared to the description made by Gastaldi, marks a great stride
backwards. Thus he has hit upon the monstrous idea of removing Thebet to the
shores of the Mekong.
In the map of Ludouicus Georgius of 1584, the Ganges of Mercator is at last
abandoned. But it is first after the middle of the 17th century that real improve-
ments can be traced, though only affecting the countries round the inaccessible
Tibet. Even this name is still missing on some maps, which proves that the jour-
neys of Odoric and Andrade had exercised no influence on them. Only Kircher
remembers them on his fantastic, but very remarkable map. Grueber and Dorville
could not be ignorant in the same manner as their predecessors.
In the year of 1611, Hondius has nothing new to give, beyond what was
already produced by Mercator and Ortelius. Like the latter, he has drawn the Indus
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