Johannes Ruysch is one of the most talked about medieval map makers of the world. He has contributed immensely in the sphere of map making.
Johannes was born around the year 1460 in Utrecht, which is now located in Netherlands. He died in the year 1533 at the St. Martin monastery. His name is alternatively spelled as Giovanni Ruisch or Johann Ruijsch. This person’s claim to fame was a map that depicts the entire world. This map is the second oldest known printed map of the New World. This map by Johannes Ruisch was published as well as distributed in the year 1507.
This world map by Johannes makes use of Ptolemy’s first projection. It incorporates the information derived from the discoveries made by John Cabot and Christopher Columbus. The map also includes data from the travel accounts of Marco Polo and some important Portuguese sources.
In this map, Cuba and Newfoundland are shown to be linked with Asia. Marco Polo’s Japan, that is, Sipganus is synonymous with Spagnola in this world map. In this map, Greenland is shown to be joined with Asia and Newfoundland and not with Europe unlike the maps that had been created before. The Portuguese discoveries along the coast of Africa were incorporated in this map.
