Curiously, Johann Zahn is a significant and important figure in a completely different field to cartography. He is known as a pioneer in the invention and use of the camera obscura. He also theorised about the construction of a camera and used a very early version of a camera obscura for lectures on anatomy. He was a canon in a German monastery and a highly talented scholar; apart for his pioneering work in the field of optics, he also wrote works on mathematics, natural history and, for our purposes, most importantly, he also wrote the "Mundus Mirabili" or "Miraculous World", a scholarly work on geographical phenomena, which was illustrated with several engraved maps.



Zahn's map is on two separate sheets showing the eastern and western hemisphere. His source is mostly Nicholas Visscher's map first issued in 1658 and which itself used Joan Blaeu's wall map of 1648 for much of its geography. Zahn's map does differ slightly to Visscher's in its depiction of the Indian sub-continent but bar that exception all of the other geographical features are very similar if not the same. Thus, the map portrays California as an island with its characteristic flat top and North America above California is drawn to hint strongly at the existence of the Northwest Passage. 17th century Dutch discoveries culminating in the voyages of Abel Tasman in Australia and New Zealand are marked and Africa bears its characteristic western bulge. The source of the Nile is shown as two huge lakes in the southern central part of the continent, a theory which was first put forward by Claudius Ptolemy in the classical period in Alexandria and the Far East is based on Blaeu's depiction, which he based on charts from the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century.



Zahn also emulates Dutch aesthetics on his map with an elaborate decorative border on each map. The upper parts shows the signs of the zodiac and each lower corner of both maps shows a female figure personifying a season symbolised by what they are holding; a bare branch for winter, grapes and the wine harvest for autumn, wheat for the summer harvests and flowers for spring.



Although much of what Zahn wrote is fantastical now and many of his books can be deemed as pseudo-science, much of his work was also centuries ahead of its time and the sheer scope of his interests and knowledge made him a true polymath.

[Shirley 584] [WLD3313]