Europe and Queen were two pretty awful soft metal bands from the Eighties, but fortunately, neither has anything to do with this anthropomorphic map of Europe as a queen.
The map was made in 1570 in Basel (Switzerland) by cartographer Sebastian Munster and is/was to be had for a mere US$ 1.400 right here, one of many rather excellent maps and map-related prints on sale at www.raremaps.com (not affiliated with this humble blog).
In their description of this map, the sellers add: “During the late 16th century, a few map makers created these now highly prized map images, wherein countries and continents were given human or animal forms. Among the earliest examples is this map of Europa by Munster, which appeared in Munster’s Cosmography.”
It’s unclear if the correspondence between these nations and body parts is indicative of some kind of hierarchy among European states. Anyways, here’s an overview:
HISPANIA (Spain) constitutes the head of Europe;
GALLIA (France) is the upper chest;
GERMANIA is the bosom;
ITALIA is Europe’s right arm, with SICILIA being the globus cruciger, the cross-bearing orb signifying wordly power throughout the Middle Ages;
DANIA (Denmark) is the left arm of Europe, holding what appears to be a ceremonial sword, another classic piece of regalia;
BOHEMIA (the Czech lands) is a circular area close to Europe’s stomach;
VNGARIA (Hungary) and SCLAVONIA (land of the southern Slavs) are the right thigh and and VANDALIA (probably a reference to the Wends, a collective name for Slavic peoples in present-day eastern Germany) and POLONIA form the left thigh of Europe;
LITHVANIA must be about the spot of Europe’s left knee;
LIVONIA, MACEDONIA , BVLGARIA, MOSCOVIA, MOREA (the mediaeval name for the Peloponnese peninsula), GRAECIA, SCYTHIA (present-day Bulgaria), TARTARIA (parts of present-day Russia) are folds ever further down Europe’s flowing red dress.
She’s got her eye on Africa…..
What a beautiful map.
Comment by Anita — July 7, 2007 @
I love this website, but I must protest the comment about the band Queen, on three accounts. Queen was neither soft rock, nor pretty awful, and it bore no resemblance to the band Europe. Pithy opening remarks are nice, but please, don’t sully the name of a great band! Europe deserves the criticism, but you do your readers a disservice by putting Queen in the same category.
Comment by Paulski — July 7, 2007 @
What Paulski said :)
Comment by Jurie — July 7, 2007 @
The correspondance between nations and the queen’s body parts is a pretty simple one - rotate the map ninety degrees counter-clockwise and you get a rough real-world map of Europe.
Comment by dan — July 7, 2007 @
@Paulski:
(and other Queen fans) No offence intended. I realise Queen is in a different, higher league than Europe - but I still don’t like the music…
Comment by strangemaps — July 7, 2007 @
This man was not an Anglophile.
Comment by Yuval — July 8, 2007 @
Fair enough, strangemaps.
Yuval, you make a good point. It should have been easy to think of some way to give Britain and Ireland more prominant roles in the picture. They could at least have been given color or texture, like the other landmasses. Perhaps the islands could have been turned into a flag, or banner?
Comment by Paulski — July 9, 2007 @
The headline: “Das ander Buch” - “The second (or: the other) Book”.
The small caption on the left seems to read: “Europa wie fruchtbar es seye” - “Europe, how fertile it is (said to be)”
the bigger caption continues from the preceeding page: “…zweyen General Tafeln / und in der newen Tafel, die allein Europam begreift. Doch wenn mann ansehen will und dazurechen die großen Landschafften, die gegen Mittnacht gehn / solt wohl die Breite Europae übertreffen die Länge. Wie aber Ptolemäus Europam beschrieben hat /ist seine Länge größer dann die breite. Das ist einmal gewiß / daß Europa ist ein trefflich fruchtbar und wol erbauen…”
A rough attempt at translation: “… two comprehensive figures/ and the next figure showing only Europe. But if one considers the vast lands lying in the direction of midnight (i.e. north)/ Europe would be more in width (expansion south-north) than length (or height, referring to the Queen; expansion east-west). But as Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemäus) depicted it (and as ist is shown on the map) / its length ist greater than its witdh. One thing at laest is certain / that europe is an exceedingly fertile and well-built…”
Comment by Leif Czerny — July 9, 2007 @
“Vandalia” stands for the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe which entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century.
Comment by Alexandre Goncalves — July 9, 2007 @
Re Paulski’s comments:
> It should have been easy to think of some way to give Britain and Ireland more prominant roles in the picture…Perhaps the islands could have been turned into a flag, or banner?
Take another look — I think that that is Munster’s intention. They are depicted as a streamer flying off the sceptre. I’ve got another variant of Munster’s map which makes this more obvious:
http://webcentre.co.nz/kk/maps.htm#vult
And why give England a prominent place? After all, it was described by one of the mappa mundi commentators as “beclipped all about by the sea, and departed from the roundness of the world”.
Comment by katherine kerr — July 10, 2007 @
I wonder if this is some kind of Catholic reference. Could the woman represent the Virgin Mary? Note that in 1570, Spain (the “crown” here) was the leading champion of Catholicism in Europe’s religious wars, while England and Scotland were ruled by Protestant monarchs (which could explain their unflattering depiction).
Comment by jm — July 11, 2007 @
Re jm’s comment:
Although your interpretation is an interesting speculation I doubt that it is correct as Münster was protestant.
Comment by Thony C. — July 11, 2007 @
[...] | strangemaps postato da Giovanni De Stefano il mercoledì 11 luglio 2007 [...]
Pingback by L'Europa del 1570 secondo Sebastian Muster — July 11, 2007 @
España a la cabeza de Europa (mapa)
Curioso mapa realizado en 1570 por el cartógrafo Sebastian Munster que muestra a Europa en forma de reina. Al parecer en el siglo XVI estuvieron de moda los mapas en que se daba a países o continentes formas humanas o animales. En este, uno de los ej…
Trackback by meneame.net — July 11, 2007 @
Lithvania - Lithuania
Comment by as — July 14, 2007 @
You posted the “Lion of Brabant” yet? Same idea with the Netherlands…
Comment by Lurker — July 15, 2007 @
Correction, that should’ve been “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Belgicus”
Comment by Lurker — July 15, 2007 @
Never mind the aesthetic argument over whether Queen is in the same league as Europe, you could at least get your facts straight.
Queen formed in 1970, released their first album in 1973 and their biggest hit, Bohemian Rhapsody, was released in 1975.
The fact that they were still going strong through the 1980s hardly makes them a band “from the Eighties”.
Other than that, great site. I was led here from Neatorama. These maps are exquisite.
Comment by Yak Boy — July 20, 2007 @
Does anyone know why “Morea” is separated from the rest of Greece?
Comment by AllenStibble — August 3, 2007 @
yeah, morea’s separated because it represents the peloponnesian peninsula, which is kinda separated from greece. go look at a map, you’ll get it.
Comment by mmhmm — August 4, 2007 @
This reminds me of Fernando Pessoa’s poem “O dos castelos” ( http://homepage.mac.com/mikeharland/dtup/litbits/mensagem/mens_111.html ) from the collection “Mensagem”, which describes Europe as a woman.
Comment by csant — August 8, 2007 @
And Macedonia is Macedonia. On the map stands for ancient kingdom of Macedonians spread on the territory of present-day Republic of Macedonia, part of which is on the territory of present-day Greece and part is in Bulgaria.
See for yourself on a standard geographical or political map of Europe.
Have to see that kind of maps some time :)
Comment by Bi — August 12, 2007 @
[...] on a street-level scale. Some other examples discussed in earlier posts include Europe As A Queen (#141), Asia As A Horse (#165) and Scotland as a gallant piper [...]
Pingback by 278 - Ice Coffee Town, the Netherlands « Strange Maps — May 26, 2008 @
… I can’t see Romania on this map. Romania is part of Europe too, why doesn’t it figure on this map?
Comment by uviolet — June 6, 2008 @
The key point for this map (and later maps like it) is to demonstrate the Habsburg interests in Europe. The head was Spain, where one branch of the Habsburg dynasty ruled. The heart was Bohemia, a kingdom heredically possessed by the Habsburgs, and where the Holy Roman Emperor had his court.
Comment by Leigh — August 5, 2008 @