This page explains the study of Urbano Monte’s 1587 planisphere published on Fire of Life. The work is an independent reading of the writing on the sixty manuscript sheets of the Stanford/David Rumsey copy (G1015.M6 1587 F). It is not a critical edition and does not claim to replace the existing scholarship.
The map
Urbano Monte (1544–1613) assembled a large circular world map, or planisphere, in Milan. The 1587 working copy held by the David Rumsey Map Collection consists of sixty sheets that form a disk approximately five braccia square, designed to turn so that the writing can be read from every side. The sheets carry geographical names, notes, and longer passages of text.
An interactive map of the assembled disk and the individual sheets is available here: Open the interactive map. Sheet images and the high-resolution downloads remain those of the David Rumsey Map Collection; the credit link points there. Close zoom and the on-screen detail downloads use local copies hosted on this site.
Part one
Part one covers the overall structure of the disk, the assembly of the sixty sheets, and a first reading of the principal notes and labels. It introduces the main cartographic features, the portrait and date cartouche on Tavola 42, and the system of corner numbers and sheet designations used on the 1587 copy. The readings follow the order of the sheets and keep the original distinctions among head notes, side notes, text, foot notes, and remarks.
Part two
Part two continues the sheet-by-sheet reading, focusing on longer passages, place-name clusters, and the relationship between the writing on the sheets and the broader geographical knowledge available in Milan in the 1580s. It includes attention to the Tenshō embassy’s visit and the printed Descrittione e sito del Giapone (1589) as context for the Japanese material, without importing text from later manuscript witnesses.
Part three (coming soon)
Part three will treat remaining sheets, difficult or damaged passages, and a comparative note on the other known witnesses of the Trattato universale (the 1590 Venegono fair copy and the Ambrosiana revision of about 1603–1604). Those later copies are not used to supply missing text on the 1587 sheets. The section is not yet published.
Sources and limits
The primary source is the 1587 Stanford/Rumsey manuscript itself. Key published studies consulted include those by Almagià, D’Ascenzo, and Van Duzer. The readings here are independent and may contain errors. Damaged or uncertain passages are marked. The goal is a clear, complete online reading of the writing on this particular copy, not a new critical edition of Monte’s treatise.
Corrections and additional references are welcome. This page and the linked readings will be updated as further parts are completed.