Editing Terra Australis (section)

====16th century====
{{See also|Iberian cartography, 1400–1600|l1=Early modern Iberian cartography|Early modern Netherlandish cartography|l2=Early modern Netherlandish cartography and geography|Gerardus Mercator|Abraham Ortelius|Theatrum Orbis Terrarum}}
[[Image:Map-533.jpg|thumb|left|''Terre Australle'' by Jacques de Vaux, 1583]]
[[File:Putting Australia on the Map.ogv|thumb|left|Discussion of various names used for Australia over time]]
Explorers of the [[Age of Discovery]], from the late 15th century on, proved that Africa was almost entirely surrounded by sea, and that the Indian Ocean was accessible from both west and east.  These discoveries reduced the area where the continent could be found; however, many cartographers held to Aristotle's opinion. Scientists such as [[Gerardus Mercator]] (1569)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zuber|first=Mike A.|date=2011|title=The Armchair Discovery of the Unknown Southern Continent: Gerardus Mercator, Philosophical Pretensions and a Competitive Trade|url=https://www.academia.edu/1910165|journal=Early Science and Medicine|volume=16|issue=6|pages=505–541|doi=10.1163/157338211X607772}}</ref> and [[Alexander Dalrymple]] as late as 1767<ref name=Wilford /> argued for its existence, with such arguments as that there should be a large [[landmass]] in the [[Southern Hemisphere|south]] as a [[counterweight]] to the known landmasses in the Northern Hemisphere. As new lands were discovered, they were often assumed to be parts of the hypothetical continent.<ref>Carlos Pedro Vairo, TERRA AUSTRALIS Historical Charts of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica. Ed. Zagier & Urruty Publicationa, 2010.</ref>

The German cosmographer and mathematician [[Johannes Schöner]] (1477–1547) constructed a terrestrial globe in 1515, based on the world map and globe made by [[Martin Waldseemüller]] and his colleagues at St. Dié in Lorraine in 1507. Where Schöner departs most conspicuously from Waldseemüller is in his globe's depiction of an Antarctic continent, called by him Brasilie Regio. His continent is based, however tenuously, on the report of an actual voyage: that of the Portuguese merchants Nuno Manuel and [[Christopher de Haro|Cristóvão de Haro]] to the [[Río de la Plata|River Plate]], and related in the ''Newe Zeytung auss Presillg Landt'' ("New Tidings from the Land of Brazil") published in Augsburg in 1514.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://biblio.wdfiles.com/local--files/schuller-1915-nova/schuller_1915_nova.pdf| title = Newen Zeytung auss Presillg Landt}}</ref> The ''Zeytung'' described the Portuguese voyagers passing through a strait between the southernmost point of America, or Brazil, and a land to the south west, referred to as ''vndtere Presill'' (or ''Brasilia inferior'').

This supposed "strait" was in fact the Rio de la Plata (or the [[San Matias Gulf]]).<ref>Stefan Zweig, Magellan, ''Pioneer of the Pacific,'' translated by Eden and Cedar Paul,  London, Cassell, 1938, p.78; Rolando A. Laguarda, ''El predescubrimiento del Rio de la Plata por la expedicion portuguesa de 1511-1512,'' Lisboa, Junta de Investigacoes do Ultramar Lisboa, 1973, p.141</ref> By "vndtere Presill", the Zeytung meant that part of Brazil in the lower latitudes, but Schöner mistook it to mean the land on the southern side of the "strait", in higher latitudes, and so gave to it the opposite meaning. On this slender foundation he constructed his circum-Antarctic continent to which, for the reasons that he does not explain, he gave an annular, or ring shape. In an accompanying explanatory treatise, ''Luculentissima quaedam terrae totius descriptio'' ("A Most Lucid Description of All Lands"), he explained:<blockquote>The Portuguese, thus, sailed around this region, the Brasilie Regio, and discovered the passage very similar to that of our Europe (where we reside) and situated laterally between east and west. From one side the land on the other is visible; and the cape of this region about {{convert|60 |mi|km|disp=sqbr}} away, much as if one were sailing eastward through the Straits of Gibraltar or Seville and Barbary or Morocco in Africa, as our Globe shows toward the Antarctic Pole. Further, the distance is only moderate from this Region of Brazil to Malacca, where St. Thomas was crowned with martyrdom.<ref>[[Chet van Duzer]], ''Johann Schöner's Globe of 1515: Transcription and Study,'' Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, ''Transactions,'' Volume 100, Part 5, 2010.</ref></blockquote>

On this scrap of information, united with the concept of the Antipodes inherited from Graeco-Roman antiquity, Schöner constructed his representation of the southern continent. His strait served as inspiration for [[Ferdinand Magellan]]'s expedition to reach the Moluccas by a westward route.<ref>Franz von Wieser, ''Magalhães-Strasse und Austral-Continent. Auf den Globen Johannes Schöner. Beitrage zur Geschichte der Erdkunde im xvi. Jahrhundert,'' Innsbruck, 1881 (reprinted Amsterdam, Meridian, 1967), p.&nbsp;65.</ref>

He took Magellan's discovery of Tierra del Fuego in 1520 as further confirmation of its existence, and on his globes of 1523 and 1533 he described it as ''terra australis recenter inventa sed nondum plene cognita'' ("Terra Australis, recently discovered but not yet fully known"). It was taken up by his followers, the French cosmographer [[Oronce Fine]] in his world map of 1531, and the Flemish cartographers [[Gerardus Mercator]] in 1538 and [[Abraham Ortelius]] in 1570. Schöner's concepts influenced the [[Dieppe]] [[Dieppe maps|school of mapmakers]], notably in their representation of [[Jave la Grande]].<ref>Armand Rainaud, ''Le Continent Austral: Hypotheses et Découvertes,'' Paris, Colin, 1893 (repr. Amsterdam, Meridian Pub. Co., 1965), p.&nbsp;291.</ref>

In [[1539]], the [[Monarchy of Spain|King of Spain]], [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], created the [[Governorate of Terra Australis]]<ref name=Oscar>{{cite book |author1=Pinochet de la Barra, Óscar |title=La Antártica Chilena |date=November 1944 |publisher=Editorial Andrés Bello}}</ref>  granted to [[Pedro Sancho de la Hoz]],<ref>{{cite web |author1=Calamari, Andrea |title=El conjurado que gobernó la Antártida |url=https://www.jotdown.es/2022/06/el-conjurado-que-goberno-la-antartida/ |publisher=Jot Down |language=es |date=June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Pedro Sancho de la Hoz |url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/7380/pedro-sancho-de-la-hoz |publisher=Real Academia de la Historia |access-date=25 August 2022 |language=es}}</ref> who in 1540 transferred the title to the conqueror [[Pedro de Valdivia]]<ref>{{cite web |title=1544 |url=http://www.biografiadechile.cl/detalle.php?IdContenido=827&IdCategoria=40&IdArea=191&status=S&TituloPagina=Historia%20de%20Chile&pos=30 |publisher=Biografía de Chile |language=es |access-date=25 August 2022 |archive-date=19 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819190503/http://www.biografiadechile.cl/detalle.php?IdContenido=827&IdCategoria=40&IdArea=191&status=S&TituloPagina=Historia%20de%20Chile&pos=30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and later was incorporated to [[Kingdom of Chile|Chile]].

[[File:Le Testu 1556 4th projection.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Guillaume Le Testu]]'s 1556 ''Cosmographie Universel'', 4me projection, where the northward extending promontory of the ''Terre australle'' is called ''Grande Jaue'']]
''Terra Australis'' was depicted on the mid-16th-century [[Dieppe maps]], where its coastline appeared just south of the islands of the East Indies; it was often elaborately charted, with a wealth of fictitious detail. There was much interest in ''Terra Australis'' among [[Normandy|Norman]] and [[Brittany|Breton]] merchants at that time. In 1566 and 1570, Francisque and [[André d'Albaigne]] presented [[Gaspard II de Coligny|Gaspard de Coligny]], Admiral of France, with projects for establishing relations with the Austral lands. Although the Admiral gave favourable consideration to these initiatives, they came to nought when Coligny was [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre|killed in 1572]].<ref>E.T. Hamy, "Francisque et André d'Albaigne: cosmographes lucquois au service de la France"; "Nouveau documents sur les frères d'Albaigne et sur le projet de voyage et de découvertes présenté à la cour de France"; and "Documents relatifs à un projet d'expéditions lointaines présentés à la cour de France en 1570", in ''Bulletin de Géographie Historique et Descriptive,'' Paris, 1894, pp. 405–433; 1899, pp. 101–110; and 1903, pp. 266–273.</ref>

[[Image:Cornelius Wytfliet South 1597.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Hypothetical ''Terra Australis'' in a map by [[Cornelius Wytfliet]] from 1597]]
[[Image:Mercator World Map.jpg|thumb|upright 1.35|right|Terra Australis occupies a large part of the southern hemisphere in this world map of 1587 by [[Rumold Mercator]], the son of [[Gerardus Mercator]].]]

Gerardus Mercator believed in the existence of a large Southern continent on the basis of cosmographic reasoning, set out in the abstract of his ''Atlas or Cosmographic Studies in Five Books,'' as related by his biographer, Walter Ghim, who said that even though Mercator was not ignorant that the Austral continent still lay hidden and unknown, he believed it could be "demonstrated and proved by solid reasons and arguments to yield in its geometric proportions, size and weight, and importance to neither of the other two, nor possibly to be lesser or smaller, otherwise the constitution of the world could not hold together at its centre".<ref>Walter Ghim, "Vita…Gerardi Mercatoris Rupelmundani", ''Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas sive Cosmographice Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricate Figura,'' Amsterdami, 1606, p.&nbsp;12.</ref>

The Flemish geographer and cartographer, [[Cornelius Wytfliet]], wrote concerning the ''Terra Australis'' in his 1597 book, ''Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum'': 
<blockquote>The terra Australis is therefore the southernmost of all other lands, directly beneath the antarctic circle; extending beyond the tropic of Capricorn to the West, it ends almost at the equator itself, and separated by a narrow strait lies on the East opposite to New Guinea, only known so far by a few shores because after one voyage and another that route has been given up and unless sailors are forced and driven by stress of winds it is seldom visited. The terra Australis begins at two or three degrees below the equator and it is said by some to be of such magnitude that if at any time it is fully discovered they think it will be the fifth part of the world.

Adjoining Guinea on the right are the numerous and vast Solomon Islands which lately became famous by the voyage of Alvarus Mendanius.<ref>Australis igitur terra omnium aliarum terrarum australissima, directe subiecta antarctico circulo, Tropicum Capricorni vltra ad Occidentem excurrens, in ipfo penè aequatore finitur, tenuique difcreta freto Nouam Guineam Orienti obijcit, paucis tãtum hactenus littoribus cognitam, quòd post vnam atque alteram nauigationem, curfus ille intermissus fit, & nisi coactis impulsifquc nautis ventorum turbine, rarius eò adnauigetur. Australis terra initium sumit duobus aut tribes gradibus fub aequatore, tantaeque a quibufdam magnitudinis esse perhibetur, vt fi quando integrè deteda erit, quintam illam mundi partem fore arbitrentur. Guinea a dextris adhrent Salomoniae insulae multae & quae nauigatione Aluari Mendanij nuper inclaruêre, &c. Cornelius Wytfliet, ''Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum,'' Louvain, 1597, p.&nbsp;20.</ref></blockquote>

[[Juan Fernández (explorer)|Juan Fernandez]], sailing from Chile in 1576, claimed he had discovered the Southern Continent.<ref>José Toribio Medina, ''El Piloto Juan Fernandez,'' Santiago de Chile, 1918, reprinted by Gabriela Mistral, 1974, pp.&nbsp;136, 246.</ref> The ''Polus Antarcticus'' map of 1641 by [[Hendrik Hondius II|Henricus Hondius]], bears the inscription: ''"Insulas esse a Nova Guinea usque ad Fretum Magellanicum affirmat Hernandus Galego, qui ad eas explorandas missus fuit a Rege Hispaniae Anno 1576'' (Hernando Gallego, who in the year 1576 was sent by the King of Spain to explore them, affirms that there are islands from New Guinea up to the Strait of Magellan)".{{efn |An on-line image of this map is at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-t732.{{bare URL inline |date=May 2025}}}}