30 Australian Geographic
Mind over mapping. The Psalter world
map c.1265 (centre right) is centred on
Jerusalem and refl ects religious views. On
Fra Mauro’s 1448–53 masterpiece (top
right) Australia is missing, but an inscription
notes: “Here commences the dark sea”.
The Ulm Ptolemy World Map of 1482
(above) – based on information from the
2nd century – excludes Australia; in 2007 a
rare stolen edition turned up in Sydney. A
southern landmass named Lave la Grande
(right) appeared c.1547, and the South Land
showed up in the fi rst successful commer-
cial atlas of the world (top left) in 1659.