After the publication of Lucas Brandis de Schass' 1475 'Rudimentum Novitiorum', the woodblock for this map was recut twice in France, in Paris in 1488–1489 and in Lyon in 1491, both appearing in the 'Mer des Hystoires' ('Sea of Stories'). The French translation contains additional material on the Kings of France and is accompanied by a martyrology by Usardus. Neither author of the Latin work nor the translator of the French edition is known.

The printer of the Lyon edition, Jean Dupré, was clearly familiar with Brandis’ Latin edition, which it follows broadly in arrangement and illustration. Additional woodcuts are added however from French sources, including from Antoine Vérard’s 'Grandes Heures', and Pierre Levet’s 'La Farce de Maître Pathelin'. Several of the smaller woodcuts from the 'Sea of Stories' were also recycled in Dupré’s 'Book of Hours', printed 14 February 1489. New also to Dupré’s 'Sea of Stories' is the extensive use of delicate borders and woodcut initials.

This map, like its predecessor (published in the 'Rudimentium Novitiorum' in 1475), is a hybrid of a T-O map and medieval Mappamundi. It depicts the world oriented eastward, with the continent of Asia occupying the top semicircle, the central y-axis marked by Paradise appearing as a walled city enclosing two figures representing Adam and Eve. Europe occupies the bottom left quadrant (North) and Africa in the bottom right (towards the South). The overall design of the map is different from typical medieval T-O maps because of its distinct topography in that each place name is cast upon its own hill, capped with a city ideogram. Like the medieval Hereford and Ebstorf Mappamundi (c.1300), mythological creatures pepper the geography. Included are illustrations of a phoenix, the Trees of the Sun and the Moon (a feature from the Alexander Romance and common on medieval maps), and figures representing the Devil. This map corrects a number of errors of its predecessor, such as the duplication of 'Hircanie' (Hyrcania). 

The Sunderland Collection

This delightfully detailed world map derives from the 'Mer des Hystoires' ('Sea of Stories') a French adaptation of the world chronicle ‘Rudimentum Novatorum’, published in 1475. This woodblock map combines myths and religious tales alongside actual geographical information. This map is a hybrid of a T-O map and medieval mappa mundi. Asia is represented in the top half of the map, Europe on the left and Africa on the right. Similar to the world map that features in the 'Rudimentum', the map is divided into four quadrants by a vertical and horizontal axis. Curious creatures such as salamanders and a phoenix (on the far right) are featured alongside historical characters and contemporary leaders such as the Pope.

This is a fascinating example of the progression of one edition to another. While many features are the same as the 'Rudimentum', the anonymous creator of this map has added and corrected place names and included decorative details, such as the whimsical ducks swimming in the upper right quadrant.

This map was included in the Lyon edition of 'La Mer des Hystoires' ('Sea of Stories'), which is the French adaptation of the 'Rudimentum Novitiorum' ('A Handbook for Novices'). This work was the first chronicle of the world in print, published by an anonymous cleric at Lübeck in 1475. The initial editions contain some of the earliest known printed maps in Europe.

The French author of 'La Mer des Hystoires', also anonymous, informs us that he was Canon of Mello in Beauvais and created the work under the patronage of André de La Haye, Lord of Chaumont. The 'Mer des Hystoires' begins at the Creation of the world and ends in 1474, and takes up the traditional division of time into six ages. Its sources are the Bible, the Church Fathers, and numerous authors from Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages. The work also supplements the text of the 'Rudimentum Novitiorum' by including some thirty Aesopic fables as well as a description of the Holy Land and a geographical dictionary. There is also a history of the Kings of France, added by the translator and compiled from extracts from the 'Chroniques de France' up to the coronation of Charles VII (1484).

A rare, true incunable edition of this medieval map.

The 'Sea of Stories' World Map