Amerigo Vespucci , Ioan Stradanus inuent, Ian. Collaert Sculp. Phis Galle Excudit Ca. 1590
Jan van der Straet or Johannes Stradanus, Antwerp
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The print depicts Amerigo Vespucci in a nocturnal setting with an astrolabe and a radiant Southern Cross of four stars. On the table lie a quadrant and a pair of dividers. The men surrounding Vespucci are asleep. In the left portrait Dante Alighieri is shown, with a reference to the Divina Commedia, in which Dante describes the four stars. The verse from the Purgatorio is reproduced in full.
Night sky scene from Stradanus' "Americae Retectio", circa 1605. Plate nr 18: A starry sky surrounds Amerigo Vespucci measuring the earth's circumference based on the constellation of the Southern Cross. The explorer is surrounded by various technological instruments and his sleeping crew. An inset includes a portrait of Dante Alighieri, who wrote about the same constellation in his "Divine Comedy". Johannes Stradanus or van der Straat, (1523-1605) was a Flemish artist but spent much of his life in Florence. Stradanus sent his original drawings of "Nova Reperta" ("New Inventions"), a Renaissance celebration of recent discoveries both scientific and geographical, to Antwerp where they were first engraved and published by Phillipe Galle. This edition was engraved by Adrian Collaert, who worked for Galle.