Fool's Cap Map of the World

The engraving takes the form of a court jester with the face replaced by cordiform (heart-shaped or leaf-shaped) world map based on the designs of cartographers such as Oronce Finé, Gerardus Mercator, and Abraham Ortelius.

It also appears to draw inspiration from a foolscap map created in 1575 by the French mapmaker Jean de Fourmont.

[2] There is wide speculation that it was created by members of a Christian sect called the Familists, which valued global viewpoints while stressing the importance of self-reflection.

[3] In the left-hand corner, the name Orontius Fineus is inscribed, which is Latinized for Oronce Finé, a French mathematician and cartographer who died in 1555.

Because Fool's Cap was published so long after Finé's death, the inscription is not thought to represent him as the artist but rather the subject of the work's ridicule.

Fool's Cap Map of the World (circa 1580), presents a map of the world in the face of jester referencing the hubris of era to think that the map of world was a fully known and knowable subject.