Johannes Ruysch

Not long after, Ruysch went to work at the Portuguese court as cartographer and astronomer, presumably by recommendation of Julius II who was friends with Manuel I of Portugal.

Later, he returned to the St. Martin monastery, suffering from consumption, but able to create a, now lost, astronomical wall painting illustrating the days, months (phases of the Moon), and constellations.

Ruysch's 1507 map of the world was included in the 1507 and 1508 southern editions of Ptolemy's Geographia, an atlas published in Rome.

Around the north pole, Ruysch drew islands, based on reports in the book Inventio Fortunata of the English friar Nicholas of Lynne.

Ruysch's map shows India as a triangular peninsula with Ceylon in the correct proportion and position.

Ruysch's map has details about Asia based on data gathered by travelers like Marco Polo, as well as Greco-Roman authorities.

Unaware of the existence of the Pacific Ocean he, like Christopher Columbus, saw Central and North America as the eastern part of Asia.

He accepted that Sipango [Japan] and Hispaniola [Haiti] were one and the same, a concept he expressed in the legend he inscribed on his world map: Marco Polo says that 1500 miles to the east of the port of ZAITON (Quanzhou) there is a very large island called SIPANGO whose inhabitants are idolaters: they have their own king and pay tribute to none.

[1]There was a map commentary also included in the 1508 edition, entitled Orbis nouo descriptio and written by an Italian Celestinian monk named Marcus Beneventanus.

Then it is more probable that this feature of the map is inspired by the Inventio Fortunatae, or from the fact that the old cartographers wanted the landmasses to be in balance.