Pierre Desceliers

[3] Desceliers was also an examiner of Maritime Pilots and was authorised to award patents on behalf of the French king, as evidenced by the seal found bearing his initials.

Nothing is known of his life after the creation of the 1553 map; the Dictionnaire de biographie française suggests that he died after 1574, but none of its sources support this statement.

In the southern hemisphere section, a landmass entitled Jave la Grande was shown in the approximate position of Australia.

The image of Java Major on Desceliers' 1550 map was based on the accounts of Marco Polo and Ludovico di Varthema in the Novus Orbis Regionum ac Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum of Simon Grynaeus and Johann Huttich, published in Paris by Antoine Augurelle in 1532.

[11] Despite their great value, both artistic and cartographic, the charts quickly fell into disuse after the end of the 16th century, when the market came to be dominated by Flemish and Dutch mapmakers.