World Map - Francesco Ghisolfi, 16th century. (World Map Wall Art)
This is a small world map that was first meant to wrap around a globe. The map is cut into long, curved strips with tiny place names and thin coastlines printed on warm parchment style paper. It has a quiet, detailed look that fits well beside books, wood and brass in a study or library.
To learn more about the history of these pieces and how we craft them in our family workshop, feel free to read our full guide to antique map prints.
About this map print
This design is linked to Francesco Ghisolfi, an Italian mapmaker who worked in the Genoese nautical tradition in the mid 1500s. Surviving examples show the world engraved as a set of globe gores, the narrow strips that were cut out and pasted onto a wooden sphere to make a printed globe. Each strip carries part of Europe, Africa, Asia and the recently mapped Americas, with simple coastlines and labels taken from sea charts and early world atlases.
In some impressions the ends of the strips are decorated with zodiac signs and small figures, which shows how close this map sits to richly painted portolan atlases made for wealthy clients. The layout belongs to the same world of globe gores and portolan charts that many Renaissance cartographers used, but here the whole globe is broken into a few compact pieces instead of spread flat on a single sheet like later oval world maps such as Ortelius’s Typus Orbis Terrarum.
If you are curious about the history behind this piece, we put together a short background on this map for you to read.
Craft & finishEvery replica we make is individually hand-processed in our family workshop. We finish the paper with a traditional beeswax seal to give it a warm, heavy texture. Our team also adds subtle gold paint details by hand to help the artwork truly shine. To complete the look, we hand-burn the edges to give each piece the feel of a true historical artifact.
While our smaller sizes are perfect for gallery walls, our 43x61 cm Large replica is a museum-scale centerpiece. Because of the size, the hand-processing and beeswax application take much longer. This extra time and care ensures that every centimeter of the historic illustration is preserved with a rich, authentic glow.
Find more prints like this in our Antique Maps collection.
World Map (Francesco Ghisolfi, 16th century.) - Antique World Map
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At Artifex Historical Replicas, we bridge the gap between museum archives and your home. Each piece is a handcrafted historical art print recreated from authentic primary sources, including antique city views and botanical illustrations.
Hand-Processed Paper: We use specialized paper with burned edges and a beeswax finish to replicate the weight and feel of genuine old parchment.
Gilded Details: Our workshop adds subtle real gold accents, bringing the same glow to your walls found in 16th-century illuminated manuscripts.
Custom Sizes & Worldwide Shipping: We offer bespoke sizing for custom frames and ship our historical replicas globally from our family workshop.
Explore our full guide on how we create, display, and restore parchment-style replicas.
