Inventio Fortunata Shaped Arctic Maps

The Inventio Fortunata was a lost book, probably written in the 14th century, that described the Arctic North Pole as a magnetic island surrounded by a giant whirlpool and four continents. The book had disappeared by the 1490s, leaving cartographers to rely on a summary by a Brabantian traveler named Jacobus Cnoyen. Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator used that account for his 1569 world map. Cartographers continued to copy its imaginary Arctic geography into the 17th century.

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