Henricus Martellus Germanus

Who is Henricus Martellus Germanus?

Henricus Martellus Germanus is the latinized name of Heinrich Hammer, a German cartographer who lived and worked in Florence from 1480 to 1496.

Around 1489 or 1490, he produced a world map which was remarkably similar to the terrestrial globe later produced by Martin Behaim in 1492, the Erdapfel. Both show heavy influences from Ptolemy, and both possibly derive from maps created around 1485 in Lisbon by Bartolomeo Columbus.

One of his two manuscript world maps, 201 cm x 122 cm in size, rediscovered in 1960, was donated to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The other similar manuscript world map is in the British Library.

Martellus also in 1484 produced an Insularium Illustratum, or book of islands, that contained maps.