The Fool's Cap Map of the World. It is thought to be flemish in origin and possibly from Antwerp, dated about. 1590 The official description is: A fool or jester with a world map in place of his face. World map on the cordiform projection, within the visor of a fool's cap. Cordiform apparently means heart-shaped.
It makes me wonder why foolscap paper is so called. The answer, according to Wikipedia, is "Foolscap was named after the fool's caps and bells watermark commonly used from the fifteenth century onwards on paper of these dimensions".
The card was sent to me from the USA but the card was published by the British Library.
Interesting. I had never seen that before.
ReplyDeleteLooks really good!
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of cute. I like it better than a dunce's cap...though they might be one and the same!
ReplyDelete