This digital assembly was released to the public as a massive, downloadable PDF. It allows modern viewers to do what Urbano Monte’s contemporaries could rarely do: see the entire world at once, in startling detail, without a seam.
By digitizing the work, Stanford University allowed Monte’s vision to finally be realized. You can zoom in to see the terrifying sea monsters off the coast of Scotland, or zoom out to see the perfect radial symmetry of the world. urbano monte map pdf
What immediately strikes the viewer about the Urbano Monte map is its sheer physical presence. Monte originally intended the work to be printed and pasted onto a wooden panel, creating a massive surface roughly 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter. It was designed to be viewed on a table, physically walked around, or perhaps mounted on a wall as the ultimate conversation piece for a wealthy patron. This digital assembly was released to the public