The 14th-century work ''
'Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara'ib al-mawjudat'' by
Persian physician
Zakariya al-Qazwini is considered to be an early work of cosmography. Traditional
Hindu,
Buddhist and
Jain cosmography schematize a universe centered on
Mount Meru surrounded by rivers, continents and seas. These cosmographies posit a universe being repeatedly created and destroyed over time cycles of immense lengths. , in the "Cosmographie" of Munster (Basle, 1552, folio) In 1551,
Martín Cortés de Albacar, from
Zaragoza, Spain, published
Breve compendio de la esfera y del arte de navegar. Translated into English and reprinted several times, the work was of great influence in Britain for many years. He proposed spherical charts and mentioned magnetic deviation and the existence of magnetic poles.
Peter Heylin's 1652 book
Cosmographie (enlarged from his
Microcosmos of 1621) was one of the earliest attempts to describe the entire world in English, and is the first known description of Australia, and among the first of California. The book has four sections, examining the geography, politics, and cultures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with an addendum on
Terra Incognita, including Australia, and extending to
Utopia,
Fairyland, and the "
Land of Chivalrie". In 1659, Thomas Porter published a smaller, but extensive
Compendious Description of the Whole World, which also included a
chronology of world events from
Creation forward. These were all part of a major trend in the
European Renaissance to explore (and perhaps comprehend) the known world. == Modern usage ==