Cosmography (1540) - Page 19

On the Five Zones. Chapter IV.

Since the surface of the earth and water is one and spherical (which its shadow, being the certain form of an opaque body, demonstrates most clearly in an eclipse of the moon), and established as immobile in the center of the world, it embraces on its convexity the five circles of the celestial sphere, just like the sphere itself. Namely: the Equinoctial, the Tropics, and the Arctic circles. These, besides the equinoctial, constitute five zones in the heavens, and as many regions on the earth. Two of these, situated at the extremes around the poles, being always frozen with cold, are scarcely habitable. The third, situated in the middle of all between the tropics, is distinguished by reasoning as a parched land or region, and habitable poorly or with difficulty, on account of the continuous course of the sun and because of the perpendicularity of the sun's rays. The remaining two, which lie between the tropics and the arctic circles, are temperate and habitable. For they are tempered by the heat of the torrid zone and the cold of the extreme zones; of these, we inhabit one, and the Antoeci and Antichthones inhabit the other.

A diagram of the aforementioned division extended on a plane.

A woodcut diagram of the Earth's zones within a decorative rectangular border. The diagram is circular, representing the globe, with horizontal lines marking the climatic zones. The cardinal directions are labeled around the circle: SOUTH (Meridies) at the top, NORTH (Septentrio) at the bottom, EAST (Oriens) on the left, and WEST (Occidens) on the right.

Inside the circle, from top to bottom, the zones are labeled:
1. FRIGID ZONE (near South)
2. Antarctic Circle (labeled as Antarcti'g Cir.)
3. TEMPERATE ZONE
4. Tropic of Capricorn
5. TORRID ZONE (bisected by the Equinoctial line and an ecliptic curve containing zodiac symbols: Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries)
6. Tropic of Cancer
7. TEMPERATE ZONE
8. Arctic Circle (labeled as Arcti'g Circul')
9. FRIGID ZONE (near North)

Note: The orientation of the map places South at the top.