<P> The Fra Mauro map was made between 1457 and 1459 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro . It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in diameter . The original world map was made by Fra Mauro and his assistant Andrea Bianco, a sailor - cartographer, under a commission by king Afonso V of Portugal . The map was completed on April 24, 1459, and sent to Portugal, but did not survive to the present day . Fra Mauro died the next year while he was making a copy of the map for the Seignory of Venice, and the copy was completed by Andrea Bianco . </P> <P> The map is preserved in the Museo Correr in Venice . </P> <P> The world map of Henricus Martellus Germanus (Heinrich Hammer), c. 1490, 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 . Although Martellus is believed to have been born in Nuremberg, Behaim's home town, he lived and worked in Florence from 1480 to 1496 . </P> <P> The Erdapfel (German: earth apple) produced by Martin Behaim in 1492 is considered to be the oldest surviving terrestrial globe . It is constructed of a laminated linen ball reinforced with wood and overlaid with a map painted by Georg Glockendon . The Americas are not included yet, as Columbus returned to Spain no sooner than March 1493 . It shows a rather enlarged Eurasian continent and an empty ocean between Europe and Asia . The Caribbean islands may already be represented as well, even before Colombus's return, under the name of the mythical Saint Brendan's Island . Japan and Asian islands are disproportionately large . The idea to call the globe "apple" may be related to the Reichsapfel ("Imperial Apple", Globus cruciger) which was also kept in Nuremberg along with the Imperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien). In 1907, it was transferred to the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg . </P>

Who drew the first map of the world