The Codex · Essay
No. 01 of 3
Mappa Mundi Gallinae
A Mappa Mundi Gallinae, drawn in the conventions of an early-modern portolan chart: rhumb lines, compass rose, dotted trade-routes between the great breeding regions, and crimson markers for the principal lines. The densest concentration sits over Java, Bali, and Sumatra — the heart of the Oriental gamefowl — with secondary clusters in South Asia (Aseel, Asil), East Asia (Shamo, Koeyoshi), the Mediterranean (the Old English Game’s deep ancestry), the United Kingdom, and the American South. The routes mark the spread of the fighting cock from India and the Indies outward, by trade, by gift, and by conquest.