History
Very little is definitively known of the atlas's provenance, as its containing manuscript collection, Egerton MS 2803, entitled Atlas of Portolan Charts, is neither signed nor dated. The historian Edward L Stevenson suggested Maggiolo in 1508 as the atlas's possible origin, based on certain author-characterising features in several charts, and dates in the astronomical tables which follow the atlas within the collection. Prior to Stevenson, the historian Henry Harrisse had suggested 1507, while Johannes Denucé had suggested 1510, arguing that its toponyms indicate a post-Pinzon–Solis voyage composition. [n 3]
The manuscript collection containing the atlas was acquired by the British Museum in 1895. Facsimile copies of all folios were first taken by Stevenson and published in 1911 by the Hispanic Society of America.
Analysis
The maps are thought to depict recent discoveries from the fourth voyage of Columbus, Pinzon–Solis voyage, Vespucci voyages to South America, Corte-Real voyages to Labrador, and Gama–Cabral voyages to Africa and the Indian Ocean. The nomenclature of Central and South America, in particular, 'is infinitely richer and more complete than any other map of the Americas known to us until those of Diego Ribeiro of 1527 and 1529.' [n 6] Denucé showed the maps included, without omission, all toponyms from the Pinzon–Solis voyage, the Peter Martyr map, and still 'dozens more whose precise source is unknown.'
Stevenson suggested the atlas might be 'not only the oldest known Portolan Atlas on whose charts any part of the New World is laid down, but the oldest known atlas in which the coast regions of a very large part of the entire world are represented with a fair approach to accuracy.' [n 7] David W Tilton deemed it the earliest known map to 'show a coastline west of Hispaniola that is recognisable as part of Central America.' Arthur Davies concluded the atlas 'provides in its charts of the world the first complete and up to date summary of Portuguese and Spanish explorations to that time.'
Stevenson notes a 'striking resemblance' of the Indian subcontinent and Far East charts to relevant portions of the Cantino, Canerio, and Waldseemüller Carta Marina maps. [n 8] Siebold notes the maps seem to imply that the Americas are joined onto Asia, which concept 'is utterly different from Portuguese cosmography and maps,' thereby suggesting 'a Spanish and not a Portuguese origin.' Simonetta Conti similarly notes, 'it is clear that they [the mapmaker] must have been very familiar with the work of the Padron Real 's first authors, as can be seen from the large number of toponyms stretching from the area near Yucatan to the lands of Santa Cruz.' [n 9]
Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, better known as Piri Reis, was an Ottoman navigator, geographer and cartographer. He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye, a book that contains detailed information on early navigational techniques as well as relatively accurate charts for their time, describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea.
Visconte Maggiolo, also spelled Maiollo and Maiolo, was a Genoese cartographer.
Juan Díaz de Solís was a 16th-century navigator and explorer. He is also said to be the first European to land on what is now modern day Uruguay.
Juan de la Cosa was a Castilian navigator and cartographer, known for designing the earliest European world map which incorporated the territories of the Americas discovered in the 15th century. De la Cosa was the owner and master of the Santa María, and thus played an important role in the first and second voyage of Christopher Columbus to the West Indies.
The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives, housed in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. When rediscovered in 1929, the remaining fragment garnered international attention as it includes a partial copy of an otherwise lost map by Christopher Columbus.
The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps and atlases produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s, and 1560s. They are large hand-produced works, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Kings Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England. The Dieppe school of cartographers included Pierre Desceliers, Jean Rotz, Guillaume Le Testu, Guillaume Brouscon and Nicolas Desliens.
Angelino Dulcert, probably the same person known as Angelino de Dalorto, and whose real name was probably Angelino de Dulceto or Dulceti or possibly Angelí Dolcet, was an Italian-Majorcan cartographer.
Pedro Reinel was a Portuguese cartographer. Between 1485 and 1519 Reinel served three Portuguese kings: João II, Manuel I and João III. He and his son, Jorge Reinel, were among the most renowned cartographers of their era, a period when European knowledge of geography and cartography were expanding rapidly. There is some evidence he was of African descent. Historian Rafael Moreira believes Reinel's father was an ivory carver brought from West Africa to serve in the royal workshops.
The Padrón Real, known after 2 August 1527 as the Padrón General, was the official and secret Spanish master map used as a template for the maps present on all Spanish ships during the 16th century. It was kept in Seville, Spain by the Casa de Contratación. Ship pilots were required to use a copy of the official government chart, or risk the penalty of a 50 doblas fine. The map probably included a large-scale chart that hung on the wall of the old Alcázar of Seville. Well-known official cartographers and pilots who contributed to and used the map included Amerigo Vespucci, Diogo Ribeiro, Sebastian Cabot, Alonzo de Santa Cruz, and Juan Lopez de Velasco.
"Majorcan cartographic school" is the term coined by historians to refer to the collection of predominantly Jewish cartographers, cosmographers and navigational instrument-makers and some Christian associates that flourished in Majorca in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries until the expulsion of the Jews. The label is usually inclusive of those who worked in Catalonia. The Majorcan school is frequently contrasted with the contemporary Italian cartography school.
The map of Juan de la Cosa is a world map that includes the earliest known representation of the New World and the first depiction of the equator and the Tropic of Cancer on a nautical chart. The map is attributed to the Castilian navigator and cartographer, Juan de la Cosa, and was likely created in 1500.
Pietro Vesconte was a Genoese cartographer and geographer. A pioneer of the field of the portolan chart, he influenced Italian and Catalan mapmaking throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He appears to have been the first professional mapmaker to sign and date his works regularly.
Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano, known as the Pizzigani brothers, were 14th-century Venetian cartographers. Their surname is sometimes given as Pizigano in older sources.
The island of Satanazes is a legendary island once thought to be located in the Atlantic Ocean, and depicted on many 15th-century maps.
The Cornaro Atlas is an extensive Venetian collection of nautical charts and tracts, currently held in the Egerton Collection of manuscripts of the British Library.
A rutter is a mariner's handbook of written sailing directions. Before the advent of nautical charts, rutters were the primary store of geographic information for maritime navigation.
The Vallard Atlas is a world atlas, one of the Dieppe school of maps, produced in 1547. It is believed to have been owned by Nicolas Vallard, its authorship being unknown.
The Pinzón–Solís voyage was a Spanish maritime expedition in 1508–1509 to the Bay of Honduras, and possibly to adjacent bodies of water, lead by Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Juan Díaz de Solís. It is thought to have been the earliest non-Amerindian reconnaissance of coasts in the western portion of the aforementioned Bay, and thus of the Caribbean shores of Belize, Guatemala, western Honduras, and possibly southern Quintana Roo, Mexico.
The Peter Martyr map is a Spanish woodcut map composed in 1511 or 1514 and included in most or some copies of the 1511 edition of Decades of the New World by Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. The map depicts the insular and continental Caribbean coastlines and soundings as understood in the early 1510s by Iberian authorities. It is deemed the first print map of the Caribbean, and possibly the first such to focus specifically on the New World.
The Freducci map is an Italian portolan chart of the Atlantic Ocean depicting portions of both the Old and New Worlds, drafted in Ancona in 1514–1515 or in the first half of the 16th century by Conte di Ottomanno Freducci. It is regarded as the earliest map of Florida, and one of the earliest non-Amerindian maps of northern Central America. It is now held at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze in Florence.
