https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2471-4468
![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
In the introduction to the appendix of modern maps by Martin Waldseemüller in the famous Strasbourg Ptolemy atlas of 1513 is a “puzzling sentence” that mentions a so-called “Admiral’s Map.” During the nineteenth century, historians struggled to understand what map was the Admiral’s, who the Admiral was, and how this Admiral’s Map related to the maps made by Waldseemüller. Since then, most who have looked at the question of the Admiral’s Map have merely repeated the tentative conclusions made in the nineteenth century. With the benefit of the recovery of important cartographic works since that time, we can now make a more definitive conclusion: the Admiral’s Map was the Caverio planisphere (c. 1506).
Dans l’introduction à l’appendice des cartes modernes de Martin Waldseemüller dans le célèbre atlas Strasbourg Ptolemy de 1513 est une « phrase mystérieuse » qui mentionne une soi-disant « Carte de l’Amiral ». Pendant le dix-neuvième siècle les historiens ont essayé de comprendre quelle carte était celle de l’Amiral, qui était cet Amiral, et quel était le rapport entre cette carte de l’Amiral et les cartes de Waldseemüller. Depuis cette époque, la plupart de ceux qui ont réfléchi à la question de la Carte de l’Amiral ont simplement répété les conclusions provisoires du dix-neuvième siècle. Avec l’aide d’œuvres cartographiques importants retrouvés depuis cette époque, nous pouvons actuellement arriver à une conclusion plus définitive: la Carte de l’Amiral était le planisphère Caverio (circa 1506).
En la introducción al apéndice de mapas modernos de Martin Waldseemüller en el famoso atlas de Ptolomeo impreso en Estrasburgo en 1513 hay una “frase desconcertante” que menciona un denominado “Mapa del Almirante.” Durante el siglo XIX, los historiadores se afanaron en entender qué mapa era el del Almirante, quién era el Almirante, y qué relación había entre este mapa del Almirante y los mapas hechos por Waldseemüller. Desde entonces, la mayoría de los que han examinado la cuestión del Mapa del Almirante se han limitado a repetir las conclusiones provisionales alcanzadas en el siglo XIX. Con el beneficio de la recuperación desde entonces de importantes obras cartográficas, ahora podemos llegar a una conclusión más definitiva: el Mapa del Almirante fue el planisferio de Caverio (c. 1506).
Acknowledgements
The research leading to this paper has received support from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement 714033-MEDEA-CHART/ERC-2016-ST G). I wish to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of the manuscript and their many insightful comments and suggestions.
Disclosure Statement
The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.
Notes
1 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans, GE SH ARCH-1.
2 Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, C.G.A.2.
3 Gregory C. McIntosh, “The Caverio Planisphere (c. 1506) Was Not Copied from the Cantino Planisphere (1502),” Terrae Incognitae 54, no. 2 (August 2022), pp. 110–61. See this article for background on the Cantino and Caverio planispheres and the Padrão Real. On the Caverio planisphere, see also Edward L. Stevenson, Marine Chart of Nicolo de Canerio Januensis, 1502 (circa) (New York: American Geographical Society and Hispanic Society of America, 1908). The Caverio planisphere has also been known as Caneiro, Carnerio, and Cannerio.
4 Carta padrão de el-Rei, instead of Padrão Real, is used by some historians in Portugal; see, for instance, Maria Fernanda Alegria, Suzanne Daveau, João Carlos Garcia, and Francesc Relaño, “Portuguese Cartography in the Renaissance,” in Cartography in the European Renaissance, ed. David Woodward, vol. 3, pt. 1, pp. 975–1068 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 1004. Also, Padrão del Rey is used in Joaquim Alves Gaspar and Sima Krtalic, A Cartografia de Magalhães/The Cartography of Magellan ([Lisbon]: Tradisom, 2023), pp. 99, 100. On the Armazém da Guiné e Índias, where nautical charts were kept, including the Padrão Real, see Armando Cortesão and Avelino Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, reprint of 1960, with additions, 6 vols. (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1987), vol. 1, p. 9; Francisco Paulo Mendes da Luz, “Dois organismos da administração ultramarina no século XV: A Casa da Índia e os Armazéns da Guiné, Mina e Índias,” in A viagem de Fernão de Magalhães e a questão das Molucas, ed. A. Teixeira da Mota (Lisbon: Junta de Investigações Científicas do Ultramar, 1975), pp. 91–105; A. Teixeira da Mota, “Some Notes on the Organization of Hydrographical Services in Portugal Before the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century,” Imago Mundi 28 (1976), pp. 51–60; Antonio Sánchez, “Charts for an Empire: A Global Trading Zone in Early Modern Portuguese Nautical Cartography,” Centaurus 60.3 (2018), pp. 173–188.
5 On the activities of Waldseemüller, Ringmann, and the Gymnasium Vosagense, see Marie Armand d’Avezac de Castera-Macaya, Martin Hylacomylus Waltzemüller, ses ouvrages et ses collaborateurs, ext. Annales des Voyages, vol. 4 (Paris: Challamel ainé, 1867); C. Schmidt, “Mathias Ringmann (Philésius), humaniste alsacien et lorrain,” Mémoires de la Société d’Archéologie Lorraine 25 (1875), pp. 165–233; Charles Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace à la fin du XVe et au commencement du XVIe siècle, 2 vols. (Paris: Sandoz et Fischbacher, 1879–80), vol. 2, pp. 87–132; L. Gallois, “Le Gymnase vosgien,” Bulletin de la Socété de géographie de l’Est 21.1 (1900), pp. 88–94; Albert Ronsin, “L’imprimerie humaniste de Saint-Dié au XVIème siècle,” in Refugium Animae Bibliotheca: Festschrift für Albert Kolb: Mélanges Offerts à Albert Kolb, ed. Emile van der Vekene (Wiesbaden: Pressler, 1969); Albert Ronsin, Découverte et baptême de l’Amérique, 2nd ed. (Jarville-La Malgrande: Éditions de l’Est, 1992); and Toby Lester, The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America Its Name (New York: Free Press, 2009), pp. 327–345.
6 On Lud and the Gymnasium Vosagenes, see Avezac, Martin Hylacomylus Waltzemüller, pp. 7–22; and Gaston Save, “Vautrin Lud et le Gymnase Vosgien,” Bulletin de la Société Philomatique Vosgienne 15 (1889–1890), pp. 253–98.
7 Henry Harrisse, The Discovery of North America: A Critical Documentary and Historic Investigation, with an Essay on the Early Cartography of the New World (London: Henry Stevens and Son; Paris: H. Welter, 1892), p. 642.
8 In addition to the Waldseemüller world map of 1507 and the Strasbourg Ptolemy atlas of 1513, some of the other publications include Gaultherũ Ludd [Vautrin Lud], Speculi orbis (Strasbourg: Joannis Grũnigeri [Johannes Grüninger], 1507); Martin Waldseemüller, Der Welt Kugel…. (Strasbourg: Johannes Grüniger, 1509); and Amerigo Vespucci, “Quatuor Americi Vesputii navigationes,” app. in Matthias Ringmann [Philesius], Cosmographiae Introductio…. (Saint-Dié: Vautrin and Nikolaus Lud, 1507).
9 Chet Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina” of 1516: Study and Transcription of the Long Legends (Cham: SpringerOpen, 2020), pp. 3–6.
10 The Soderini Letter is the second of the “public” letters of Vespucci and describes his four voyages in several extant and slightly differing manuscript and printed versions with differing titles. Vespucci himself refers to his completed manuscript as Quattro Giornate (Four Voyages). The first printed version was titled Lettera di Amerigo vespucci delle isole nuouamente trouate in quattro suoi viaggi (Letter from Amerigo Vespucci about the islands newly found in his four voyages) (Florence: Gian Stefano for Pietro Pacini; or Antonio Tubini and Andrea Ghirlandi, 1505). Important critical editions are: George Tyler Northup, Letter to Piero Soderini, gonfaloniere. The year of 1504 (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press; London: Humphrey Milford; Oxford: University Press, 1916); Giuseppe Sergio Martini, ed., Amerigo Vespucci, Lettera a Piero Soderini (Lisbona, sett. 1504): secondo il cod. II. IV. 509 della Bibl. Naz. di Firenze (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1957); and Amerigo Vespucci, Lettere di viaggio, ed. Luciano Formisano (Milan: Mondadori, 1985). For discussion of the textual transmission of the Soderini Letter, see Gregory C. McIntosh, “Martin Waldseemüller, Amerigo Vespucci, and the So-Called ‘Error’ of the ‘Abbey of All Saints’,” Terrae Incognitae 43.2 (2011), pp. 134–59.
11 The “first” voyage of Vespucci, as described in the Soderini Letter, almost certainly is fictitious. Or, perhaps, it would be more exact to describe it as an embellished literary narrative.
12 Waldseemüller used Hylacomylus and Ilacomilus as noms de plume.
13 Ringmann used Philesius Vogesigena as his nom de plume.
14 Save, “Vautrin Lud,” p. 254.
15 Claudius Ptolemaeus, Claudii Ptolemei viri Alexandrini Mathematicae disciplinae Philosophi doctissimi Geographiae opus nouissima traductione e Graecorum archetypis castigatissime pressum, caeteris ante lucubratorum multo praestantius, trans. Jacopo D’Angelo, ed. Matthias Ringmann, Johann Essler, and Georg übelin, cartography by Martin Waldseemüller (Strasbourg: Johannes Schott, 1513). In addition to the maps under discussion, the map of Lorraine, the last in the atlas, is notable because it is one of the earliest maps printed in two colors, preceded by the Etzlaub map of Europe of 1501 (“Das heilig Römisch reich mit allen landstrassen…,” printed in Nuremberg, now at Harvard University, Houghton Library) and the Sylvanus world map of 1511 (Venice: Jacobum Pentium de Leucho).
16 Waldseemüller’s name appears nowhere in the Strasbourg Ptolemy atlas. Its eventual publication in 1513 was out of the hands of the by-then defunct Gymnasium Vosagense. Duke René, the patron of the Gymnasium Vosagense, had died in December 1508. Ringmann had died of tuberculosis in 1511, two years prior to the publication of the atlas, so presumably, the omission of all references to Waldseemüller and the Gymnasium Vosagense was made by the two editors, Jacobus Essler and Georg übelin.
17 In 1507, another Greek manuscript text of Ptolemy’s Geographia was sought from Basel by Waldseemüller, where he had previously worked for the printer, Johann Amerbach; see Alfred Hartmann, ed., Die Briefe aus der Zeit Johann Amerbachs: 1481–1513, vol. 1 of Die Amerbachkorrespondenz (Basel: Verlag der Universitätsbibliothek, 1942), pp. 312–3.
18 The entire Ad Lectorem on the reverse of the “Supplementum” title page is transcribed and translated into English in Henry N. Stevens, The First Delineation of the New World and the First Use of the Name America on a Printed Map (London: Henry Stevens, Son and Stiles, 1928), pp. 40–2; into a different English translation in John Boyd Thacher, The Continent of America: Its Discovery and Its Baptism (New York: William Evarts Benjamin, 1896), pp. 156–57; and is transcribed and translated into French in Avezac, Martin Hylacomylus Waltzemüller, pp. 151–3.
19 Stevens, First Delineation, 47. Also, Iacobus Aeszler, Jacob Aeschler, George Uebelin, and Georg Übelin. Übelin also was the editor for the 1520 edition of the Ptolemy atlas, mainly a reprint of the 1513 edition, and likewise printed by Schott.
20 Stevens, First Delineation, p. 44.
21 Raidelius [George Martin Raidel], Commentatio critico-literaria de Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia, etc. (Nuremberg: Haeredum Felseckerianorum, 1737), p. 56, suggests “quondam” is a mistake (by the typesetter?) for “quendam.” Thus, rather than being a “former Admiral,” it is a “certain Admiral.” There is no indication for choosing one word over the other so it will be left unchanged as “quondam,” i.e. former. An assessment of typesetter errors in the atlas, such as a statistical analysis, may indicate an answer.
22 See Stevens, First Delineation, pp. 30, 39–40, 43–4, for some discussion of the differing translations.
23 Alexander von Humboldt, Examen critique de l’histoire de la géographie du nouveau continent et des progrès de l’astronomie nautique au quinzième et seizième siècles, vol. 4 (Paris: Librarie de Gide, 1836–1839), p. 109.
24 For instance, Harrisse, Discovery of North America, pp. 274–280.
25 Lucien Gallois, “Une nouvelle carte Marine du XVIe siécle. Le portulan de Nicolas de Canerio,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Lyon 9.1 (January 1890), pp. 97–119 [NB: The correct citation to January, not July, amends my previous error in McIntosh, “The Caverio Planisphere (c. 1506) Was Not Copied,” p. 113 n. 5]. The Caverio planisphere was occasionally referenced earlier in the nineteenth century; see, for instance, Jean Nicolas Buache, “Considerations geographiques sur les iles Dina et Marseveen,” Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques de l’Institut de France 4 (1801), pp. 367–81; and Jules Codine, Mémoire géographique sur la mer des Indes (Paris: Challamel, 1868), p. 155.
26 The printed woodcut wall map of Martin Waldseemüller of 1507 is famed for being the first map to name “America.” It is entitled “Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorū que lustrationes,” and was printed by Johannes Grüninger in Strasbourg in 1507. The title translates as “The universal cosmography following the system of Ptolemy and the improvements of Amerigo Vespucci and others.” The circumstances of the rediscovery of this map and the “Carta Marina” of 1516 were first announced in Franz von Wieser, “Die älteste Karte mit dem Namen ‘America’: a. d. J. 1507 und die Carta Marina a. d. J. 1516 des Martin Waldseemüller,” Dr. A. Petermann’s Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes’ Geographischer Anstalt 47 (1901), pp. 271–5. See also Basil H. Soulsby, “The First Map Containing the Name America,” The Geographical Journal 19.2 (February 1902), pp. 201–09. The extant copy of the 1507 map today preserved in the Library of Congress (G3200 1507.W3) is a slightly revised second edition of c. 1515–16. On the revisions made for the second edition, see Elizabeth Harris, “The Waldseemüller World Map: A Typographic Appraisal,” Imago Mundi 37 (1985), pp. 30–53; and Gregory C. McIntosh, The Johannes Ruysch and Martin Waldseemüller World Maps: The Interplay and Merging of Early Sixteenth Century New World Cartographies, 2nd ed. (Long Beach, Calif.: Plus Ultra Publishing Co., 2015). For the appropriate attribution of the invention of the name America to the poet Matthias Ringmann (not Waldseemüller), see Franz Laubenberger, “Ringmann oder Waldseemüller? Eine kritische Untersuchung über den Urheber des Namens Amerika,” Erdkunde 13.3 (September 1959), pp. 163–179; and Franz Laubenberger and Steven Rowan, trans., “The Naming of America,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 13.4 (Winter 1982), pp. 91–113.
27 The “Carta marina navigatoria portugallen navigationes atque totius cogniti orbis terre marisque,” [Strasbourg (?)], 1516, is also a printed woodcut wall map of the world by Waldseemüller. The only extant copy is in the Jay I. Kislak Collection, Library of Congress. The title translates as “A nautical chart that comprehensively shows the Portuguese voyages and the shape and nature of the whole known world;” see Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, p. 5.
28 That the Caverio planisphere was an important source for both of Waldseemüller’s wall maps of 1507 and 1516 was first demonstrated in Josef Fischer and Franz von Wieser, Die älteste Karte mit dem Namen Amerika aus dem Jahre 1507 und die Carta Marina aus dem Jahre 1516 des M. Waldseemüller (Ilacomilus)/Oldest Map with the Name America of the Year 1507 and the Carta Marina of the Year 1516 by M. Waldseemüller (Innsbruck: Verlag der Wagner’schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1903), pp. 27–31.
29 Samuel McCoskry Stanton, “The Admiral’s Map: What Was It? And Who the Admiral?” in Isis 22.2 (February 1935), pp. 511–5.
30 Philip D. Burden, The Mapping of North America: A List of Printed Maps, 1511–1670 (Rickmansworth, Herts.: Raleigh Publications, 1996), p. 3 no. 5, pl. 3.
31 Humboldt, Examen critique, vol. 4, p. 109; Harrisse, Discovery of North America, p. 642 no. 249; Theodore E. Layng, Sixteenth-Century Maps Relating to Canada. A Check-List and Bibliography (Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1956), pp. 21–2.
32 Also noted in Stevens, First Delineation, p. 48: “Both Harrisse and Humboldt fail to note the identification of the Charta marina with the Orbis Typus as clearly proved by a reference to the title page of the ‘Supplementum’ to the 1513 Ptolemy and the title line of the map itself.”
33 Regarding the date of the Stevens-John Carter Brown map, the present author does not accept the argument and conclusions of Stevens. See L. C. Karpinski, “The First Map with the Name America,” The Geographical Review 20.4 (1930), pp. 664–8; E. P. Goldschmidt, “Johannes Cochlaeus and a Problem in Sixteenth-century Cartography,” The Geographical Journal 82.4 (1933), pp. 343–50; and W. M. Peitz, “Die erste Darstellung der Neuen Welt und das erste Vorkommen des Namens Amerika auf einer gedruckten Karte,” Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 76 (1930), pp. 295–301
34 Stevens, First Delineation, pp. 44–54.
35 Stevens, First Delineation, p. 44.
36 Chronologically, the additional fourteen, beyond the fourteen reviewed by Stevens, are Vicomte de Santarém (Manuel Francisco de Barros e Sousa), “Continuation des Notes additionnelles a la Lettre de M. le vicomte de Santarém sur les voyages d’Americ Vespuce, de 1501 à 1503,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 8, no. 45, 2nd ser. (September 1837), p. 171; Marie-Armand-Pascal d’Avezac, “Les Voyages d’Améric Vespuce au compte de l’Espagne,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 16 (4th series, nos. 91 to 96, July-December 1858), pp. 179–81; Jean George Théodore Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, 7 vols. in 8 (Dresden: Rudolf Kuntze; Geneva: H. Georg; London: Dulau & Comp.; Paris: C. Reinwald, 1858–69), vol. 5, p. 501; Henry Harrisse, Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima: A Description of Works Relating to America, Published Between 1492 and 1551 (New York: G. P. Philes, 1866), p. 136; Bernard Quaritch, A General Catalogue of Books Offered to the Public at the Affixed Prices (London: G. Norman and Son, 1874), pp. 831–2 no. 9720; Charles Leclerc, Bibliotheca americana: histoire, géographie, voyages, archéologie et linguistique des deux Amériques et des iles Philippines, [with] Supplément n° 1 and Supplément n° 2 (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1887), pp. 119–20, no. 472; John Fiske, The Discovery of America, With Some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest, 2 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company; [Cambridge, Mass.]: The Riverside Press, 1892), vol. 2, pp. 77–8, no. 1; Harrisse, Discovery of North America, p. 642 no. 249; Philip Lee Phillips, A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress, 4 vols. (Washington: Library of Congress, 1909–1920), vol. 1, p. 117; Stevens, First Delineation, p. 40; Stanton, “The Admiral’s Map,” pp. 511–515; Theodore E. Layng, Sixteenth-Century Maps Relating to Canada (Ottawa: Public Archives of Canada, 1956), pp. 21–22; R. A. Skelton, “Bibliographical Note,” intro. to Claudius Ptolemaeus Geographia: Strassburg 1513, rep. of 1513 (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd., 1966), p. viii; Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, p. 41.
37 Lelewel, Geographie du Moyen Age, vol. 2, p. 143.
38 It is not likely the reference is to Ferdinand (Fernando), King of Portugal from 1367 to 1383, over one-hundred years earlier; see Santarém, Recherches historiques, p. 165, no. 1.
39 Vicomte de Santarém (Manuel Francisco de Barros e Sousa), “Continuation des Notes additionnelles a la Lettre de M. le vicomte de Santarém sur les voyages d’Americ Vespuce, de 1501 à 1503,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie 8 (2nd ser., no. 45, September 1837), p. 171. Pedro Álvarez Cabral is another name that has been suggested (Winsor, Bibliography, p. 108) but he also was never made admiral.
40 Other maps with the same or similarly worded Discovery Inscription include the Contarini-Rosselli printed world map (1506; London, British Library, Maps C.2.cc.4); Johannes Ruysch printed world map (1508); and the Globe Vert (after 1515, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans, GE A-335 (RES). Note that the several names by which the Globe Vert has been know – Quirini, Acton, Bazolle, Vert, Green – and the fact that there were two globes known in the literature as Acton and two globes known as Bazolle – has created much bibliographical confusion.
41 Armando Cortesão and Avelino Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, 6 vols., rep. with additions of 1960 (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1987), vol. 1, pp. 7–9.
42 On Nicolò Caveri and his family, see McIntosh, “The Caverio Planisphere (c. 1506) Was Not Copied,” pp. 110–161, and the references cited in pp. 115–6, nn. 25–31.
43 Rodney W. Shirley, The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps (1472–1700), 2nd rev. ed. (London: Holland Press, 1987), p. 51, no. 45.
44 Formerly Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, lost in WWII. https://medea.fc.ul.pt/view/chart/661.
45 Pesaro, Italy, Biblioteca Oliveriana, Perg. 1940. https://medea.fc.ul.pt/view/chart/105.
46 Providence, Rhode Island, John Carter Brown Library, 3-SIZE Codex Z 2, f. 5.
47 Two examplars: Frankfurt, Historisches Museum, and Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek.
48 Jerónimo Zurita, Anales de la corona de Aragon, 7 vols. (Zaragoça: Lanaja, 1610–1621), vol. 4, pp. 150–153; William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, ed. John Foster Kirk, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1872–75), vol. 1, pp. 154–7.
49 Found in the Archives du Service hydrographique de la Marine in Paris by Lucien Gallois; see Gallois, “Une nouvelle carte Marine du XVIe siexcle,” p. 99.
50 On the use by Waldseemüller of the Ulm Ptolemy of 1482, see Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, p. 101. On the possible map by Martellus used by Waldseemüller, see Chet Van Duzer, “Graphic Record of a Lost Wall Map of the World (c. 1490) by Henricus Martellus,” Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 5, no. 2 (2015), pp. 48–64; and Van Duzer, Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale, pp. 41–2.
51 Formally entitled “Carta marina navigatoria Portugallen navigationes, atque tocius cogniti orbis terre marisque formam naturam situs et terminos nostris temporibus recognitos et ab antiquorum traditione differentes, eciam quor vetusti non meminerunt autore, hec generaliter indicat” (A nautical chart that comprehensively shows the Portuguese voyages and the shape and nature of the whole known world, both land and sea, its regions, and its limits as they have been determined in our times, and how they differ from the tradition of the ancients, and also areas not mentioned by the ancients). English translation from Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, p. 5.
52 Robert W. Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and their Maps: Bio-Bibliographies of the Cartographers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570 (Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press for The Newberry Library, 1993), p. 582: “The similarities between the Carta marina [printed wall map of 1516] and the Caveri [Caverio] planisphere are so striking as to enable one to name that map (or one almost identical) as its primary source.”
53 Joachim Lelewel, Géographie du Moyen-Age, 5 vols. in 4, plus atlas (Brussels: P.-J. Voglet, 1849; J. Pilliet, 1852–1857; reprint Amsterdam: Meridian, 1966), vol. 2, p. 143, no. 299.
54 Fischer and von Wieser Die älteste Karte, pp. 27–9. The curious transformation of a partial compass rose on the Caverio planisphere into a crescent on Waldseemüller’s “Carta Marina” map of 1516 (noted by Fischer and von Wieser, pp. 30–1) is further substantiation of the dependence of the German upon the Genoese. See also Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, p. 8.
55 The grid of longitudes and latitudes on the “Carta Marina” of 1516 were hand-drawn by Johannes Schöner (1477–1547) onto the printed map for the purpose of transferring cartographic data from the 1516 map to his 1520 globe; see Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, p. 52. The red lines of the parallels and meridians are not always visible in reproductions of the map. They are visible on the image at https://www.loc.gov/item/2016586433/.
56 Robert W. Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and their Maps: Bio-Bibliographies of the Cartographers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570 (Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press for The Newberry Library, 1993), pp. 579–80.
57 Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century, p. 582
58 At the time the Caverio planisphere was made, c. 1505–6, the Portuguese were just beginning to sail east of Cape Comorin.
59 Chet Van Duzer, Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging, Sources, Influence (New York: Springer, 2019); Chet Van Duzer, “Multispectral Imaging for the Study of Historic Maps: The Example of Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale,” Imago Mundi 68, no.1 (2016), pp. 62–6; Chet Van Duzer, “New Light on Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging and Early Renaissance Cartography,” delivered in the Caroline Werner Gannett Distinguished Speaker Series in Digital Humanities at the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, March 18, 2015, with video available at https://www.cis.rit.edu/martellus.
60 George E. Nunn, The Columbus and Magellan Concepts of South American Geography (Glenside, Pennsylvania, 1932), pp. 44–5; Arthur Davies, “Behaim, Martellus and Columbus,” Geographical Journal 143.3 (1977), p. 455: Tigerleg peninsula; William A. R. Richardson, “South America on Maps before Columbus? Martellus’s ‘Dragon’s Tail’ Peninsula,” Imago Mundi 55 (2003), pp. 25–37; Evelyn Edson, The World Map, 1300–1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), p. 218.
61 Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Art Storage.1980.157.
62 On the Cantino planisphere, completed in October 1502, an inscription at Greenland refers to this voyage of Gaspar Corte Real of 1500, though not by name. This is, however, confirmed by the letter of Pietro Pasqualigo to the Signiory of Venice, 18 Oct 1501, in Henry Percival Biggar, The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497–1534: A Collection of Documents Relating to the Early History of the Dominion of Canada (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1911), pp. 65–67 no. XXIII.
63 Heinrich Winter, “The Changing Face of Scandinavia and the Baltic in Cartography Up to 1522,” Imago Mundi 12 (1955), pp. 48–52.
64 London, British Library, Add. MS 15,760, ff. 68 v-69; and Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut.29.25, ff. 66 v-67 r.
65 Additionally, the distinctive “L-shaped” Madagascar of the 1507 map is derived neither from the Yale-Martellus nor Caverio world maps. Madagascar, ultimately from Il Milione of Marco Polo, in this distinctive shape is the same as often appearing on the maps of Francesco Rosselli, printed between c. 1492 and 1532 (Shirley, Mapping of the World, nos. 18, 28, 29 & 67).
66 The island of Labrador in the North Atlantic on the “Carta Marina” of 1516 is notable because it derives from the King-type design and not from the Lusitano-Germanic design-type of the Caverio. On the King-type design, see Bernard G. Hoffman, Cabot to Cartier: Sources for a Historical Ethnography of Northeastern North America, 1497–1550 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961), p. 52; and Heinrich Winter, “The Pseudo-Labrador and the Oblique Meridian,” Imago Mundi 2 (1937), p. 62. On the Lusitano-Germanic design-types, see Kenneth Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1990), pp. 34, 40, 52; and Lawrence C. Wroth, The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524–1528 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970), pp. 45–53. The Lusitano-Germanic design-type is also known as the “Vespuccian configuration” and the “Cantino tradition” (Hoffman, Cabot to Cartier, 46). On both design-types, see McIntosh, The Johannes Ruysch and Martin Waldseemüller World Maps, pp. 9–13.
67 On the Martellus isolarii, see Nathalie Bouloux, “L’Insularium illustratum d’Henricus Martellus,” The Historical Review/La Revue Historique 9 (2012), pp. 77–94.
68 Robert H. Fuson, Juan Ponce de León and the Spanish Discovery of Puerto Rico and Florida (Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, 2000), pp. 86–7; and Donald L. McGuirk, “The Presumed North America on the Waldseemüller World Map (1507): A Theory of Its Discovery by Christopher Columbus,” Terrae Incognitae 46, no. 2 (2014), pp. 96–7.
69 On the history of the Golden Peninsula, see G. E. Gerini, Researches on Ptolemy’s Geography of Eastern Asia (Further India and Indo-Malay Archipelago), Asiatic Society Monograph no. 1 (London: Royal Asiatic Society and Royal Geographical Society, 1909), pp. 77–116; and Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese: Studies in the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula Before A.D. 1500 (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1961). In addition, see also those references cited earlier for the Tigerleg or Dragon’s Tail peninsula.
70 It looks as if the rectangular Ptolemaic Persian Gulf that is on both the Martellus map and the Caverio planisphere provided Waldseemüller with a common point of overlap or conjunction when combining the two cartographic conceptional images to create his chimerical Orbis Typus.
71 Interestingly, the map of South Asia (Tabula moderna Indiae), which does not include the Martellean Tigerleg peninsula, shows that Waldseemüller closely followed his model, the Caverio planisphere, and not the Yale-Martellus design nor the British Library-Martellus design, for his depiction of the rectangular Ptolemaic Persian Gulf and associated placenames.
72 Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Colección de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV, 5 vols. (Madrid: Imprenta real, 1825–37), vol. 1, pp. 351–2; vol. 3, pp. 292–3.
73 The origins of the conventional wisdom regarding Vespucci, Waldseemüller, and the Gymnasium Vosagense go back to the 19th century, i.e. Humboldt and d’Avezac. A recent example of the generally accepted chronology is Van Duzer, Martin Waldseemüller’s “Carta marina”, pp. 4, 40. A discussion of the presently accepted timeline of the geographical and cartographic activities of the Gymnasium Vosagense would take us too far afield from our present discussion of the Admiral’s Map.
74 Luigi Tomasso Belgrano, “Documenti e genealogia dei Pessagno, genovesi, ammiragli del Portogallo,” in Atti della Societá Ligure di Storia Patria 15 (1881), pp. 259–60; Rosa Marreiros, Chancelaria de D. Dinis - Livro III (Vol. 2) (Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 2019), p. 220. Though many references give 10 February 1317 as the date of the appointment of Pessanha as Almirante, the image of the original document at https://antt.dglab.gov.pt/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2017/01/PT-TT-GAV-3-1-7_m0001.jpg, reads primeyro dia dw feueryro, the 1st of February.
75 António’s father was Lopo Vaz de Azevedo, surnamed “O Monge” (The Monk), the 11th Admiral of Portugal (Hereditary). Lopo was made governor of Tangier in June 1489; see Manoel Severim de Faria, Noticias de Portugal, offerecidas a el rey N.S. Dom Ioão o IV (Lisbon: Craesbeckianus, 1655), p. 68; and Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon: Chancelaria de D. Manuel I, liv. 1, fl. 4 (https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=3859654); and Chancelaria de D. Manuel I, liv. 38, fols. 12–39 v, and fl. 90 (https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=3876621 and https://digitarq.arquivos.pt/viewer?id=3876582).
76 João de Barros, Da Asia de João de Barros, Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista dos mares, e terras do Oriente, 13 pts. in 24 vols. (Lisbon: Regia Officina Typografica, 1777–88), Dec. I, Pt. 2, Liv. VI, Cap. 2, pp. 23–4.
77 Edward Heawood, “Review: The Earliest American Map,” The Geographical Journal 74.1 (July 1929), p. 76, suggests a Portuguese navigator such as Vasco da Gama may be intended for the admiral.
78 On the Capitão-mores, see Carla Alexandra Lima Pereira, “A Capitania-mor do Mar da Índia (1502–1564)” (M.A. diss., Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2016).
79 Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, ed. Damiäo Peres, 3rd ed. (Lisbon: Academia Portuguesa da História, 1988).
80 A royal proclamation of 13 November 1504 prohibited the makers of Portuguese nautical charts from depicting the African coast south of the Zaire River; see José Ramos Coelho, ed., Alguns documentos do Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo ácerca das navegações e conquistas portuguezas publicados por ordem do governo de sua majestade fidelissima ao celebrar-se a commemoração quadricentenaria do descobrimento da America (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1892), pp. 8, 139. In principle, this would have prevented Nicolò Caveri or anyone else from copying the Padrão Real. But the mere existence of Portuguese-made charts after 1504 (and not considering then-contemporary Italian-made charts) depicting the coast of Africa south of the Zaire River demonstrates the unenforceability of the edict. Some of these charts are: Indian Ocean, attributed to Jorge Reinel, c. 1510 (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 98 Aug. 2º); the charts in the atlas by Francisco Rodrigues, c. 1513 (Paris, Assemblée nationale, MS 1248. E/D 19); Indian Ocean, attributed to Pedro Reinel, c. 1517 (Paris, (Bibliothèque nationale de France, CPL GE AA-565).
81 Lisbon as the location of production for the planisphere was also suggested in Harrisse, Discovery of North America, p. 428.
82 Felipe Fernández Armesto, “Maps and Exploration in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries,” in The History of Cartography: Cartography in the European Renaissance, vol. 3, David Woodward, ed., pp. 738–770 (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 754, maintains the system of updating master charts, though “sound in theory, was chaotic in practice.”
83 Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, p. 93.
84 Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, p. 92.
85 Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, pp. 110–3.
86 Then in Sweden, now Russia.
87 Joseph Sabin, Wilberforce Eames, and R. W. G. Vail, Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from Its Discovery to the Present Time, vol. 26 (New York: The Printing House of William Edwin Rudge for the Bibliographical Society of America, 1935), pp. 444–5. The first edition of the Mundus Novus, aka “Medici Letter,” is a Latin translation from Italian, probably made by Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c. 1433–1515) in Paris, and printed in that city by Jean Lambert in 1503. Mundus Novus is the first of the two “public” letters, sent by Vespucci in 1502 from Lisbon to Lorenzo de Pier Francesco de Medici (1463–1503) in Florence.
88 Sabin et al., Bibliotheca Americana, pp. 444–5. Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, p. 94, apparently unaware of the Rome edition of 1504 brought to Strasbourg by Michaelis in 1505, supposed the edition of Vespucci’s Mundus Novus that was hypothetically sent to Ringmann was the 1503 Paris edition printed by Jehan Lambert (Harrisse, Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima, p. 70, no. 26).
89 Dedication to Jacob Bruno in De ora antarctica (1505).
90 The oration by the Portuguese ambassador to Pope Julius II in Rome was printed as Dieghus Pacecchus [Diogo Pacheco], Obedientia Potentissimi Emanuelis Lusitaniæ Regis &ċ. (Rome: Eucharius Silber, June 1505). This oration to the Pope regarding the voyages and discoveries of the Portuguese, significant for prompting Michaelis to purchase a copy of Mundus Novus (1504) and later transporting it into Ringmann’s hands, has not yet, to the best of my knowledge, been the subject of academic study.
91 Matthias Ringmann [Philesius], Cosmographiae Introductio cum quibusdam geometriae ac astronomiae principiis ad eam rem necessariis. Insuper quatuor Americi Vespucii navigationes. Universalis Cosmographiae descriptio tam in solido quam plano, eis etiam insertis, quae Ptholomaeo ignota a nuperis reperta sunt (Saint-Dié: Vautrin and Nikolaus Lud, 1507).
92 My identification of the “planned publication” as the Cosmographiae Introductio, and not the Strasbourg Ptolemy atlas of 1513, is a minor revision to the presently accepted understanding of the activities of the Gymnasium Vosagense. The explanation for this will be the subject of a future paper.
93 See McIntosh, “Martin Waldseemüller, Amerigo Vespucci,” pp. 139–142, for the transmission of the text from Vespucci’s manuscript letters to the published Quatuor Americi Vesputii navigationes as an appendix in the Cosmographiae Introductio.
94 Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, p. 76.
95 Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, p. 96.
96 Schmidt, Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace, vol. 2, p. 99.
97 The Cantino planisphere remained in the archives of the House of Este, in Ferrara, until 1592, when the map and the entire ducal library and collections were transferred to Modena after Pope Clement VIII despoiled Cesare d’Este of his duchy; see Harrisse, Discovery of North America, pp. 423–4.
98 On the consanguinuity of Gianfrancesco Pico and Ercole d’Este, see Pompeo Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane (Milan: Giusti, 1823), Table 11: “D’Este,” and Tables 3 & 4: “Pico della Mirandola.” The past uncertainty surrounding the identity of the husband of Bianca Maria d’Este was resolved in Antonio Frizzi, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara, 2nd ed., 5 vols. (Ferrara: Abram Servadio, 1847–50), vol. 3, p. 23; vol. 4, p. 63.
99 Sánchez, “Charts for an Empire,” pp. 173–188.
100 Harrisse, Discovery of North America, pp. 692, 694, 696, 697; and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_India_Armadas#The_Armadas.
101 The patch of parchment pasted over Brazil has frequently been commented upon; see, for instance, E. Roukema, “Brazil on the Cantino Map,” Imago Mundi 17 (1963), pp. 7–26; Fernando Lourenço Fernandes, O Planisféro de Cantino e o Brasil: Uma Introdução à Cartologia Política dos Descobrimentos e o Atlãntico Sul (Lisbon: Academia de Marinha, 2003), pp. 29–30; Alida C. Metcalf, Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), pp. 103–4.
102 Harrisse, Discovery of North America, pp. 422–4.
103 McIntosh, “Caverio Planisphere,” pp. 110–61. The present paper corrects my earlier erroneous assumptions that the Caverio planisphere was copied from or derived from the Cantino planisphere; see Gregory C. McIntosh, The Vesconte Maggiolo World Map of 1504 in Fano, Italy, 2nd ed. (Long Beach, Calif.: Plus Ultra Publishing Co., 2015); and https://www.academia.edu/44560489/Brief_Notice.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Gregory C. McIntosh
Gregory C. McIntosh is an independent scholar and formerly a Researcher at the Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, Departamento de História e Filosofia das Ciências, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749–016 Lisbon, Portugal, with support from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement 714033-MEDEA-CHART/ERC-2016-ST G). [email protected]