![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"})
Notes
1 Forlani, ‘Universale Descrittione’. (Eccoui benigni Lettori una nuoua descrittione di tutto il mondo, la quale è la piu particuolare, fidele, giusta, et conformi alle nauigationi et historie di quanti fin qui sene sono uedute da uoi.)
2 De Chaves, Espejo de Navegantes [c. 1527], 110, cited and translated by Sandman, ‘Mirroring the World,’ 92.’
3 Amongst genres of medieval maps, the only format which relied on exactness was the portolano, sea charts used largely for Mediterranean trading. Tony Campbell notes that ‘an almost exclusive interest in the real world sets the portolan charts aside from other mapmaking activities of the Middle Ages.’ Campbell, ‘Portolan Charts’, 446. For an assessment of marine and sea charts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, see Edson, The World Map, 33–89; on the sixteenth-century production of nautical charts, see Astengo, ‘The Renaissance Chart Tradition’, 174–237.
4 As Richard Kagan and Benjamin Schmidt note, ‘for centuries [after Ptolemy's rediscovery] most maps and views were produced without recourse to triangulation, plane tables, theodolites, and other surveying instruments equated with the rise of Ptolemaic, or “scientific”, cartography.’ Kagan and Schmidt, ‘Maps and the Early Modern State’, 663.
5 As John Snyder points out, ‘the empirical data for compiling an accurately plotted map were largely unavailable until the position of a large number of key astronomical observatories had been fixed in the seventeenth century.’ Snyder, ‘Map Projections’, 380.
6 Woodward, ‘Cartography and the Renaissance’, 13.
7 Danti, Trattato delle perfette proporzioni. Also discussed in Swan, ‘Ad vivum’, 355; Maier, ‘A “True Likeness”‘, 713.
8 For example, see Swan, ‘Ad vivum’, 353–372; Smith, ‘Art, Science, and Visual Culture’, 83–100; Parshall, ‘Imago contrafacta’, 554–579. On botany and anatomy, see Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature. Kusukawa notes that Leonhart Fuchs, in his De historia stirpium (1542), emphasized that his pictures of plants were ‘as “complete” as possible, with no individual blemishes’, standing in as ideal rather than particular specimens. Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 119.
9 Morsolin, Giangiorgio Trissino, 392. (Al nostro iudicio elegantissima et engeniosa, sebben troppo et fori della verita excede in laudarmi et perche il vulgar proverbio e: ‘so che tu non dici il vero, pur mi piace.’) Cited and translated by Maier, ‘A “True Likeness”‘, 714. Maier notes that the portrait in question was Trissino's Ritratti (Rome, 1524). Maier has recently demonstrated the many connections between portraits of cities and of individuals, noting that both demanded a blending of physical form with symbolic meaning; see Maier, ‘A “True Likeness”‘, 711–752.
10 Cellini, Autobiography, 320.
11 Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, 6:252. See also Mansfield, Too Beautiful, 26–29.
12 Alberti, On Painting, 99–101.
13 Maier, ‘A “True Likeness”‘, 748. Kusukawa makes a similar point, reminding us that ‘it would simply be unwise to presume that “naturalistic” pictures are transparent windows onto nature and natural objects of the past’: Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature, 8.
14 See, for example, Woodward, ‘Paolo Forlani’, 45–64; Schulz, ‘de'Barbari's View of Venice’, 425–74; and Armstrong, ‘Benedetto Bordon’, 65–92.
15 Woodward, ‘Paolo Forlani’, 46.
16 Two distinct copies of an inventory of the Rosselli shop made after the death of Francesco and his heir Alessandro exist. These two copies are Archivio di Stato di Firenze Magistrato dei Pupilli 189, no. 105, 1527/8 20 Feb. and ASF MdP 190, no. 52, 14 Feb 1527/8.
17 Vasari, Lives of the Artists, 227.
18 Other projections include the double hemisphere, azimuthal, and Mercator. See Snyder, ‘Map Projections’, 365–81.
19 Vasari, Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, 8:174.
20 See Gautier Dalché, ‘Reception of Ptolemy's Geography’, 285–364.
21 Ptolemy, Ptolemy's Geography, 92, 88.
22 Ibid., 57.
23 Ruscelli, Ptolemy, and Moleti, La Geografia, 3. (La Geografia è imitatione del disegno di tutta la Terra, ò di tutto questo nostro Mondo da noi conosciuto.)
24 This holds true in the terminology applied in sixteenth-century household inventories, where the term disegno was used for city and regional maps, but very infrequently applied to world maps. In his 1610 Italian-to-English dictionary, Florio translated disegno as ‘design’, ‘model’, and ‘painting’, though in the context of art it is often rendered ‘drawing’. See http://www.pbm.com/∼lindahl/florio/search/167c.html.
25 Ruscelli, Ptolemy, and Moleti, La Geografia, 3. (Dice, imitatione del disegno, & non dice disegno proprio, percioche la descrittione, che del mondo si fa in piano, ò in balle, non è propriamente disegno, che non si dipingono in essa le città e i paesi, con la propria forma loro, ma si notano solamente con alcuni segnetti, ò punti, ò tondi, ò quadretti piccioli, & col nome di tai luoghi, ò terre, ò fiumi, ò mari, che con tai segni si rappresentano. Et però ella è più tosto veramente imitatione di disegno, che disegno vero.)
26 This use of maps was by no means new in the sixteenth century; medieval world maps served a similar function, but did not link the mnemonic function of maps to the accuracy of the depiction. See, for example, Kupfer, ‘Medieval World Maps’, 262–288.
27 Münster, ‘Aggiunta di Sebastiano Munstero’, vi r. (Cosi non solamente intendere la uera habitudine del luogo per la dipintura primamente ueduta, ma uederla quasi col senso dell'occhio.)
28 Biblioteca Marciana It. cl. XII, cod. 211, cited by Fulin, ‘Diarii e diaristi’, xx, xix. (Immensi tandem reseratur machina mundi [...] Vidi quae continent orbis,/ Quae mare, quae caelum, tartara et antipodes [...] Qui mare, qui terram et vastum vult cernere mundum,/ Ille domum aspiciat, docte Marine, tuam.)
29 Swan, ‘Ad vivum’, 359.
30 Castiglione, Il Cortegiano, 65. (Chè la machina del mondo [...] dir si può che una nobile e grand pittura sia, per man della natura e di Dio composta; la qual chi può imitare, parmi esser di gran laude degno.)
31 Panofsky, ‘Artist, Scientist, Genius’, 171–172: the act of creation was often likened to divine power, as with Michelangelo's epithet divino. Imitation of the divine creation, through art, could be understood as a type of sublime inspiration.
32 For more on early-modern theories of vision, see Clark, Vanities of the Eye, particularly 9–38. Clark argues that the ‘ocularcentrism’ of the era was challenged by visual anomalies and paradigms that threatened to destroy the place of sight as first in the order of knowing. Vision could, of course, be deceiving, and artists themselves were praised for the ability to obfuscate the line between reality and artifice; however, by and large the confidence in man's ability to extract knowledge through sight remained intact in the Renaissance.
33 Braun and Hogenberg, Civitates.
34 Muir, Civic Ritual, 103–119.
35 Nuti, ‘Perspective Plan’, 121–122. Nuti notes that maps of Moscow were very rare in sixteenth-century Europe, thus making the representations of clothing and animals even more valuable information.
36 E.g. Magnus, ‘Carta Marina’, which includes depictions of the enthroned rulers of the Scandinavian territories with a coat of arms for each.
37 See Pagden, European Encounters, 51–87, re: the ‘autoptic imagination’.
38 Falchetta, Fra Mauro's World Map, 211–213, n149. (E I diti hano fato nuove carte de quel navegar e hano posto nomi nuovi a fiumere, colfi, cavi, porti, di qual ne ho habuto copia. Unde se'l se vorà contradir a questi I qual hano visto ad ochio, maçormente se porà non assentire né creder a queli che hano lassato in scriptis quelo hi non vete mai ad ochio, ma cusì hano opinado esser.)
39 Magnus, Historia de gentibus, 4. Cited and translated by Johannesson, The Renaissance of the Goths, 176.
40 Duchetti, [Untitled Map of Europe]. (Et nel rimane[n]te habbia[mo] corretto le tauole di Tolomeo quanto se p[er] noi potuto co[n] l'aiuto de gli auttori piu dotti e delle tauole nauigatorie.)
41 Ibid. (Primierame[n]te habbia tratto da molti degni auttori e da gl'itinerarii moderni le dista[n]ze di molti luoghi.)
42 Ibid. (Qua[n]to alla forma della descrittione noi habbia[mo] seguito il sito e la facia moderna d'ogni luogho ed'ogni paese douu[n]q[ue] habbia[mo] potuto imitarla.)
43 Two editions produced in 1482 were the first to include contemporary maps. Nicolas Laurentis produced a set to accompany Francesco Berlinghieri's vernacular, verse translation of Geographia, which added contemporary geographical information to Ptolemy's classical text. Using Ptolemy's map categories, Laurentis added modern versions of Spain, France, Italy, and Palestine. The first edition of Ptolemy printed outside of Italy, the 1482 Ulm edition, also included modern maps of Spain, France, Italy, Palestine, and Scandinavia.
44 For examples, see Woodward, ‘Paolo Forlani’, 45–64; Woodward, Maps as Prints, ch. 1–2.
45 Forlani, ‘Della Italia’. (Della Italia, la uera, et ultima descriptione riformata, et in molti luogi diligentemente ricoretta, et ampliata.)
46 Gastaldi, ‘Noua Descriptione de la Moscouia’; Bertelli, ‘Germaniae Omiumque eius prouinciarum’.
47 Bertelli, ‘Ancona’; Camocio, ‘Frisiae’; Forlani, ‘Egitto’.
48 Forlani, ‘Universale Descrittione’. (Universale Descrittione di Tutta la Terra Conosciuta Fin Qui.)
49 Carlton, ‘Worldly Consumers’, ch. 3.
50 This is certainly true for world maps or maps of distant locations, but may also be the case for many city views. In the case of sixteenth-century Venice, maps of the city itself were surprisingly unpopular, considering how many maps of Venice were produced in this century. Of the 76 city views in Venetian household inventories made between 1497 and 1631, only two were of Venice, and one of these was owned by a foreigner. This implies that city views were meant not for the people most familiar with the city, but rather were aimed at outsiders, many of whom likely never saw the city represented. See ibid., 201–204.
51 My thanks to one of the readers for this article for bringing this point to my attention.
52 Forlani, ‘Universale Descrittione’. (Eccoui benigni Lettori una nuoua descrittione di tutto il mondo, la quale è la piu particuolare, fidele, giusta, et conformi alle nauigationi et historie di quanti fin qui sene sono uedute da uoi.) Also see n1, above. For a similar finding about inflated rhetoric of newness in the period, specifically with regard to French print culture, see Masse, ‘Newness and Discovery’.
53 Forlani, ‘Lombardia’. (Hauendone jo hauto uno fatto on molta diligentia emisurato con gradi in longitudine et latitudine et co[n]fini da ogni parte ha uoluto darlo in lucce.)
54 Agnese, [World Map showing Magellan's route].
55 Gastaldi, ‘Sumatra’.
56 Forlani, [Untitled Map of the Gulf of Venice].
57 Ptolemy, Ptolemy's Geography, 58.
58 For more, see Friedman, ‘“Fiorenza”’, 56–77; Maier, ‘A “True Likeness”’, 727–729; Nuti, ‘Perspective Plan’, 113–15.
59 For more, see Friedman, ‘“Fiorenza”’, 56–77.
60 See Frangenberg, ‘Chorographies of Florence’, 43: ‘the visual plausibility of such a viewpoint is emphasized by including an image of the view's maker.’
61 See Schulz, ‘De'Barbari's View of Venice’, 431–437. Schulz discusses the proponents of the theory that de'Barbari's map was prepared from survey data and his own reasons for dismissing his prior support for the argument by noting that neither compasses nor survey data were commonly used in producing maps in de'Barbari's time.
62 Wilson, The World in Venice, 42.
63 Schulz, ‘De'Barbari's View of Venice’, 438–439.
64 Ibid.
65 Howard, ‘Venice as a Dolphin’, 101.
66 Ibid., 106.
67 Ballon and Friedman, ‘Portraying the City’, 683.
68 Piccolpasso, Le Piante, 262. (Sempre il pittore deve cercare nel ritrarre le cose naturali d'elegere le parti più perfette e fuggire o coprire quanto sia possibile, se la necessità non ne sforza, la parte men bella [. . .] delle cose che si ritranno elleger si deve sempre la più bella parte; qual parte trovate voi nell'huomo che sia più bella de l'ochio.) Also cited in Maier, ‘A “True Likeness”’, 724.