The schaffhausen Carta Marina of 1531

References

• Johannes Grüninger (c. 1460‐c. 1532), printer and publisher in Straßburg, spelled his name variously, as was common at the time. On the Carta Marina it is Grieninger; in his 1509 printing of the Vespucci letters in German (cf note 12, below) it is Grüniger; Professor Johnson in her book lists other variants (p. 122. Cf following note). The spelling Grüninger has become standard in the literature.
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• Johannes (Hans) Grüninger is named after his birthplace, the village Markgröningen near Ludwigsburg, Württemberg where a small municipal museum illustrating the history of printing and Grüninger's activity as a printer has been established. Although a number of other towns in western and central Europe are called Groningen or something similar, the Uslegung for 1530 by Lorenz Fries (cf. note 4, below) unequivocally identifies the one near Ludwigsburg as Grüninger's birthplace and even gives the names of several neighbouring towns which still exist. Johannes Grüninger's baptismal name was actually Johannes Reinhard. I thank Herr Robert Riße, founder of the Grüningermuseum in Markgröningen for sharing these data with me and for other kindnesses.
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• Johnson , Hildegard Binder . 1963 . Carta Marina, World Geography in Strassburg, 1525 159 Minneapolis pp., illus., map in pocket. This is a fine, scholarly study and a basic source for the Frics‐Grüninger Carta Marina
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• According to authorities at the Bayerische Staatsbiliothek cited by Meret Petrzilka the map was acquired through the secularization of the Augustiner Chorherrenstift in 1803.
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• The evidence is based not only on the date 1525 in the upper margin of the map but on the existence of dated manuals, called ‘Uslegung’ or ‘Underweisung und Uszlegung’ by Fries and published and sold by Grüninger, apparently to accompany the maps and give directions for assembling and mounting the sheets and to introduce and summarize the maps’ contents. A few of these manuals, dated 1525, 1527, and 1530 have survived. There is also the mention of a truncated Latin edition based on the 1530 Uslegung prepared after Fries’ death, but no regular edition of the manual in Latin to accompany the 1531 edition of the map has been recorded.
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• Hill , G. F. 1915 . The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe exhibited in sixty‐four tables Oxford Table XVI, pp. 52 and 53, shows a reversed 5 in a Dutch MS dated c. 1525; Table XXVII, pp. 70 and 71, shows two reversed 5's from the year 1524 on German monuments; and Table XXXVIII, pp. 88 and 89, shows them from a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder dated 1515
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• There are three dates on the map: 1525 in the upper right‐hand border; 1530, misread 1730, in the lower right body of the map; and MDXXXI in a cartouche in the middle right body of the map.
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• In the spring of 1988 Dr. René Specht, City Librarian of Schaflhausen, went to considerable trouble, for which 1 thank him most heartily, to investigate the background of the map in Schaffhausen insofar as it can be determined from local records. Along with Dr. Gérard Seiterle, Director of the Museum zu Allerheiligen, he examined the map carefully, taking it out of its frame. I take the liberty of translating freely from his report:
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• ‘The map bears no mark of ownership, but has on the back an old legend of identification:
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• VIII./No. 2/Carta Navigator./Portugall./l525.’ The handwriting in the legend is not identifiable as belonging to a previous librarian in Schaffhausen.’
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• ‘The Album publicae civicum scaphusianorum bibliothecae in which all donations between 1636, the year of establishment of the Library, and the end of the eighteenth century were recorded, does not mention the map.’
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• ‘Vol. 1 of the Protocollum der Bürgerbibliothec... which gives the minutes of the meetings of the Library Trustees in the period 1681–1826, and the associated list, Tabulae geographicae bibliothecae civicae do not mention the map.’
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• ‘The first mention of the Carta Marina in Schaffhausen that has come to light is in the Verzeichnis der zur Stadtbibliothek gehörenden Kunstgegenstände aufgenommen im Jahre 1856 (Register of Objects of Art belonging to the City Library as of 1856) prepared by the Librarian J.J. Mezger.’ The map is listed on f 9 r and has the classification Hs St q 13: ‘2. Carta Navigatoria Portugallens. Navigatorium 1525 (auf Holz und zum Aufschlagen eingerichtet) von Martinus Waldse.’ It is therefore not possible to determine when and through whom the Carta Marina of 1531 found its way into the Schaflhausen Library.
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• Petrarca . 1532 . Von der Artznay Bayder Glück Augsburg ‘There was another library in Schaflhausen which also went back to the Reformation, the Ministerialbibliothek, which was located for several centurcs in the St. Johanns‐Kirche. Since 1924 the Stadtbibliothek has had jurisdiction and has managed this collection as a deposit. Here we find the Underweisung und Uszlegung ... of 1530, classification no. ? 224, bound with This volume is already listed in 1589 in the oldest catalog of ownership. The map is not listed anywhere in the catalog of the Ministerialbibliothek. Whether map and commentary once belonged to the same owner in SchafThausen before they endedup in two separate libraries is a hypothesis for which the proof is lacking.’
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• Guyan , W. U. 1973 . Rundgang durch das Museum zu Allerheiligen Schafïhausen Newly printed with slight changes by the Museum Administration, 1982. P. 107: ‘Die große, 1531 bei Grieninger in Straßburg erschienene, 1730 in koloriertem Holzschnitt neu aufgelegte Erdkarte ...’
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• Guyan , W. U. 1987 . Schaffhausen; Schätze der Region 160 Thayngen In late 1987 a beautifully illustrated book on Treasures of Schaffhausen appeared under the authorship of Professor Guyan, subsidized in part by the Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft Schaffhausen: 4°. The Schafïhausen Carta Marina of 1531 is here reproduced, probably for the first time, in colours. The double page reproduction is good, but the brief text is not without errors. The date 1730 is no longer mentioned
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• While this article was at press a note correctly identifying the Schaffhausen Map on the basis of Meret Petrzilka's dissertation came to my attention. It is appended to a reprinting of the Lorenz Fries Uslegung of 1530 by Verlag Walther Uhl (Unterschneidheim, 1972).
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• As already indicated by Johnson and Petrzilka, the wind heads in the border and the cartoons in the body of the map were done by a talented artist probably belonging to the school of Albrecht Dürer, perhaps Hans Baidung Grien. The pictures were redrawn for the Fries‐Grüninger maps because of the reduced scale.
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• Daumas , M. 1968 . Histoire générale des techniques vol. 3 , 777 Paris Tracing was impossible because of the change of scale, and the pantograph was not to be invented until the following century. Cf.
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• The outlines of the coasts and the seas from North Africa northward are in fact so different and inferior from those of Waldseemüller that Fries may well have relied on another source for this part of the map.
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• The First Four Voyages of Amenais Vespucius; a Reprint in exact facsimile of the German edition printed at Strassburg, by John Grüniger, in 1509 (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1902). Diß büchlin saget wie die zwē durchlüchtigstē Herré Her Fernan‐dus.K.zu Castilien vnd Herr Emanuel.k.zu Portugal haben das weyte mor ersuchet vnnd funden vil Insulen/vnnd ein Nüwe welt von wilden nackenden Leüten/vormals unbekant.... Gedruckt zu Straßburg durch Johānē Grüniger
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• Im iar.M.CCCCC.ix.vff mitfast.
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• In the period 1530–1531 the disturbances associated with the Reformation were raging in full force. Whether the colouration of the map is an attempt to indicate transitory political or religious boundaries is not clear. Unfortunately an Uslegung corresponding to the 1531 Carta Marina has not been located.
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• A special paper is planned on this tentative identification, which is at variance with previous hypotheses.
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