Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
During the next twenty years or more, the varying knowledge of the
Atlantic is shown in a number of maps, a few of which may be named:—The
Catalan map “de Gabriell de Valsequa, faite à Mallorcha en 1439,”
which shows the Azores, and which Vespucius is said to have owned
(Santarem, pl. 54). The planisphere “in lingua latina dell’ anno 1447,”
in the national library at Florence (Ongania, 1881). The world maps of
Giovanni Leardo (Johannes Leardus), 1448 and 1452, the former of which
is given in Santarem (pl. 25,—also _Hist. Cartog._ iii. 398), and the
latter reproduced by Ongania, 1880. One is in the Ambrosian library,
and the other in the Museo Civico at Vicenza (cf. _Studi_, etc., ii.
72, 73). In the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele at Rome there is the
sea-chart of Bartolomaeus de Pareto of 1455, on which we find laid down
the Fortunate Islands, St. Brandan’s, Antillia, and Royllo.[508] The
World of Fra Mauro[509] has been referred to elsewhere in the present
volume.
[Illustration: LAON GLOBE.
From a “projection Synoptique Cordiforme” in the _Bull. de la Soc. de
Géog._, 4e série, xx. (1860), in connection with a paper by D’Avezac
(p. 398). Cf. Oscar Peschel in _Ausland_ May 12, 1861; also in his
_Abhandlungen_, i. 226.]
We come now to the conditions of the Atlantic cartography immediately
preceding the voyage of Columbus. The most prominent specimens of this
period are the various marine charts of Grogioso and Andreas Benincasa
from 1461 to 1490. Some of these are given by Santarem, Lelewel, and
St. Martin; but the best enumeration of them is given in the _Studi
biog. e bibliog. della Soc. Geog. Ital._ ii. 66, 77-84, 92, 99, 100.
Of Toscanelli’s map of 1474, which influenced Columbus, we have no
sketch, though some attempts have been made to reconstruct it from
descriptions. (Cf. Vol. II. p. 103; Harrisse’s _Christophe Colomb._,
i. 127, 129.) Brief mention may also be made of the Laon globe of 1486
(dated 1493), of which D’Avezac gives a projection in the _Bulletin
de la Soc. de Géog._ xx. 417; of the Majorcan (Catalan) Carta nautica
of about 1487 (cf. _Studi_, etc., ii. no. 397; _Bull. Soc. Géog._, i.
295); of the chart in the Egerton MSS., Brit. Mus., made by Christofalo
Soligo about the same time, and which has no dearth of islands (cf.
_Studi_, etc., i. 89); of those of Nicola Fiorin, Canepa, and Giacomo
Bertran (_Studi_, etc., ii. 82, 86, and no. 398). The globe of Behaim
(1492) gives the very latest of these ante-Columbian views (see Vol.
II. 105).
[Illustration: _A Fac-simile from_ BORDONE, 1547.]
[Illustration: END OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY. (Santarem’s _Atlas_.)]
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