The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in AmericaMurphy, Henry Cruse
History
The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in America
Murphy, Henry Cruse
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Verrazzano, Giovanni da, 1485-1528
A fact which indicates that this map could not have existed as late
as 1536, in the form in which it is now presented, if it existed
then at all, is that the western sea is delineated upon a map of the
world, made in that year, by Baptista Agnese, an Italian
cosmographer, without any reference to the Verrazzano discoveries,
under circumstances which would have led him to have recognized them
if he knew of them, and which would have required him to have done
so if this map were his authority. This sea is laid down by Agnese
in the same manner as it is shown on the Verrazzano map, approaching
the Atlantic, from the north, along a narrow isthmus terminating at
latitude 40 Degrees, with the coast turning abruptly to the west;
the ocean being thus represented open thence from the isthmus to
Cathay. A track of French navigation, not a single voyage, expressed
by the words: el viages de France, is designated upon it, leading
from the north of France to this isthmus, referring obviously to the
voyages of the fishermen of Brittany and Normandy, to the coasts of
Nova Scotia and New England. No allusion is made to the voyage of
Verrazzano, or to the discoveries attributed to him by the Verrazano
map. The Atlantic coast on the contrary, is plainly delineated after
the Spanish map of Ribero, as is shown by the form, peculiar to that
map, of the coast, at latitude 40 Degrees, returning to the west. It
is apparent, therefore, that the two maps of Agnese and Verrazano,
both representing the western sea in the same form, must have been
derived from a common source, or else one was taken from the other;
and that the map of Agnese could not, in either case, have been
derived from a map showing the Verrazzano discovery, and must
consequently have been anterior to the Verrazano map in its present
form.
It militates against the authenticity of the Verrazano map and the
early date which it would have inferred for itself, that there is
not a single known map or chart, either published or unpublished,
before the great map of Mercator in 1569, that refers to the
Verrazzano discoveries, or recognizes this map in any respect before
that of Michael Lok, published by Hakluyt, in 1582; or any before
Lok, that applies the name of the sea of Verrazano to the western
sea. The unauthenticated and until recently unnoticed globe of
Euphrosynus Ulpius, purporting to have been constructed in 1542, of
which we will speak presently, is the only evidence yet presented of
the existence of the Verrazano map, as it now appears, beyond the
map itself. The whole theory of the early influence of the
Verrazzano discovery, or of the Verrazano map, upon the cartography
of the period to which they relate, and its consequently proving
their authenticity, as advanced by some learned writers, is
therefore incorrect and is founded in a misconception of fact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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