title: Maps illustrating early discovery ...in America...
text: "J^ ' • • o ♦^ .0 '^0 y^ *-i.%'5° %'^.'''y '"v*';?^-*.^ V*^"^''/ \'-' . • jsS^^-fc*^ o ^o,^*<?^\/ ^^^^'Z '^^,'^^\/ %.^^''\^^ ' W^ ..„ '**^"''*°'' "V'^-'y '°^'^vf'*/ *<j.-T^-./ 'o^-. L-^ O^ -^ !'•- **..** .*5 0^ . "^oL' ^o [Reprimed from Thk AMERICAN Historical Rkview, \o1. X., No. 4, July, 1905. J •1 f^yi m Maps Illustrating Early Discovery and Exi'iuruclo,„ in A;: ijG2-ij^o. Reproduced by Photography from the original Man- uscripts. Issued under the Direction of Edward Luther Stevenson, Ph.D., Professor of History in Rutgers College. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: 1903-1905. Twelve maps in 124 sheets, with folio printed covers, and key-maps with explanatory texts.) IJk/UCc' This series of great cartographical monuments is by far the most important contribution of its kind ever issued under American auspices. It was planned by Professor Stevenson as an aid to American scholar- ship and with no thought of monetary profit. He discussed his plans with a few scholars interested iu this field of investigation and, in December, 1902, sent to about a dozen large and representative Ameri- can libraries type-written proposals, in which he unfolded both the plans and the approximate costs, and solicited their subscriptions to the co- operative scheme. He, on his part, agreed to manage the arrangements for procuring negatives or photographs in the widely scattered deposi- tories of Europe, where the unique originals repose ; and by the exercise of great patience, tact, and untiring efforc he has succeeded in securing V V . ..ri -K 864 Reviews of Books for the first time complete facsimiles of all of them in the sizes of the originals. The plans met with favorable acceptance, and sets of the series were ordered by enough subscribers to make the issue possible. The first number was delivered in August, 1903. Since American scholars will wish to consult these maps, a list of the depositories of the sets is given here. It will be noticed that all of them are in the United States. They are located geographically as follows: Massachusetts: Harvard College Library; Boston Public Library; Forbes Memorial Library (Northampton). Rhode Island: John Carter Brown Library; George Parker Winship (Providence), private set. New York: Ameri- can Geographical Society; New York Public Library (Lenox Build- ing); Archer M. Huntington (New York city), private set; Cornell University Library. New Jersey: New Jersey Historical Society; Princeton University Library; Rutgers College Library; Professor Stevenson, private set. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Library. Washington, D. C. : Library of Congress. Illinois: New- berry Library. Wisconsin : State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Also one set not yet definitely disposed of, making eighteen full sets in all. As these maps are of great historical and geographical importance, it is perhaps relevent to discuss them separately and in more or less detail, following the numerical order assigned to them in the series, and by which they may become known in future brief citations , of them. Six of the maps, in ninety-nine sheets, are photographic prints; the remaining half are reproduced in twenty-five sheets by the Bierstadt artotype process, directly from the negatives. In explanation it may be said that some of the foreign depositories made it a condition that the negatives should not pass out of their jurisdiction, otherwise Pro- fessor Stevenson would have made the series uniform by the artotype process, as that method presents advantages not attainable by a photo- graph. On the whole the results are excellent. It will now be possible to collate with this series the former sectional lithographs in Kunst- mann. Kohl, Kretschmer, Harrisse, and others, in so far as they have used American parts of any of the maps. But for the larger part of the world, this series presents the only opportunity to study side by side these planispheres. (i) Cantino, 1502-1504. Photograph, fifteen sheets; whole size, 1060 by 2180 mm. The original is on vellum, colored and gilt, and had a checkered career, during which it was used as a cover for a screen. Giuseppe Boni, librarian of the Biblioteca Estense, at Modena, Italy, found it in 1859 in the shop of a pork-butcher, from whom he pur- chased it, and after restoring it gave the map to the library over which he presided. Alberto Cantino was envoy of Hercules d'Este, duke of Ferrara (died 1505) to the court of Portugal, and kept his patron in- formed of the discoveries made under Portuguese and Spanish auspices. Gift. Stevenson: Early Amei^ican Maps 865 As the duke wished to have them indicated upon a map, Cantino em- ployed a cartographer in Lisbon, who was probably an Italian, and this map was in the making from December, 1501, to October, 1502. The cursive handwriting represents subsequent additions, based, it is thought, upon the third voyage of Vespucius, from data which. Cantino pro- cured from him on his return. How the map wandered out of the duke's possession is not known. Next to the Juan de la Cosa planisphere (1500) it is the oldest known map upon which the New World is sketched, and it exerted a far-reaching influence, particularly upon the Portuguese-German type, as represented by Waldseemiiller and Schoner. Besides the Vespucian data it utilized the results of the third voyage of Columbus (1498), of Corte-Real (1501), and of Cabral (1500) ; was dependent largely upon Portuguese sources, and is the first known map in which the West Indies received the appellation of " Antilhas". There is a precision and fullness to the Asiatic coast as not shown be- fore. Harrisse was the first to issue a portion, namely the New World, in his Les Corfc-Rcal (1883), but the nomenclature of his facsimile is not absolutely accurate. His greatly reduced sections, in Discovery of North America (1892), are too small to be serviceable, and Stevenson presents for the first time the whole map in its full size by direct photography. (2) ]\Iunich-Portuguese, 1502-1504. Artotype, six sheets; whole size, 1040 by 1 170 mm. Original in the Royal Library, Munich. It exhibits certain features of the Cantino map ; shows Newfoundland as an elongated island : gives some new names, and represents the coast of South America in particular. It belongs to the Lusitanian type of charts, which did not influence much the later cartography. Kr'.nstmann (No. 2) and Kretschmer reproduced only the New World portion. (3) Pilestrina, 1503-1505. Artotype, four sheets; whole size, 1220 by 830 mm. Identified as the work of Salvatore de Pilestrina, of Majorca. The original is in the Koniglich Bayer'schen Haupt Conser- vatorium at Munich. It is a kind of Catalano-Lusitanian map of the world; shows an admixture of Italian and Portuguese, with Spanish traits, and contains the discoveries of Corte-Real and of Vespucius. Harrisse places it "after 1502"; Peschel, 1502-1503; Kohl, 1504-1505; and Sophus Ruge, 1 503-1504. Only the American portion was repro- duced before, by Kunstmann (No. 3) and Kretschmer (plate ix : i) ; of these, the larger is Kunstmann, who gives less than half of the map, in somewhat reduced dimensions. The original extends to the east- ward as far as the Red and Black seas and South Africa, and its appear- ance indicates that it may have been larger. (4) Maggiolo, 1519. Artotype, one sheet; whole size, 335 by 500 mm. Original by Vesconte de Maggiolo, in Royal Library, Munich, where it belongs to an atlas of seven maps on vellum. It gives more islands than any preceding map; follows the Canerio rather fully for coast names, and, according to Harrisse, " for the period between the 866 Reviews of Books Peter Martyr map (1511), and the Turin chart {circa 1523), ... it fills a gap in the Hydrography of the New World, which cannot be re- placed, thus far [1892], by any other cartographical document." Re- produced, but not with all the nomenclature, by Kunstmann (Xo. 5) and Santarem. (5) Munich-Portuguese. 1516-1520. Artot\-pe, six sheets: whole size, 630 by 1260 mm. Original in Royal Library, ^Munich; formerly attributed erroneously to Salvatore de Pilestrina. It is the earliest known map in which Balboa's discovery- of the Pacific is designated, namely, as " ^lar \'isto Pelos Castelhanos"'. The demarcation line of Tordesilhas, June 7, 1494, divides the map, and the names of the Bahama Islands and South America seem to be dependent upon Spanish sources. There are several reproductions of American sections, particularly Kunstmann (No. 4) and Kretschmer (plate xii : 2), of which the former is the best, but it shows only about one-third of the whole map and omits place-names. (6) Turin-Spanish. 1523-1525. Photograph, twelve sheets; whole size, 1 125 by 2600 mm. Original on vellum, in the Libran.- of the King of Italy, at Turin. The legends are Spanish and Latin, seldom Portuguese, and the map. next to La Cosa's, is the first to be founded on Spanish discoveries. Harrisse says it is " the most valuable car- tographical document of the sixteenth century which we possess for the nomenclature '*, and he lauds its accuracy in this respect. Merely shown before in a sketch-map by Harrisse. (7) Salviati, 1525-1527. Photograph, twent\--four sheets; whole size, 050 by 2055 ^n™- Original in the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence, on paper, and receives its present name because it bears the coat of arms of Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, who was nuncio in Spain from 1525 to 1530. Its nomenclature is in Spanish, Latin, and Portu- guese; and it exhibits only the east coast of America from Labrador to the Straits of Magellan, but the coast-lines of Africa and southern Asia have a very replete series of names. The ship Victoria of Magellan is shown with an inscription. Now reproduced for the first time. (8) Wolfenbiittel-Spanish. 1525-1530. Artotype. four sheets, rep- resenting two sections; original size, according to ^^'. Ruge (A, 652 by 855 mm.; B, 557 by 854 mm.); on parchment. It is in the st\le of Ribero, and is a portion of a planisphere, in colors, exhibiting .\merica from Labrador to Patagonia: the sheet with the Old World regions is lost. The original is in the Grand Ducal Libran,-. Wolfenbiittel, having been purchased by the Duke Augustus of Brunswick-Liineburg (1604- 1666). The place-names are Portuguese, but of Spanish influence, and the nomenclature of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is noteworthy, since it is the first Spanish map on which it appears. A photograph of it was loaned to the Columbian Exposition. Chicago, 1893. but was not re- turned and has disappeared. Otherwise. Stevenson's is the first known reproduction. Stevenson : Early American Maps 867 (9) Weimar-Spanish, 1527. Photograph, twelve sheets; whole size, 805 by 2160 mm. Original, on parchment in the Grand Ducal Librarj-, Weimar. Variously ascribed to Ferdinand Columbus. Xuno Garcia de Toreno. and Ribero, but the maker has not been absolutely determined. It has the date 1527. and " is the first extant oflBcial Spanish marine chart". It portrays for the first time the Xew World as a whole land mass, in the north named "' Mimdus Xovus "' and in the south " Brasil " ; and the Straits of Magellan are set down correctly for the first time. The American section was reproduced, not with absolute fidelity, in Kohl's Die heidcn altesten General-Karten z'on Amerika (Weimar, i860). Xow shown as a whole for the first time. (io> Maggiolo. 1527. ArtotA-pe, four sheets: whole sfze. 1700 by 600 mm. Original, by \"esconte de Maggiolo. on parchment, colored, in the Ambrosian Librar\-. Milan. It influenced later maps, and Harrisse says, it " represents closely a protot>-pe, still unknown, on which were inscribed \'errazanian data, shortly after the return of the IHorentine na\ngator ". The American portion was given by Weise and Harrisse. reduced, and the late B. F. De Costa had three copies made, size 345 by 990 mm., two of which are in the Xew York Public Library-, but no com- plete facsimile in full size is known. Stevenson's reproduction has not been sent out, at the time of this writing, but it will prove to be among the choicest of the series. (11) Ribero. 1529. Photograph, twelve sheets: whole size. 850 by 2125 mm. Original, on parchment, by Diego Ribero. in the Grand Ducal Library. Weimar, mended in places. It is by one of the best cosmographers of his time, and a work of first importance. Reproduc- tions of the American portion have appeared in several places : Sprc.igel, Ueber J, Ribero' s alieste Weltcharte (Weimar. 1795), Santarem's Atlas de Mappemondes, Rretschmer (plate xv), Xordenskiold's Periplus (plate XLViii), and particularly in Kohl's Die beiden altesten General- Karten %'qn Amerika, but the latter shows only one-third of the whole map. and his nomenclature is faulty. (12) Verrazano. 1529. Photograph, twenty- four sheets: whole size, 1270 by 2560 mm. Original, by Girolamo da Verrazano. brother of the American navigator, in the Library of the Propaganda Fide, Rome, to which it was bequeathed by Cardinal Stefano Borgia, in 1804, with his musemn. All of its nomenclature is in Italian, and it shows the dis- coveries of Giovanni da Verrazano. being also the first Italian map to inscribe the name *' Tierra America", here placed across Venezuela, while it names the site of the L'nited States as " Xova Gallia, sive Ivcatanet ". the last word being likely a curious misapplication of Yuca- tan. It has been described often, and .\lessandri, of Rome, photo- graphed it some time ago. but in what size has not been determined. The reductions by Brevoort, Murphy, and others are imperfect The Stevenson facsimile, however, affords .\merican students the first op- portunity.- to study it properly. The key-maps have not been issued thus far. 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