Colomb fut mort, Bartolomeo vint à Rome et fit des démarches auprès du pape. Il lui demanda son appui pour déterminer le roi d'Espagne à envoyer une colonie sur les côtes qu'il avait contribué à découvrir. Il remettait en même temps à son frère Hieronimo, chanoine de Saint-Jean de Latran, une relation de son voyage avec une carte: 'Di sua mano uno disegnio de' litti di tal terre dove eron descripte i lochi, la conditione et natura et costumi et abiti di quelli popoli.' Frère Hieronimo donna plus tard la lettre et la ou les cartes à Strozzi, dont la collection est aujourd'hui à la Bibliothèque Nationale de Florence. Strozzi fit un extrait de la relation. Ce texte est connu des historiens de la géographie. Mais le dessin signalé paraissait être perdu. M. Wieser, en examinant le manuscrit qui contient le résumé de Strozzi, a trouvé, insérées au milieu d'un autre document, trois petites cartes manuscrites qu'il n'hésite pas à considérer, sinon comme l'œuvre de Bartolomeo lui-même, du moins comme directement inspirées de son dessin. La première hypothèse rencontre une difficulté: le texte dit que la carte devait contenir des renseignements sur les mœurs et les costumes des indigènes, et les petites cartes ne donnent pas ces détails. Mais, par leur nomenclature, par leur dessins elles correspondent parfaitement au texte de Strozzi. Il est donc tout à fait légitime d'admettre qu'elles sont directement inspirées de la carte de Colomb et de son frère. Elles ́ont été faites surtout pour montrer que cette côte était voisine de l'Inde; et précisément nous savons que Colomb, pendant ce quatrième voyage, croyait s'être approché à dix-neuf journées du Gange. Bien que très rapidement exécutés, les croquis dénotent encore chez leur auteur la préoccupation de marquer les distances. Les longitudes et les latitudes y sont indiquées. Une courte légende fait remarquer que l'évaluation de la longueur du degré n'est pas la même chez Marin de Tyr que chez Ptolemée, c'était encore une des préoccupations de Colomb que cette évaluation de la longueur du degré, car, suivant la mesure adoptée, les Indes devaient être plus ou moins éloignées. L'article de M. Wieser est écrit avec cette même concision et aussi cette connaissance approfondis des textes qui distinguent ses travaux antérieurs. Les trois croquis sont donnés en fac-similé." Wieser's monograph is also reviewed by Ruge in Petermanns mitteilungen, 1894, v. 40; Geographischer literaturbericht für 1894, pp. 143-144, title 560. Ruysch, Johann. 1507 Universalior cognoti orbis Tabula. 55.5×40.5 cms., including margin. LC 5 NOTE.-The Library of Congress has a copy of the Ptolemy of 1508, which is a reissue of the 1507 edition, with a new title-page and the addition of the Ruysch map: Vniversalior cogniti orbis tabula, ex recentibus conferta observationibus. See description of this atlas in Phillips' List of Geographical Atlases, title 357. The following is partly from Nordenskiöld's Facsimile-atlas, pp. 63–67: "The maps are uncolored and some of the signatures differently placed, otherwise there is no difference between the two editions. This edition is remarkable for containing, with the exception of the Waldseemüller map, the first printed map showing any part of America. Johann Ruysch, a german, visited America and is supposed to have first published his map in this edition although there exist separate copies, showing no evidence of binding, which may have been issued a short time previous. Nordenskiöld, Facsimile-atlas, p. 63, states: "This map was published among the tabulae novae in the edition of Ptolemaeus Romae, 1508, and its engraving was hardly finished before that year, as may be concluded from the following legend at Trapobane: Ad hanc Ruysch, Johann-Continued. 4 Lusitani naute navigarunt anno salutis MDVII. p. 66. Sometimes it is also inserted in the edition of 1507, without, however, being mentioned on the title page, on which, according to the custom of the period, a synopsis of the contents of the work is given. But on the new title page, with which the edition of 1508 was provided, this passage is printed: In hoc opere haec continentur: . . . Nova et universalior Orbis cogniti tabula Ioa Ruysch Germano elaborata . "The text of Beneventanus is introduced by a letter to the roman patrician MARIANUS ALTERIUS, from which the remarkable information is obtained that Ruysch's map was printed before it was incorporated with the Ptolemy of 1508. At least this seems to be deducible from the . . . passage in Tosinus' letter, from which we also find that Beneventanus only wrote commentaries on the map and had nothing to do with its authorship . . The separate (Harvard, Barlow) copies of this map, showing no signs of ever having been bound, may support the above statement. There are two distinct copies of this map, one of which does not contain the legend, "Plisacvs Sinvs" off the eastern coast of Asia. This copy, unlike the Stevens, Santarem and Nordenskiöld reproductions, does not contain the legend. Nordenskiöld notes, on the various copies examined by him, traces of successive corrections and emendations, e. g., on the long legend identifying Hispaniola with Sipangu. This map is sometimes found inserted in the 1507 edition. "The map of Ruysch forms an epoch in the development of cartography. [In addition to its american features] it is: (1) The first printed map of the world on which the discoveries of the Portuguèse along the coasts of Africa are laid down (2) First published in print on which India is drawn as a triangular peninsula projecting from the south coast of Asia . . . (3) First printed map on which the delineation of the interior and eastern (4) First printed map on which, in conformity with the drawings on the porto- (6) Greenland is here for the first time drawn without being connected with "There are reproductions of the map in Santarem, Lelewel, and in various other "Harrisse, Notes on Columbus, p. 56, thinks Ruysch's map is referred to by Johannes Trithemus in a letter, aug. 12, 1507 (published in his Epistolae familiares, 1536) in which he complains that he could not afford to purchase a map of the new world for forty florins." See also Joachim Lelewel's Géographie du moyen-âge... Bruxelles, 1852-57, described in Phillips' List of Geographical Atlases, title 252. A reproduction is also found in no. 9, pt. 3, of Kretchmer's Die entdeckung Amerika's, also described in Phillips' List of Geographical Atlases, title 1136. Also a reproduction in Santarem's Essai sur l'histoire de la cosmographie et la cartographie... Paris, 1849–52; a bibliographical description of this work is found in Phillips' List of Geographical Atlases, title 262. Reproductions are also found in: Ramon de la Sagra's Historia física, política y natural de la isla de Cuba. Paris, 1842, v. 2, pl. 2. and in Friedrich Wilhelm Ghillany's Geschichte des seefahrers ritter Martin Behaim. Nürnberg, 1853. 1511 Anghiera, Pietro Martire d', 1455–1526. Fac Map of the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies. 32 x 225 cms. Without name, title or date. Latin text on the reverse. simile. In his Legatio Babilonica (Seville) 1511 (Martyr's first decade) See Harrisse's Bib. Americana Vetustissima, p. 125. See Harrisse's Discovery of North America, p. 475. Justin Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., Vol. 1, pp. 109-112, 224. WL 6 NOTE. The page which contains this map was extracted from: P. Martyris angli mediolanensis opera Legatio babylonica Oceani decas Poemata epigrammata Cum preuilegio. [Colophon] Empressum Hispali cu summa · diligencia per Jacobū corum berger alemanū. Anno. Millessimo quingentessimo, xi. mēse vero Aprili. Folio, seventy-four unnumbered leaves, text in gothic type... On the recto of the forty-fifth leaf there is a map without title representing Cuba, Hispaniola, Bermuda, and the coasts of Florida and Central America. There was another edition of 1511 which varies a little from this edition and contains no map. Not in Library of Congress. Nordenskiöld gives a reproduction of this map in his Facsimile-atlas, p. 67, and states, p. 68: "A map of the West Indies (fig. 38) inserted in some copies of P. Martyris angli mediolanensis opera. Legatio babylonica. Oceani decas. Poemata. Epigrammata. (Colophon:) Hispali cum summa diligencia per Iacobum Corumberger alemanum Anno Millesimo quingentesimo XI. "This map is rare. It has in vain been sought for in most copies of the very rare work for which it was intended. This circumstance is believed to be due to a suppression of the small drawing by the suspicious Spanish authorities. Notwithstanding its size and insignificant exterior, the map is of interest as the first printed Spanish map of some part of the New World, and perhaps also as the first (?) map printed in Spain. It is far more correct than other contemporary maps of the West Indian islands, which is not astonishing, as Petrus Martyr d'Anghiera was personally acquainted with several of the great discoverers of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century. For further bibliographical minutiae I may refer to the works of Humboldt, Harrisse, Winsor, and Carter-Brown already cited. A special monograph of Petrus Martyr, with 85241°-12-II Anghiera, Pietro Martire d', 1455-1526-Continued. a facsimile of the map, was published by Hermann A. Schumacher, New The Library of Congress has a copy of Anghiera's work entitled Historia del' Indie ... In the Church Catalogue, compiled and annotated by George Watson Cole, v. 1, pp. 84-87, is a notice of the life of Anghiera with a detailed description of this work. The Carter-Brown Catalogue, v. 1, pp. 50-51, also describes this work and gives a reproduction of the map. For further information concerning Anghiera consult the following: Bernays, Jacob. Petrus Martyr Anglerius und sein opus epistolarum. xvi, 247 pp. 8°. Strassburg, Trübner, 1891. Reviewed by S. Ruge in Petermanns mitteilungen. 1892. v.38: Geographischer literaturbericht für 1892. p. 7, title 31. Pennesi, Giuseppe. Pietro Martire d'Anghieri. [In Italy. Commissione colombiana . . . Raccolta di documenti e studi. fol. Schumacher, Herman Albert. Petrus Martyr der geschichtsschreiber des weltmeeres. 1512-1519 Vinci, Leonardo da, 1452-1519. Da Vinci map. Ms. equator to pole, 13 cms. Without name, title or date. From Original in the Queen's Collections at Windsor. Facsimiles with notes by R. H. Major in Archælogia, vol. 40, pp. 1-40. 1866. London. See also Major's Prince Henry, p. 388. J. P. Richter, Literary Works of Da Vinci, London, 1883. Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am. Vol. 1, p. 124, for the map and p. 234 for additional notes. Lowery's Spanish Settlements, 1513-1561. p. 158. Shows Florida as an island. LC 7 NOTE. "A good representation of the geographical ideas prevailing in the period immediately preceding Magellan's circumnavigation of the earth, is further given by the globe-map, on a peculiar projection, found in a collection of drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and critically examined, in his usual masterly way, by R. H. Major (Memoir on a Mappemonde by Leonardo da Vinci, being the earliest map hitherto known containing the name of America; now in the Royal collection at Windsor, London, 1865) Major, who conjectures the date of the map to be 1512-14 (Winsor considers it to be one or two years later) has tried to prove that it was actually drawn by the great artist among whose papers it was discovered. From this circumstance a certain interest is attached to this insignificant sketch, which is in no wise distinguished by such accuracy and mastery in drawing, as might be expected from a map attributed to the great artist among whose papers it was found. It is, however, worthy of attention from a cartographical point of view, not merely on account of the remarkable projection, never before employed, but also because it is one of the first maps on which a south-polar-continent is laid down. It is likewise, if not the first, at least one of the first, mappemondes with the name America. "That the da Vinci map is not an original drawing, but a careful copy of a globe, is obvious from the way the inscriptions on the northern coast of South America have been intersected without any reasonable cause, so that parts of the names are written on one, parts on the other segment. This circumstance seems likewise to make it probable, that the copy is not a work of Leonardo himself, but by some ignorant though trustworthy clerk or copyist. For the rest the map deviates considerably from all other maps of the beginning of the 16th century, with regard as well to the inscriptions as to the outlines of the continents. That this map is based on Portuguese and not on Spanish originals appears to be deducible from the tolerably correct form of South Africa and from the outlines of the Indian peninsulas, which are here delineated more correctly than on the maps of Ruysch, Sylvanus, Stobnicza, Bordone, and in all editions of Ptolemy, before that of Ruscelli of 1548." Consult Nordenskiöld, Facsimile-atlas, pp. 76–77 (reproduction, p. 77) A reproduction of this map is also found in Kretchmer's Die entdeckung Amerika's. Atlas, pt. xi. no. 3, entitled: Globus-karte des Leonardo da Vinci (um 1515) Nach Wieser. See description of this work in Phillips' List of Geographical Atlases, title 1136. The following is quoted from Journal général de l'imprimerie et de la librarie, 1864, 23 juillet, p. 118: "Mappemonde de Léonard de Vinci.-On a découvert dans la collection royale du château de Windsor une Mappemonde de la Main de Léonard de Vinci. Elle est supérieure par trois titres à toutes celles qui ont été connues jusqu'à ce jour. C'est la première qui porte le nom de l'Amérique, la première qui démontre la séparation qui existe entre le nouveau monde et l'Asie, comme aussi entre l'ile de Cuba et le Japon. C'est la première qui représente l'idée d'un grand continent du Sud. On peut donner à cette mappemonde la date de 1512. Les savants qui trouvèrent ce trésor craignirent de ne pouvoir en prouver l'authenticité; car, comme on le sait, Léonard de Vinci avait l'habitude d'écrire de droite à gauche; mais ce fait même vint servir de preuve, comme aussi la répétition d'une erreur commise primitivement dans l'original de l'ouvrage italien de Vespucci, le mot Abatia mis à la place de Bahia de Todos los Santos. Léonard de Vinci et Vespucci se trouvaient en rapport par la famille des Giacondi; le premier consacra quatre années au célèbre portrait de Mona Lisa Giacondi, tandis que la narration du troisième voyage du fameux navigateur fut traduite en latin par un Giacondi, l'architecte qui se rendit remarquable par la construction du pont Notre-Dame à Paris. Le nom d'Amérique fut d'abord adopté et consacré par l'impression dans la petite ville de Saint-Dié, en Lorraine, alors sous le patronage de René II, duc de Lorraine, roi titulaire de Jérusalem et de Sicile." Consult also the following: Découverte d'une mappemonde de Léonard de Vinci. [anon.] [In Société de géographie. Bulletin. 1864. 8°. Paris, A. Bertrand, 1864. 5e série. v. 8, p. 130] Fiorini, Matteo. Il mappemonde di Leonardo da Vinci ed altre consimili mappe. [In Revista geografica italiana. Aprile, 1894. 8°. Roma, società editrice Dante Alighieri, 1894. v. 1, facs. 4, pp. 213–223] Major, Richard Henry. Memoir on a mappemonde by Leonardo da Vinci, being the earliest map hitherto known containing the name of America: [1513-1514] now in the royal collection at Windsor. Communicated to the Society of antiquaries. 1 p. l., 36 pp., 2 maps. 4°. London, J. B. Nichols & son, 1865. From Archæologia, vol. 40. Oberhummer, Eugene. Leonardo da Vinci and the art of the renaissance in its relation to geography. [In Royal geographical society. Journal. May, 1909. 8°. London, society, 1909. v. 33, pp. 540-569] |