Abstract
In the preceding pages, I have brought forward previously unnoticed evidence regarding the influence of the Yale Martellus map on Giovanni Contarini’s world map of 1506 and have demonstrated the profound influence of the map—or one very similar to it—on Martin Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507. In the past, it has been suggested that the Yale Martellus map heavily influenced Martin Behaim in the creation of his terrestrial globe of 1492, but this claim has not been examined in detail, and I propose to do so now.
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Notes
- 1.
For earlier discussions of the influence of the Yale Martellus map on Behaim’s globe, see note 3 in Front Matter above.
- 2.
The two islands between Madagascar and the fourth peninsula on the Yale Martellus map do not seem to have names, but it is quite possible that the names have simply faded to illegibility. On Waldseemüller’s 1507 map, the two corresponding islands are labeled Iona and Callenzuam.
- 3.
For references on the Hortus Sanitatis, see note 100 in Chap. 1.
- 4.
I discuss Behaim’s use of the Hortus Sanitatis as an iconographical source for his dolphins and sea lion in my Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps (London: British Library, 2013), pp. 69–70.
- 5.
For the non-Ptolemaic toponyms in Arabia on Behaim’s globe, see Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe (see note 72 in Chap. 1), p. 82.
- 6.
There is another point of close similarity between Behaim’s globe and Waldseemüller’s 1507 map that should be taken as indicating the influence of Martellus: Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, p. 93, restores a damaged legend on the globe thus, hie f[indt man rohr] von x [spanne di rund u 15] schritt, “Here are found canes ten spans round and fifteen paces long,” based on a legend in the same spot on Waldseemüller’s map, which reads hic sunt canne grosse tres spanne et longe 0.15. passus. The appearance of what is the same legend in the same spot on Behaim’s globe and Waldseemüller’s map is due to the influence of Martellus: as indicated above, there is a very similar legend in the same location on the Yale Martellus map that reads in part canne grosse tress spanne et longes quindecim passus. Incidentally, Madagascar also has the “L” shape in the world maps in Der Welt Kugel (Strasbourg: Grüninger, 1509) and Globus mundi (Strasbourg: Grüninger, 1509), which have been attributed to Waldseemüller.
- 7.
Marco Polo does not clearly indicate the position of Zanzibar relative to Madagascar, saying only that the former is “beyond” the latter, so the identical locations of Zanzibar on Behaim’s globe, the Martellus-Rosselli map, and Waldseemüller’s 1507 map cannot be the product of coincidence: they are evidence of Martellus’s influence.
- 8.
On Behaim’s use of Marco Polo, see Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe (see note 72 in Chap. 1), p. 63.
- 9.
On Fra Mauro’s use of Marco Polo, see G. R. Crone, “Fra Mauro’s Representation of the Indian Ocean and the Eastern Islands,” Studi Colombiani 3, 1952, pp. 57–64; Angelo Cattaneo, “Fra Mauro Cosmographus incomparabilis and his Mappamundi: Documents, Sources, and Protocols for Mapping,” in Diogo Ramada Curto, Angelo Cattaneo, and André Ferrand Almeida, eds., La cartografia europea tra primo Rinascimento e fine dell’Illuminismo: Atti del convegno internazionale, The Making of European Cartography (Firenze, BNCF-EUI, 13–15 dicembre 2001) (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 2003), pp. 19–48, esp. 39; Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s World Map (see note 85 in Chap. 1), pp. 61–67; Eugenio Burgio, “‘Cartografie’ del viaggio: Sulle relazioni fra la ‘Mappamundi’ di Fra Mauro e il ‘Milione’,” Critica del testo 12.1 (2009), pp. 59–106; and Angelo Cattaneo, Fra Mauro’s Mappa Mundi (see note 78 in Chap. 5), pp. 191–198 and 211–219.
- 10.
On the reception of Polo’s work, see Christine Gadrat-Ouerfelli, Lire Marco Polo au Moyen Age: traduction, diffusion et réception du Devisement du monde (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015).
- 11.
See Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe (see note 72 in Chap. 1), pp. 86–89 and 104–105.
- 12.
For the similarity between the legends on Japan on the Yale Martellus map and on the map of Japan in the Florence manuscript of Martellus’s island book, see above pp. XX–YY.
- 13.
For examples of Behaim’s legends in which he cites specific passages in Marco Polo, see Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe (see note 72 in Chap. 1), p. 86 on Seilan, p. 87 on Java Minor and Pentan, p. 88 on Nekuran and Angaman, p. 89 on Japan, p. 104 on Zanzibar, and p. 105 on Madagascar and Scotra. On Behaim’s use of Polo see Gadrat-Ouerfelli, Lire Marco Polo au Moyen Age (see note 10 in Chapt. 6), pp. 315-318.
- 14.
R. A. Skelton, “World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, c. 1489, at Berne,” January 10–17, 1960 (see note 2 in Front Matter), pp. 14–17. For references to other discussions of the possible links between the Yale Martellus map and Columbus, see note 4 in Front Matter.
- 15.
Skelton, “World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, c. 1489, at Berne” (see note 2 in Front Matter), p. 16.
- 16.
Fernando Colón, The History of the Life and Deeds of the Admiral Christopher Columbus: Attributed to His Son Fernando Colón, ed. Ilaria Luzzana Caraci, trans. Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 69–70 (English) and 271 (Italian).
- 17.
- 18.
George Kish supplies the outline of Japan on Fra Mauro’s map in “Two Fifteenth-Century Maps of ‘Zipangu’: Notes on the Early Cartography of Japan,” The Yale University Library Gazette 40.4 (1966), pp. 206–214, on p. 211.
- 19.
Skelton, “World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, c. 1489, at Berne” (see note 2 in Front Matter), p. 16, but I correct and expand substantially on Skelton’s hints.
- 20.
See Christopher Columbus, Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, With Other Original Documents, Relating to His Four Voyages to the New World, trans. R. H. Major (London: Hakluyt Society, 1870), pp. 180.
- 21.
See Columbus, Select Letters (see previous note), pp. 182.
- 22.
Skelton, “World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, c. 1489, at Berne” (see note 2 in Front Matter), p. 16, suggests that Columbus thought that he was heading for Catigara, a city in Southern Asia. Columbus does mention Catigara in his account of his Fourth Voyage, but it is not at all clear that this was a destination or even a waypoint that he had in mind: see Columbus, Select Letters (see note 20 in Chap. 6), p. 183.
- 23.
The maps are Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Banco Rari 234, ff. 56v, 57r, and 60v. In the early literature, Zorzi’s three sketch maps were attributed to Bartolomew Columbus: see Franz von Wieser, “Die Karte des Bartolomeo Columbo über die vierte Reise des Admirals,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Ergänzungsband 4 (1893), pp. 488–498, which article is summarized (with illustrations of the maps) by George C. Hurlbut, “Geographical Notes,” Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 26 (1894), pp. 252–257. Also see John Bigelow, “The So-Called Bartholomew Columbus Map of 1506,” Geographical Review 25.4 (1935), pp. 643–656, and Roberto Almagià, “Intorno a quattro codici fiorintini e ad uno ferrarese dell’erudito veneziano Alessandro Zorzi,” La Bibliofilía 38 (1936), pp. 313–347, esp. 322–331; this article is reprinted in Almagià’s Scritti geografici (Rome: Edizioni cremonese, 1961), pp. 447–468; the sketch maps are also illustrated in Nordenskiöld, Periplus (see note 40 in Chap. 5), pp. 167–169, figs. 79–81. For additional discussion of the sketch maps, see George E. Nunn, “The Three Maplets Attributed to Bartholomew Columbus,” Imago Mundi 9 (1952), pp. 12–22.
- 24.
See on the place names from Columbus’s Fourth Voyage on Zorzi’s sketch map and see George E. Nunn, World Map of Francesco Roselli Drawn on an Oval Projection and Printed from a Woodcut Supplementing the Fifteenth Century Maps in the Second Edition of the Isolario of Bartolomeo dali Sonetti, Printed in Italy Anno Domini MDXXXII (Philadelphia: Press of John T. Palmer Co., 1928), pp. 8–12 and 19–23, and Nunn’s “The Three Maplets Attributed to Bartholomew Columbus” (see note 23 in Chap. 6), p. 21.
- 25.
Skelton, “World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, c. 1489, at Berne” (see note 2 in Front Matter), p. 16.
- 26.
The passage is from Colección de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de ultramar, segunda serie (Madrid: Est. tip. ‘Sucesores de Rivadeneyra,’ 1885–1932), vol. 8 (= De los pleitos de Colón, vol. 2), no. 97, for August 11, 1515, pp. 121–143, at 126, paragraph 12.
- 27.
William D. Phillips, Mark D. Johnston, and Anne Marie Wolf, Testimonies from the Columbian Lawsuits (Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), p. 173 (English) and 391 (Spanish).
- 28.
Skelton, “World Map by Henricus Martellus Germanus, c. 1489, at Berne” (see note 2 in Front Matter), p. 16.
- 29.
W. G. L. Randles,“La Cartographie de l’Atlantique à la veille du Voyage de Christophe Colomb,” in Actas do II Colóquio Internacional de História da Madeira, Funchal, setembro de 1989 (Funchal: Comissão para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1990), pp. 925–935, esp. 932–934; the article is reprinted in his Geography, Cartography and Nautical Science in the Renaissance: The Impact of the Great Discoveries (Aldershot, Great Britain; and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Variorum, 2000). Also see W. G. L. Randles, “The Evaluation of Columbus’ ‘India’ Project by Portuguese and Spanish Cosmographers in the Light of the Geographical Science of the Period,” Imago Mundi 42 (1990), pp. 50–64, also reprinted in his Geography, Cartography and Nautical Science in the Renaissance.
- 30.
Christopher Columbus, The Journal: Account of the First Voyage and Discovery of the Indies, ed. Paolo Emilio Taviani and Consuelo Varela, trans. Marc A. Beckwith and Luciano F. Farina (Rome: Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, 1992), vol. 1, pp. 46–47. Columbus also recorded his expectation of finding or belief that he had found Cipango on October 6 (pp. 34–35), October 21 (pp. 70–71), October 23 (pp. 72–73), October 24 (pp. 74–75), October 26 (pp. 76–77), December 24 (pp. 198–201), December 26 (pp. 208–209), and January 4, 1493 (pp. 226–227).
- 31.
Skelton’s and Randle’s acceptance of the journal’s indication that Columbus was at 42° N when he found land is difficult to accept in the context of an attempt to demonstrate that Columbus’s geographical ideas were influenced by the Yale Martellus map. If Columbus thought he was at 42° N when he made land in the Caribbean, why did he not head south to find Japan, whose northern tip according to Martellus was at about 30° N?
- 32.
See Columbus, The Journal: Account of the First Voyage and Discovery of the Indies (see note 30 in Chap. 6), entries for October 30, November 2, and November 21, 1492, on pp. 84–85, 88–89, and 114–115, respectively. In the last case, Bartolomé de las Casas, who transcribed the only surviving copy we have of the journal, recognized that the figure of 42° was suspect and added “if the manuscript from which I made this copy was not altered.” Certainly navigators did make errors with regard to latitude: Evelyn Edson notes that Columbus reports that Bartolomeu Dias estimated that the Cape of Good Hope was at 45°S rather than 35°S, an error of 10°: see Edson, The World Map, 1300–1492 (see note 7 in Chap. 1), pp. 208–209, citing Columbus’s postil in his copy of d’Ailly’s Ymago mundi, transcribed by Buron in his edition of the text. See Pierre d’Ailly, Ymago mundi, ed. Edmond Buron (Paris: Maisonneuve frères, 1930), vol. 1, pp. 206–209. With regard to Columbus’s error during his First Voyage, Alberto Magnaghi suggested that Columbus falsified the latitude of Cuba and other discoveries in the Caribbean in order to deceive the Portuguese in “I presunti errori che vengono attribuiti a Colombo nella determinazione delle latitudini,” Bollettino della Reale Società Geografica Italiana, series 6, vol. 5 = 64 [i.e. 65] (1928), pp. 459–494 and 553–582, esp. 490–493. However, J. A. Williamson’s reply to Magnaghi, “The Early Falsification of West Indian Latitudes: Review,” Geographical Journal 75.3 (1930), pp. 263–265, in which he suggests that the error was due (as Las Casas had suggested) to the copyist of the journal, is more plausible. Magnaghi replied to Williamson in “Ancora dei pretesi errori che vengono attribuiti a Colombo nella determinazione delle latitudini,” Bollettino della Reale Società Geografica Italiana, series 6, vol. 7 (1930), pp. 497–515.
- 33.
See, for example, Columbus, Select Letters (see note 20 in Chap. 6), pp. 181–182; for a good discussion of Columbus’s statements that a degree of longitude at the equator measured 56 2/3 miles, see George E. Nunn, “The Determination of the Length of a Terrestrial Degree by Columbus,” in his The Geographical Conceptions of Columbus: A Critical Consideration of Four Problems (New York: American Geographical Society, 1924), pp. 1–30, and George E. Nunn, “The Imago Mundi and Columbus,” American Historical Review 40.4 (1935), pp. 646–661, esp. 654–657.
- 34.
Randles, “The Evaluation of Columbus’ ‘India’ Project” (see note 29 in Chap. 6), p. 60 in the Imago Mundi article, and p. 22 in the reprint in Geography, Cartography, and Natural Science.
- 35.
One question that I have not addressed in the preceding is the length of the league that Columbus was using. James E. Kelley, Jr., “In the Wake of Columbus on a Portolan Chart,” Terrae Incognitae 15 (1983), pp. 77–111, suggests that he was using the Italian league of 2.67 miles, and it is worth running through the calculations with this figure. In this case, Columbus’s 1142 leagues would be 3049 miles, and calculating for a position at 42° N and using Columbus’s figure of 56 2/3 miles per degree of longitude at the equator, we obtain a figure of 42.1 miles per degree at 42° N, so Columbus would have thought that he was 72.4° west of the Canaries when he was at Cuba. Using the more realistic position of 21° N, at which using Columbus’s figure of 56 2/3 miles per degree of longitude at the equator, there would be 52.9 miles per degree, Columbus would have concluded that he was 57.6° west of the Canaries. It is difficult to believe that Columbus would have been quite as expectant of encountering Japan soon if he had been calculating using a league of 2.67 miles.
- 36.
On Toscanelli, see Gustavo Uzielli, La vita e i tempi di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (Rome: Ministero della pubblica istruzione, 1894); Vespasiano da Bisticci, Renaissance Princes, Popes, and Prelates: The Vespasiano Memoirs, Lives of Illustrious Men of the XVth Century, trans. William George and Emily Waters (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), pp. 423–424; G. Abetti, “Toscanelli dal Pozzo, Paolo,” in Charles Coulston Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York: Scribner, 1970–1980), vol. 13, pp. 440–441; Jane L. Jervis, Cometary Theory in Fifteenth-Century Europe (Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel, 1985), pp. 43–85 and 162–169, a particularly good account; Leonardo Rombai, “Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1397–1482) umanista e cosmografo,” Rivista geografica italiana 100.1 (1993), pp. 133–158; and Eugenio Garin, “Ritratto di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli,” in his Ritratti di umanisti: sette protagonisti del Rinascimento (Milan: Tascabili Bompiani, 2001), pp. 40–67.
- 37.
The early twentieth-century bibliography on the Toscanelli controversy is gathered by Henry Vignaud, Bibliografia della polemica concernente Paolo Toscanelli e Cristoforo Colombo (Naples: Tip. ed. Cav. A. Tocco-Salvietti, 1905). The most important work on Toscanelli’s letter and map is Henry Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus: The Letter and Chart of Toscanelli on the Route to the Indies by Way of the West, Sent in 1474 to the Portuguese Fernam Martins, and Later on to Christopher Columbus (London, Sands & Co., 1902); John Boyd Thacher has helpful chapters titled “The Letter of Toscanelli in the Spanish, Latin, and Italian Versions” and “The Import of the Letter” in his Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, his Remains as Revealed by Original Printed and Manuscript Records (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons and The Knickerbocker Press, 1903–1904), vol. 1, pp. 301–316 and 317–324, respectively. A more recent study of the matter may be found in Miles H. Davidson, “The Toscanelli Letters: A Dubious Influence on Columbus,” Colonial Latin American Historical Review 5.3 (1996), pp. 287–310, parts of which appear in his book Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), pp. 50–61.
- 38.
Clements Markham disputed some of Vignaud’s conclusions in an article titled “New Theories on Columbus” in the Times Literary Supplement (London) 43 (November 7, 1902), pp. 330–331, and subsequently wrote a more elaborate expression of his views in a letter to Vignaud. Vignaud published Markham’s longer letter and his own (effective) reply in Clements R. Markham and Henry Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus: A Letter from Sir Clements R. Markham... and a Reply from Mr. Henry Vignaud… (London: Sands & Co., 1903). Vignaud replied to criticisms by Hermann Wagner and Carlo Errara in The Columbian Tradition on the Discovery of America and of the Part Played Therein by the Astronomer Toscanelli: A Memoir Addressed to the Professors Hermann Wagner of the University of Göttingen and Carlo Errara of Bologna (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1920). The dispute may be traced further in the bibliography cited at the beginning of the preceding note.
- 39.
For an argument that the handwriting is that of Columbus, see Thacher, “The Handwriting—Continued,” in his Christopher Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), vol. 3, pp. 454–488, esp. 461–474 and 485.
- 40.
Columbus’s copy of the Historia rerum ubique gestarum, which has many of his annotations in addition to the handwritten copy of the letter, has been reproduced in facsimile as Pope Pius II, Historia rerum: cuyo original se encuentra en la Biblioteca Colombina de Sevilla (Madrid: Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 1991), with a volume of commentary by Juan Pérez de Tudela y Bueso, La Historia rerum ubique gestarum del papa Pio II y el descubrimiento de América (Madrid: Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 1993). There is a facsimile of the letter and transcription in Cesare De Lollis, Autografi, in the Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati dalla R. Commissione colombiana (Rome: Ministero della pubblica istruzione, 1892–1896), part 1, v. 3, plates 72 and 73, which are reproduced in Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), Appendix G, between pages 336 and 337; other reproductions are listed by Vignaud on his pp. 13–14 and other translations into English and French on his pp. 16–18. The Latin text of the letter is supplied by Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus, Appendix B, pp. 293–303, and translated into English by Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus, Appendix A, pp. 275–292; the Latin text and an English translation are provided by Thacher, Christopher Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), vol. 1, pp. 308–312, and an English translation by Davidson, “The Toscanelli Letters,” pp. 294–297. The Latin text of the letter is supplied with a Spanish translation and brief introduction in Juan Gil, “La correspondencia con Toscanelli,” and in Juan Gil and Consuelo Varela, eds., Cartas de particulares a Colón y relaciones coetáneas (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1984), pp. 129–141.
- 41.
Vignaud edits and translates Fernando and Las Casas’s versions of this introductory paragraph in Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), Appendix E, pp. 319–321.
- 42.
See Fernando Colón, The History of the Life and Deeds of the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus, Attributed to his Son Fernando Colón, ed. Ilaria Caraci Luzzana, trans. Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), chapter 8, pp. 42–44 (English) and 245–247 (Italian). The Italian text of the letter together with an English translation is also supplied by Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), Appendix D, pp. 311–317, and by Thacher, Christopher Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), vol. 1, pp. 312–316. Other reproductions are listed by Vignaud, p. 15.
- 43.
See Bartolomé de las Casas, Obras completas, ed. Paulino Castañeda Delgado (Madrid: Alianza, 1988–1998), vol. 3 = Historia de las Indias, vol. 1, edited by Miguel Angel Medina, Jesús Angel Barreda, and Isacio Pérez Fernández, Book 1, chapter 12, pp. 398–402. The Spanish text of the letter together with an English translation is also supplied by Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), Appendix C, pp. 305–310, and by Thacher, Christopher Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), vol. 1, pp. 302–307. Also see Vignaud, p. 15.
- 44.
Fernando Colón writes: “…he was also influenced by a Master Paolo, physician to Master Domenico, a Florentine, a contemporary of the admiral’s, who played a role in encouraging him to undertake this voyage. This Master Paolo was a friend of Fernão Martins, a canon of Lisbon, and they wrote each other letters about the voyages to the country of Guinea that were being made at the time of King Alfonso of Portugal and the possibility of other voyages to the western regions. This came to the attention of the admiral, who was extremely interested in these things, and immediately, through the agency of Lorenzo Girardi, a Florentine who was residing in Lisbon, he wrote about this to Master Paolo and sent him a small sphere on which he indicated his plan. Master Paolo replied to him in Latin, which translated into the vernacular reads as follows.” See Colón, The History of the Life and Deeds of the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus (see note 42 in Chap. 6), Chapter 7, pp. 42 and 245.
- 45.
This so-called second letter appears in Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, Book 1, Chapter 12, and Colón, The History of the Life and Deeds of the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus (see note 42 in Chap. 6), Chapter 8. Vignaud edits and translates Las Casas’s and Fernando’s versions of this other letter in Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), Appendix E, pp. 322–326.
- 46.
In Book 1, Chapter 12 of the Historia de las Indias, Las Casas writes: “…la carta de marear que le invió, yo, que esta historia escribo, tengo en mi poder y della se hará más mencion abaxo. Mucho ánimo le puso con ella, y, sino supiera más, por ella y por las cosas de suso traídas, sin duda del todo se moviera; y así creo que todo su viaje sobre esta carta fundó, pero aún más se lo quiso nuestro Señor declarar, como se verá,” that is, “The sea-chart he sent him is now in my possession as I write this account and we shall have more to say about it, too, later. It filled him with enthusiasm and even had he known nothing up to that point, it would, together with the other reasons we have mentioned, have been sufficient to spur him to action, and I believe he based the whole of his voyage on this chart—though our Lord, as we shall see, still wished to reveal yet more to him.” The Spanish text is from Bartolomé de las Casas, Obras completas, ed. Paulino Castañeda Delgado (see note 43 in Chap. 6), vol. 3, p. 402, and the translation from Bartolomé de las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus: Background and the Second and Fourth Voyages, ed. Nigel Griffin (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), p. 36. Las Casas talks about the chart more in Book 1, Chapters 38 and 43 of the Historia de las Indias.
- 47.
See Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 207–211.
- 48.
See Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 36–38 and 39–43. Vignaud also argued that Fernam Martins, the supposed recipient of the original letter from Toscanelli, was totally unknown, and therefore his existence is dubious (pp. 38–39). However, António Domingues de Sousa Costa presents excellent evidence that Fernam Martins de Reriz did indeed exist in his article “Cristóvão Colombo e conégo de Lisboa Fernando Martins de Reriz, destinatário da carta de Paúlo Toscanelli sobre os descobrimentos marítimos,” Antonianum 65 (1990), pp. 187–276, esp. 242–250. Also see Eric C. Apfelstadt, “Christopher Columbus, Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli and Fernão de Roriz: New Evidence for a Florentine Connection,” Nuncius 7 (1992), pp. 69–80, who presents evidence that Fernando de Roriz was in Florence in 1459.
- 49.
Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 47–51 and 222–225.
- 50.
The Latin and English are from Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 294–295 and 277–278, respectively.
- 51.
Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 52–65. C. Raymond Beazley, “Toscanelli and Columbus,” The Guardian, November 19, 1902, takes issue with Vignaud’s claims on this subject, but Vignaud very ably replies in Toscanelli and Columbus: Letters to Sir Clements R. Markham... and to C. Raymond Beazley, M. A. (London: Sands & Co., 1903), pp. 26–31. For discussion of the early development of the spice trade in Portugal, see Donald F. Lach, “The Spice Trade,” in his Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, The Century of Discovery (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), Book 1, pp. 91–115, esp. 91–103. On the later development of trade along the route from Portugal around Africa to India, see T. Bentley Duncan, “Navigation Between Portugal and Asia in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Cyriac K. Pullapilly and Edwin J. Van Kley, eds., Asia and the West: Encounters and Exchanges from the Age of Explorations (Notre Dame: Cross Cultural Publications, 1986), pp. 3–25; reprinted in Om Prakash, ed., European Commercial Expansion in Early Modern Asia (Aldershot, England; Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1997).
- 52.
See E. G. Ravenstein, “The Voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomeu Dias, 1482–88,” The Geographical Journal 16.6 (1900), pp. 625–655, esp. 628 and 634. On the development of Portuguese goals for voyages to the East, also see Luís Filipe F. R. Thomaz, “O Projecto Imperial Joanino (Tentativa de interpretação global da política ultramarina de D. João II),” in Congresso Internacional Bartolomeu Dias e a sua Epoca: Actas (Porto: Universidade do Porto and Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1989), vol. 1, pp. 81–98, esp. 87–91.
- 53.
Ravenstein, “The Voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomeu Dias, 1482–88” (see note 52 in Chap. 6), p. 638.
- 54.
See C. F. Beckingham, “The Travels of Pero da Covilhã and Their Significance,” Actas, Congresso Internacional da História dos Descobrimentos (Lisbon: Comissão Executiva das Comemorações do V Centenário da Morte do Infante D. Henrique, 1961), vol. 3, pp. 1–14, reprinted in his Between Islam and Christendom: Travellers, Facts, and Legends in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).
- 55.
Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 67–70.
- 56.
The Latin text and translation are from Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 299–300 and 284–285, respectively.
- 57.
See Miles H. Davidson, “The Toscanelli Letters: A Dubious Influence on Columbus,” Colonial Latin American Historical Review 5.3 (1996), pp. 287–310, at 290 and 292, and Norbert Sumien, La correspondance du savant florentin Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli avec Christophe Colombe (Paris: Société d’Éditions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales, 1927).
- 58.
Davidson, “The Toscanelli Letters” (see note 57 in Chap. 6) pp. 297–299.
- 59.
Most of these authorities and some others as well are cited by Fernando Colón in his biography of his father when he discusses his father’s motivations for sailing across the Atlantic: see Colón, The History of the Life and Deeds of the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus (see note 42 in Chap. 6), Chapter 7, pp. 40–42.
- 60.
For the discussion of the relevant passage in Aristotle’s De caelo 2.14, see Charles Jourdain, “De l’influence d’Aristote et de ses interprètes sur la découverte du Nouveau-Monde,” Journal général de l’instruction publique 30.63 (August 7, 1861), pp. 495–498, and 30.64 (August 10, 1861), 504–506, reprinted in his Excursions historiques et philosophiques à travers le Moyen Age (Paris, 1888), pp. 587–616. Fernando Colón (see the previous note) remarks that Averroes cites this passage in Aristotle with approval, and the passage in Averroes’s commentary may be consulted in Averrois Cordubensis commentum magnum super libro De celo et mundo Aristotelis, ed. Rüdiger Arnzen (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2003), Book 2, section 111, in vol. 2, pp. 480–481.
- 61.
See Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Physical Science in the Time of Nero: Being a Translation of the ‘Quaestiones naturales’ of Seneca, trans. John Clarke (London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1910), p. 7. In the recent translation of Seneca’s Natural Questions by Harry M. Hine (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2010), the parts of the work are placed in what is generally agreed to have been their original order, and the passage in question appears in what is here called Book 1 (originally Book 7), printed following Book 7 (originally Book 6), on p. 138: “For what distance lies between the farthest coasts of Spain and the Indies? An interval of very few days, if a ship is driven by a favorable wind.” For discussion of Columbus’s use of this passage, see James Romm, “New World and ‘novos orbes’: Seneca in the Renaissance Debate over Ancient Knowledge of the Americas,” in Wolfgang Haase and Meyer Reinhold, eds., The Classical Tradition and the Americas, vol. 1, part 1, European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1994), pp. 78–116, esp. 88–89. This same chapter discusses a passage from Seneca’s Medea that is mentioned by Fernando Colón as foretelling his father’s discoveries, which is also addressed in Diskin Clay, “Columbus’ Senecan Prophecy,” American Journal of Philology 113.4 (1992), pp. 617–620.
- 62.
See Roger Bacon, The ‘Opus majus’of Roger Bacon, ed. John Henry Bridges (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897–1900), vol. 1, pp. 290–291 (Latin text), and Roger Bacon, The Opus majus of Roger Bacon, trans. Robert Burke (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; and London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1928), vol. 1, p. 535 (English translation).
- 63.
The relevant passages from Pierre d’Ailly’s Imago Mundi (Chapters 8 and 49) may be consulted in Pierre d’Ailly, Ymago mundi, ed. Edmond Buron (Paris: Maisonneuve frères, 1930), vol. 1, pp. 206, 208, and 211, and vol. 2, pp. 424, 426, and 427. These passages are quoted in English by Arthur Percival Newton, ed., Travel and Travellers of the Middle Ages (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.; New York: A. A. Knopf, 1926), pp. 17–18. Some of Columbus’s postils or marginal notes on the width of the Atlantic in his copy of d’Ailly’s book are supplied in the edition of the Ymago mundi just cited, vol. 1, p. 208; also see the facsimile edition of Columbus’s copy of the book, published as Pierre d’Ailly, Imago mundi (Madrid: Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 1990), f. 13r, together with the accompanying translation by Antonio Ramírez de Verger, Imago mundi del Cardenal Pedro d’Ailly y Juan Gerson (Madrid: Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 1990), p. 66.
- 64.
See Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), p. 280 with footnote.
- 65.
It is worth remarking that the author of the so-called anonymous narrative of Cabral’s voyage in the Paesi novamente retrovati, an important collection of travel narratives first published in 1507, Chapters 82 and 83, supplies a detailed account of the sources and prices of spices in Calicut, India. These chapters are translated into English by William Brooks Greenlee, The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India from Contemporary Documents and Narratives (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1938), pp. 53–94, at 91–94.
- 66.
John B. Shipley, “Notes on the So-Called Second Letter of Toscanelli, Supposed to Have Been Addressed to Christopher Columbus, and Its Bearing on the History of the So-Called First Letter,” in F. W. Putnam, Franz Boaz, and M. H. Saville, eds., International Congress of Americanists: Thirteenth Session Held in New York in 1902 (Easton, PA: Eschenbach Print Co., 1905), pp. 305–325, at 313–314. I do not agree with Shipley’s other conclusions about the letter, but his description of its rambling nature (quoted here) is accurate.
- 67.
For a brief discussion of Columbus’s negotiations with monarchs about his plan, see Samuel E. Morison, The European Discovery of America, vol. 2, The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492–1616 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 31–44. For an interesting discussion of the reconception of the ocean involved in Columbus’s plan to sail west, see Thomas Goldstein, “Florentine Humanism and the Vision of the New World,” in Actas do Congresso Internacional de História dos Descobrimentos (Lisbon: Comissão Executiva das comemoracões do V Centenário da Morte do Infante D. Henrique, 1961), vol. 4, pp. 195–208, and the same author’s “Geography in Fifteenth-Century Florence,” in John Parker, ed., Merchants and Scholars: Essays in the History of Exploration and Trade (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965), pp. 9–32, reprinted in Felipe Fernández-Armesto, ed., The European Opportunity (Aldershot, Great Britain, and Brookfield, VT: Variorum, 1995), pp. 1–22.
- 68.
For references on the second letter of Toscanelli, see note 45 in Chap. 6.
- 69.
See Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 31–35, 153, and 271, with the quotation coming from the last of these pages.
- 70.
This is Vignaud’s English translation of the Spanish version in Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, Book 1, Chapter 12, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 322–323.
- 71.
The manuscript is Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Banco Rari 30. For discussion of the folios with Toscanelli’s comet observations, see Jane L. Jervis, “Toscanelli’s Cometary Observations: Some New Evidence,” Annali dell’Istituto e Museo di storia della scienza di Firenze 2.1 (1977), pp. 15–20, and Jane L. Jervis, Cometary Theory in Fifteenth-Century Europe (Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel, 1985), pp. 43–85.
- 72.
The Latin is from BNCF Banco Rari 30, f. 245v, transcribed by G. Celoria in Gustavo Uzielli, La vita e i tempi di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (Rome: Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, 1894), p. 306, with corrections in Jervis, Cometary Theory in Fifteenth-Century Europe, p. 56, who also supplies the English translation cited here. For confirmation that the hand that wrote the notes on this folio was Toscanelli’s, see Jervis, Cometary Theory (see note 71 in Chap. 6), p. 49.
- 73.
For reconstructions of the Toscanelli map, see Gustavo Uzielli, La vita e i tempi di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (Rome: Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, 1894), plate 10 (a foldout at the very end of the book); Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), Appendix J, pp. 345–348; and John G. Bartholomew, A Literary and Historical Atlas of America (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.; and New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1911), p. 1. The influence of Martellus on Vignaud’s and Bartholomew’s reconstructions is obvious but unacknowledged. Sebastiano Crinò, taking a hint from Uzielli, tried to show that the so-called Genoese world map of 1457 was to be identified with Toscanelli’s chart: see his “La scoperta della carta originale di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, che servì di guida a Cristoforo Colombo per il viaggio verso il Nuovo Mondo,” L’Universo: Rivista mensile dell’Istituto Gegrafico Militare 22.6 (1941), pp. 379–405, and the same author’s Come fu scoperta l’America: a proposito della identificazione della carta originale di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, la cui copia servì di guida a Cristoforo Colombo per il viaggio verso il nuovo mundo (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1943). But this suggestion has not been well received. Crinò’s latter work is reviewed by William Jerome Wilson in Geographical Review 32.1 (1942), pp. 175–177, and for additional bibliography on the reception of his suggestion, see Gaetano Ferro, La tradizione cartografica genovese e Cristoforo Colombo (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1992), pp. 186–187.
- 74.
See Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe (see note 72 in Chap. 1), p. 89. Also see Ravenstein, p. 63, who notes that Behaim’s other citations of Polo show that he was using Francesco Pipino’s Latin version, in some cases that published c. 1484, and in others evidently a manuscript of the version later published by Ramusio in vol. 3 of his Navigazione (1556), rather than the German translation published in 1477: Marco Polo, Hie hebt sich an das puch des edeln Ritters uñ landtfarers Marcho Polo, in dem er schreibt die grossen wunderlichen ding dieser welt (Nuremberg: Friedrich Creussner, 1477).
- 75.
Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus (see note 37 in Chap. 6), pp. 296 (Latin) and 280 (English).
- 76.
For discussion of the cartographic history of Antilia, see William H. Babcock, “Antillia and the Antilles,” Geographical Review 9.2 (1920), pp. 109–124, and Benjamin Olshin, “The Question of Antilia,” in his “A Sea Discovered: Pre-Columbian Conceptions and Depictions of the Atlantic Ocean,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Toronto, 1994, pp. 189–229.
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Van Duzer, C. (2019). The Influence of the Yale Martellus Map. In: Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76840-3_6
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