Cartography

The art and science of cartography depict geographical information in a graphic format. Renaissance cartography visually reinforced the divisions of the Earth described by geography. (For celestial cartography, see chapter 10). Engraved maps, which presented much greater detail than most woodcut maps, were issued in single sheets as well as in atlases. Many people could afford to buy single-sheet printed maps. During the 16th century, individual maps of France,

England, Spain, and other political entities contributed to the developing concept of nations within Europe, and maps of Europe emphasized the familiar heterogeneity of the continent, as opposed to unknown regions in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

The Contarini world map of 1506, of which only one copy remains (in the British Museum), was the first printed map to display results of recent explorations. America is depicted but not labeled. A caption states (incorrectly, of course) that Columbus arrived on the coast of Asia to the west of Japan. The earliest printed map with the New World named America (after Amerigo Vespucci, 1454-1512) was a world map engraved in 1507. Created by the German cartographer Martin Wald-seemuller (1470-1518), this rather large map represents South and North America as separate continents, the latter extremely narrow. (Today the unique extant example is in Wolfegg Castle, Wurt-temberg.) A third early world map depicting America was made by Johannes Ruysch and inserted in copies of his Cosmographiae introductio (Introduction to cosmography, 1507-8). Amazingly accurate, Ruysch’s map was drawn from firsthand observations during an expedition to the New World.

Printed maps of faraway lands often included exotic imagery in the cartouche, especially depictions of natives, and animals and plants decorated the body of the map. Decorative aspects of cartography were familiar to Renaissance navigators because they sometimes appeared on manuscript portolan charts. Many portolan charts were art objects, valued for their ornamentation as much as for their geographic information. Crafted in guilds by illuminators, and occasionally highlighted in gold, the best charts were made to order. The larger charts drawn on parchment required the entire skin of a small sheep. From extant contracts pertaining specifically to portolan charts, we know that a client paid more for extra compass roses, human figures, gold detailing, and other additional decoration.

During the 14th century, portolan chart production in the Iberian Peninsula and the kingdom of Naples was stimulated by royal mandates. Each ship had to carry at least two portolan charts of its sailing routes. Many of these charts were crafted by Majorcan chart makers, who were subjects of the king of Aragon. After the Portuguese king enticed a Majorcan

Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe

9.2 Portolan chart of western Europe and northwestern Africa. By the Portuguese cartographer Luts Lazaro, 16th century. (Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal/Bridgeman Art Library)

Exploration and Travel

Cartographer to Portugal, Portuguese artists learned to make portolan charts. In addition to the geographic information learned from Majorcan chart making, the Portuguese cartographers incorporated “secret” reports from the overseas empires in Asia, Africa, and Brazil. By the 16th century, portolan charts made by the Portuguese were in demand in the major courts of Europe. These charts were not, however, readily available because navigational reports, as was descriptive geography from Portuguese sources, were secret state documents. If a Portuguese ship was attacked and the captain decided that his ship might be taken, his orders were to destroy the portolan charts. Several Portuguese chart makers were responsible for disseminating the secrets in their charts. They left Portugal and worked in the pilots’ schools of other governments; one Portuguese cartographer became the chief pilot of the school in Seville. Their charts were esteemed by the captains and navigators of the voyages of exploration. Giovanni da Verrazano (1485-1528), for example, carried Portuguese por-tolan charts on his ships.

With Renaissance advances in mathematical cartography, the discrepancies in portraying sections of the curved surface of the Earth on a flat surface became glaringly obvious. The rhumb lines of por-tolan charts, radiating from central points known as wind roses, were used by navigators rather loosely. Although such directional lines following the major winds were adequate for coastal sailing, or for sailing short distances in open water, they did not conform to the Earth’s curve and introduced serious errors in navigating. The Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercator (1512-94) produced a world map with a revised system of projection in 1569. The Mercator projection, still used by mapmakers today, improved Renaissance cartography by curving the lines of latitude and the meridians (lines of longitude). By the latter 16th century, terrestrial globes (of the Earth’s surface), particularly those with the Mercator projection, were used on ships and by merchants surveying the global market. They usually were displayed on carved wooden globe stands, with the globes themselves colored by hand to delineate political divisions. Many atlases featured hand-colored maps; those produced by the Flemish shop of Abraham Ortelius (1527-98) were especially desirable. In 1575 Ortelius was appointed cartographer to the king of Spain, the culmination of a remarkable career as an engraver, cartographer, and map dealer. He continued to publish numerous editions as well as three translations of his Theatrum orbis terrarum (Atlas of the Earth’s globe), originally issued in 1570. Ortelius’s workshop functioned as a map-coloring studio, where his daughter, Anne, was a talented watercolor artist.

Toward the end of the 16th century, Amsterdam emerged as a center for printed maps, globes, and navigational instruments, as the Blaeu family established a cartographic dynasty that endured for several decades. The founder was Willem Janzoon Blaeu (1571-1638), an astronomer who had studied with Tycho Brahe (1546-1601; see chapter 10). The large-scale world map that he published in 1605 included inset views of famous cities along the borders. Known as a planisphere because it presents the spherical Earth as two hemispheres on a flat surface, this style of world map was popularized by the Blaeu firm.