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The New World in the Pesaro Map
Author(s): Margaret S. Dilke and A. BrancatiSource: Imago Mundi,
Vol. 31 (1979), pp. 78-83Published by: Imago Mundi, Ltd.Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1150729.
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The New World in the Pesaro MapByMARGARET S. DILKE and A.
BRANCATII
The Pesaro,or Oliveriano,World Map is a well
preservedparchmentMappamundi in manuscript,measuring1m22x 2mO6and
housed in the Biblioteca Oliveriana,Pesaro, so named after its
founder Annibale degli Abbati OlivieriGiordani (1708-1789). It was
presented to that library in 1904 by Marchese Ciro Antaldi
Santinelli, librarian1894-1907. Many years before he had loaned it
to the library, and it was first shown to the public at the
thirdInternational Geographical Congress (Venice, 1881). It is
undated and unsigned.It has been suggested that the theory of
cartography should find its centre in the map-maker. With
humaninterests, any cartographeris concerned with financial and
artisticmatters and (at that time particularly)with sheersurvival.
His human errors of fatigue and lack of materials are only too
obvious in manuscripts copied frommanuscriptsor derived from
hearsay.Unfortunatelyno one has succeeded in discoveringwho was the
maker of thePesaro map; yet he is the interpreterfor us of
spatialpatternsof his time. The Pesaromap is a
workingnavigationalchart, not an artistic copy made for some
prince. There are no elaborate wind-roses, no long.Latin captions,
nodetails of the interior. No latitude or longitude is shown.One
clue to the cartographer's identity might be in the fact that
Antaldi presented the 'Pesaro Map' to theOliverianaLibraryalong
with another early manuscriptworld map which is known to be by
Vesconte Maggiolo ofGenoa, one of the most competent members of
this famous cartographicfamily. This latter, although it is
muchinferior in detail, should also be studiedmore, and in
associationwith our map. The Maggiolo maps are in a similarstyle to
the Pesaro map.Although this is almost certainlythe first map to
label South Americaas Mundus Novus, it has no west coast ofAmerica,
and to confound the situation there is no China area coast, as
though allowing for a possible linkage ofAsia and America. But what
is the explanation for the lack of decorativeborder to the
easternedge such as there isto west, north and south? Did the
cartographerdeliberatelynot finish the map, hoping or suspecting
that moreinformation was coming to hand, and then give up for lack
of it? Or has a piece been torn off for use for otherpurposes or
just been lost over the centuries?The world maps with which it can
be compared are those of 1500-1510 which show not only the Old
World butthe discoveredareas of the New. Those which surviveareJuan
de la Cosa's, of 1500; Cantino's, of 1502; Caverio's,of 1502-5,
which provided the material for the American section of
Waldseemuller'sprinted map of 1507; King-Hamy, of similardate;
KunstmannII, of 1505; Contarini-Roselli, of 1506;and Ruysch,of
1507-8, which illustratedthe Rome Ptolemy. The Pesaro and Ruysch
maps are the only ones of the period to bear the words MUNDUSNOVUS
on South America. This is presumablytakenfrom the MundusNovusletter
attributed to Vespucci (1504).Thusthe datingof the Pesaromap to
1501-2, advocatedby Bellio in RaccoltaColombianaV.2 (1892), must be
wrong.Whereas Skelton thought 1508-10 the most likelydate, others
have conjectured 1504-8, Pohl's dates being 1505-8.Levillier, in
Americaa bien llamada, ad no hesitation in calling it the
firstMundusNovusmap, earlier than Ruysch.Layng, in an addendum to
the Ganong volume CrucialMaps..., calls it 'aberrantand
puzzling'and saysit deservesmore study.The place-names are mostly
in Portuguese, the few descriptionsin Latin. Levillierconsidered it
Portuguese, butthis is not a necessaryconclusion since so many
contemporaryexplorers were of that nationality. The
Caribbeanislands resemble those on the la Cosa map, especially the
hooked west point to Cuba. North America is veryfragmentary, shown
in the form of three large territories running east-west and
detached from each other,presumablyGreenland, Labradorand Nova
Scotia. The most easterlyname (Fig. 1) is 'Ponta de Sampaulo':
'S.Paulo' appears in a 1527 map. Confusing near duplications are
'Cauo Larbadore'and an 'Insula de Labardor'south of
Greenland;variations on this name, derivedfromJoao Fernandes
labrador'(smalllandowner),appear ona number of maps. 'Riuo de los
Bacalaos', referring to cod fishing, also appears on several maps,
as do featuresassociated with hope ('la Spera'). 'Terra de Corte',
referringobviously to the Corte Realexplorations, is an
unusualfeature. 'Baia uentura' appears to be the intended reading
('C. de bona uentura' appears in a different place inCantino and
the StrasbourgPtolemy). C. (= Cabo) Fermoso' is in a differentplace
in the 1527map from the Pesaromap's 'Costa Fermoza'.We should note
that Haiti (Fig. 2) appearsin whatmight be considered the
Bahamagroup, as in Cantino,whereit is called 'Haiti'.
'Carsemom'bears some resemblance to Cantino's 'Cajeman'; 'S.
Saruador'is San SalvadororWatling'sIsland; 'Abicos' is Great Abaco
Island; and 'Ima' is evidentlyYumaor Long Island. In the Antilles
sectionof the map we may note the Italian forms 'Spagnola', 'Le
Virgine' and 'LaTrinita', where other maps have rathermore Spanish
forms. Many of the islands, however, can be closely paralleled with
other maps, and a number ofthem with modern names.The biggest group
of names is along the South Americancoast, from what may be
considered partof Panamato78
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Monte Pascual near Porto Seguro. The angle taken by the coast at
'Cauo S(anta)Croxe' is remarkablyaccurate.Ascan be seen, there are
three large estuaries dotted with small islands, the first two
clearlyintended for the Amazonand the Pari. But the third, which
would appear to be the Plate River, is featuredas not far from
Monte Pascual,sighted by Cabral in 1500, which is actually about
1600 miles distant. The names shown on Fig. 2 include anattempt to
correct some wrongly transcribedin the RaccoltaColombiana.It is not
correct, as has been claimed,2 that all but one of the place-names
of Brazil on the Pesaro map areidentical with those of
Waldseemuller'sprinted map of 1507. The latter is very closely
borrowed from that ofCaverio of Genoa (ca. 1502), with some names
latinised. If we compare the Pesaromap with Caverio's,we find
thatnothing corresponds until we come to the pearl-fishing and
'montana' (mountain), the two being inverted inCaverio, after which
there is a very long stretchfor which there is no correspondence.
Then six names from 'SantaMaria de Gratia',well east of the Para,
to 'Riuo de S. Fransesco'correspond with Caverio,afterwhich the
Pesaromap omits four which are in Caverio.The next two correspond,
but after this the Pesaromap becomes selective andinserts only five
out of the fifteen that Caverio has, two being inverted.
Caverio'smap continues south of MontePascual.On details of
place-names,3 'serenie', 'marca', 'taribe', 'riuo das', 'riuo de la
posision', 'lifama' and 'terralana'seem the correct readings rather
than those given by Bellio in the RaccoltaColombiana;hough the s of
'das' is ofunusual shape, and Bellio's 'La Farna'for 'lifama' would
correspondmore with other maps. 'Monte de san uicenso'(as in
Caverio) is omitted by Bellio, and several others are
incorrectlyexpanded or contracted. Clearly 'urana' isUraba, and 'S.
Marta' is the modem place of that name. 'S. Agostino' and 'S.
Iacomo' are in reverse order inCaverio, but otherwise there are
close correspondences on the east coast as opposed to the very
aberrant Pesarotreatment of north coast names.If the Pesaro map's
own parentage is doubtful, can it be used to solve other
cartographicpuzzles?Furtherstudymight help in disentanglement of
the Cabot discoveries, the Vespucci disputed voyages and the
Waldseemullerantecedents.
REFERENCES1. This article has been adapted from a paper prepared
for the seventh InternationalConferenceon the HistoryofCartography,
Washington, D.C. 1977. Our thanks are due to Professor 0. A. W.
Dilke for help with thepalaeography, and to Mr. T. P. Hadwin for
the cartographic work.2. S. E. Morison,
TheEuropeanDiscoveryfAmerica:heSouthernVoyagesNew York, 1971),
310.3. Abbreviations nclude 'c' = cauo (cabo), 'G' = golfo, 's.
ma'- SantaMaria,'i' or 'y' = insula.
SELEcr BIBLIOGRAPHYA. A. Banha de Andrade, MundosNovos do
Mundo,1 (Lisbon, 1972), 401-5.V. Bellio, 'Notizie delle piu antiche
carte geografiche . . .', in RaccoltaColombianaV.2 (Rome, 1892).A.
Brancati, La Biblioteca i MuseiOliverianidi Pesaro Pesaro, 1976).W.
P. Cumming, R. A. Skelton and D. B. Quinn, TheDiscovery f
NorthAmericaLondon, 1971), 62-3.0. A. W. Dilke and Margaret S.
Dilke, 'FirstMap to markthe New World: the Mappamundi of Pesaro',
GeographicalMagazineXLIX (1977), 776-80.W. F. Ganong, CrucialMaps n
theEarlyCartographyndPlace Nomenclaturesf theAtlanticCoastof
Canada, ev. edn.(Toronto, 1964).A. Giraldi, Raccolta i carte
documentisposti.. nel Vcentenario
eltanascitadiAmerigoVespucciFlorence, 1954), Tav.12.H. Harrisse,
Dicouverte t evolution artographiquee TerreNeuve(Paris-London,
1900), 53-5 and P1.IV.R. Levillier, Americaa bienlRamadaBuenos
Aires, n.d. [19481), i. 17-19.S. E. Morison, TheEuropeanDiscovery f
America: heNorthernVoyagesNewYork, 1971), and
TheSouthernVoyagesNewYork, 1974), indices s.v. Maps, Oliveriana.F.
J. Pohl, 'The Pesaro Map (1505)', ImagoMundiVII (1950),
82-3.PortugaliaeMonumentaCartographica, ed. A. Cortesio and A.
Teixeira da Mota (Lisbon, 1960).E. L. Stevenson,
MapsillustratingEarlyDiscovery nd Explorationn AmericaNew
Brunswick, 1903).E. L. Stevenson, Marine WorldChartof Nicolo de
Canerio= Caverio)Januensis(New York, 1908).
Figures referred to in this article appear on pp. 80-83.79
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