Browse Entries (5 items total)

Farissol’s Igeret orḥot ʻolam, reproduced in this manuscript, is the first modern Hebrew work on geography. It reflects the author, the Jewish geographer and cosmographer, Abraham Farissol’s (ca. 1451–ca. 1525) enduring interest in the topic and is largely concerned with locating the Jewish peoples dispersed throughout the world. It includes the first mention of the New World in Hebrew when discussing the newly discovered American Indians as perhaps being one of the lost tribes of Israel. Farissol was fluent in both Italian and Latin and undoubtedly performed research in the great ducal libraries of Florence and Ferrara while working for the courts of Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–92) and Ercole I d’Este (1431–1505). He was familiar with portolan charts and drew upon accounts of Columbus’s recent journeys and to the letters of Girolamo Sernigi describing Vasco de Gama’s voyage around the Cape of Good Hope.

This manuscript is the sole surviving copy of the anonymous L’arte del navegare, a wide-ranging original treatise in four parts on navigation and the operation of seagoing vessels. The author dedicates the work to the Senate of the Venetian Republic and to the Doge of Venice, Cristoforo Moro (r. 1462–71), for whom this manuscript was a presentation copy. The unknown author benefited from an excellent humanist education, as the preface includes references to a diverse array of authorities, such as famous Greek philosophers, as well as Arab and medieval thinkers. Book I presents an account of the whole habitable world known to the author, at the dawn of the age of exploration. Book II deals with ship designs and the role of various officers on board. Book III discusses meteorology and astronomy as they relate to navigation. Book IV is dedicated to cartography, acting as a verbal portolan chart.

This manuscript consists of an otherwise unknown treatise in thirty-five chapters on the Astrolabe quadrant, a simplified version of the medieval instrument reduced to a quarter circle. The quadrans novus was cheaper and simpler to make, yet could still perform most of an Astrolabe’s functions— namely, the measurement of altitude, latitudes, and longitudes, and the calculation of the time of day and night. The text is illustrated with meticulous diagrams and tables describing the use of the instrument. The binding, which consists of a bifolium from a twelfth-century copy of Augustine’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, is written in rare Beneventan script. A southern Italian localization is bolstered by textual references to the island of Diomedes off the coast of Puglia (now the Isole Tremiti) and by the watermark, which is similar to one employed in Naples later in the sixteenth century.

The first of the three charts shows the Atlantic coast of Europe, stretching from the south coasts of England to Iberia, the northwest quadrant of Africa, and Madeira and the Canary Islands. The center of Spain is overlaid with a crude coat of arms mimicking that of Castile and León. The second chart shows the central and Eastern Mediterranean. Hovering over central Anatolia is a crowned blue medallion containing a crescent moon with a face in profile representing the Ottoman Sultanate. This symbol hints at the broader conflict simmering between Christian and Muslim powers in the mid-sixteenth century. The third chart shows the Western Mediterranean from the Adriatic Sea to the Straits of Gibraltar and beyond. Though the charts appear to have been produced in Italy, the place-names demonstrate Portuguese influence; the cartographer was familiar with trade activity in the Eastern Atlantic and along the west coast of Africa.

The prolific Genoese mapmaker Battista Agnese (active ca. 1535–64) was responsible for over sixty surviving sets of charts and atlases, principally showing Europe and the Mediterranean basin and including the far-flung territories then being reached by European navigators. As showpieces intended for display rather than practical use, his maps tend to favor the decorative over strict accuracy. Working in Venice, the center of European cartography, he acted as copyist and synthesizer of charts produced by others, rather than an original creator. Nevertheless, over the course of his career he strove to integrate the most up-to-date geographic information into his world maps, depicting, for example, the circumnavigation of Ferdinand Magellan and the discoveries made of the Pacific Northwest by Francisco de Ulloa in 1539 and 1540.