Battista Beccario
Encyclopedia
Battista Beccario, also known as Baptista Beccharius (name also sometimes given as "Beccaria", "Beccari" or "Bedrazio"), was a 15th Century Genoese
cartographer.
Virtually nothing is known of his life. Battista is probably a relative (perhaps a son?) of an earlier Genoese cartographer, Francesco Beccario, responsible for a 1403 portolan map.
Battista Beccario is the author of two notable portolan charts:
(A third possible Battista Beccario map surfaced c.1950, albeit unsigned and tentatively dated c.1426. It is privately held.)
Both of the Beccario maps are smaller than the "normal portolan", i.e. they omit the Black Sea and most of the east Mediterranean. The maps also barely touches Europe north of Flanders. They do, however, have an expansive Atlantic Ocean, riddled with islands.
In the 1426 Munich map, Beccario seems to derive many of the stylings of the Majorcan cartographic school
, being the first Italian map replete with inland features Although it seems like a "normal portolan", it covers an area a bit smaller than its predecessors, e.g. it omits most of northern Europe and the Baltics, and less of the west African coast. Among its novel features, Beccario depicts the winds and the Pole star on colored round disks on the edge of the map, a custom later widely adopted in portolan charts. The portolan's signature is emblazoned with the royal arms of Castile-Leon, suggesting a Spanish patron.
Beccario's 1435 Parma map is similar to the earlier in its range, but exhibits the traditional sparse Italian school style, nautical-focused, omitting most inland details and illustrations, with only a few cities depicted (Genoa, Avignon, Santiago de Compostela, Tlemcen), the rest (if noted) reduced to labels.
In his 1426 map, Beccario labels what seems like the Madeira
archipelago, recently (re-?)discovered by the Portuguese
in 1418-20, as the insulle fortunate santi brandany ("Fortunate Islands of St. Brendan"), blending the legendary St. Brendan's Island
and the real islands of Madeira.
Prior to the discovery of the 1424 Pizzigano Map
, Beccario's 1435 Parma map was believed to be the first to depict the legendary
Atlantic islands of Antillia
, Satanazes
(Satanagio), Royllo
and Tanmar, famously labelling the group as Insulle a nove repte (read: repte = repertae, "islands newly reported"). The Antillia group does not appear in his earlier 1426 chart.
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
cartographer.
Virtually nothing is known of his life. Battista is probably a relative (perhaps a son?) of an earlier Genoese cartographer, Francesco Beccario, responsible for a 1403 portolan map.
Battista Beccario is the author of two notable portolan charts:
- 1426 portolan chart, signed and dated, "Baptista Becharius civis Janue composuit hanc cartam anno domini millex.o CCCC.XXX de mense novembris ad requisicionem et nomine...." (rest illegible), , 103.5 x 68 cm, held by the Bayerische StaatsbibliothekBavarian State LibraryThe Bavarian State Library in Munich is the central "Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria and one of Europe's most important universal libraries. With its collections currently comprising around 9.39 million books, it ranks among the best research libraries...
in MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany.(Mapp.XXV,1y)
- 1435 portolan chart signed and dated as "....a becharius. Ciuis Janue composiut hanc ....anno domini. Millexio cccc.xxxv de....jullij" (some portions unreadable), 89 x 65 cm, held by the Biblioteca PalatinaBiblioteca PalatinaThe Biblioteca Palatina , established in Parma in the year 1761 by Philip Bourbon, Duke of Parma. It is located in Piazzale Pilotta. The Palatina Library was named after Apollus Palatinus.- Collection :...
in ParmaParmaParma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, Italy. (II,21,1613)
(A third possible Battista Beccario map surfaced c.1950, albeit unsigned and tentatively dated c.1426. It is privately held.)
Both of the Beccario maps are smaller than the "normal portolan", i.e. they omit the Black Sea and most of the east Mediterranean. The maps also barely touches Europe north of Flanders. They do, however, have an expansive Atlantic Ocean, riddled with islands.
In the 1426 Munich map, Beccario seems to derive many of the stylings of the Majorcan cartographic school
Majorcan cartographic school
The Majorcan cartographic school is the term coined by historians to refer to the collection of cartographers, cosmographers and navigational instrument-makers that flourished in Majorca in the 14th and 15th Centuries. The label is usually inclusive of those who worked in mainland Catalonia...
, being the first Italian map replete with inland features Although it seems like a "normal portolan", it covers an area a bit smaller than its predecessors, e.g. it omits most of northern Europe and the Baltics, and less of the west African coast. Among its novel features, Beccario depicts the winds and the Pole star on colored round disks on the edge of the map, a custom later widely adopted in portolan charts. The portolan's signature is emblazoned with the royal arms of Castile-Leon, suggesting a Spanish patron.
Beccario's 1435 Parma map is similar to the earlier in its range, but exhibits the traditional sparse Italian school style, nautical-focused, omitting most inland details and illustrations, with only a few cities depicted (Genoa, Avignon, Santiago de Compostela, Tlemcen), the rest (if noted) reduced to labels.
In his 1426 map, Beccario labels what seems like the Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
archipelago, recently (re-?)discovered by the Portuguese
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
in 1418-20, as the insulle fortunate santi brandany ("Fortunate Islands of St. Brendan"), blending the legendary St. Brendan's Island
St. Brendan's Island
Situated somewhere west of Northern Africa, St. Brendan’s Isle is a phantom island often regarded as myth, since, unless it is the so-called "Eighth Canary Island" known since time immemorial to the Spanish and Portuguese authorities as San Borondón, only a few have claimed to have seen it.In the...
and the real islands of Madeira.
Prior to the discovery of the 1424 Pizzigano Map
Pizzigano Map
The Pizzigano Map is a portolan chart dated to 1424 and attributed to the 15th C. Venetian cartographer Zuane Pizzigano...
, Beccario's 1435 Parma map was believed to be the first to depict the legendary
Phantom island
Phantom islands are islands that were believed to exist, and appeared on maps for a period of time during recorded history, but were later removed after they were proved to be nonexistent...
Atlantic islands of Antillia
Antillia
Antillia is a legendary island that was reputed, during the 15th century age of exploration, to lie in the Atlantic Ocean, far to the west of Portugal and Spain...
, Satanazes
Satanazes
The island of Satanazes is a legendary island once thought to be located in the Atlantic Ocean, and depicted on many 15th C. maps.- Cartographic depiction :...
(Satanagio), Royllo
Royllo
Royllo , is a legendary island that was once thought to be located in the Atlantic Ocean. Probably identical with the island originally called Ymana in the 1424 Pizzigano Map. The island is usually depicted in many 15th C. maps as a small island located slightly to the west of the much larger...
and Tanmar, famously labelling the group as Insulle a nove repte (read: repte = repertae, "islands newly reported"). The Antillia group does not appear in his earlier 1426 chart.
Sources
- Babcock, W.H. (1919) "St. Brendan's Explorations and Islands", Geographic Review, Vol. 8 p.37
- Babcock, W.H. (1922) Legendary islands of the Atlantic: a study in medieval geography New York: American Geographical Society. online
- Campbell, T. (2011) "Census of pre-sixteenth-century portolan charts" at maphistory.info, last visited June 16, 2011
- Cortesão, Armando (1954) The Nautical Chart of 1424 and the Early Discovery and Cartographical Representation of America. Coimbra and Minneapolis. (Portuguese trans. "A Carta Nautica de 1424", published in 1975, Esparsos, Coimbra. vol. 3)
- Desimoni, Cornelio (1875) Elenco di carte ed atlanti nautici di autore genovese oppure in Genova fatti o conservati, Giornale Ligustico, Vol. 2, p.41–71.
- Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
(1837) Examen critique de l'histoire de la géographie du nouveau continent et des progrès de l'astronomie nautique aux quinzième et seizième siècles, Paris: Gide, vol. II.
- Longhena, M. (1907) "Atlanti e Carte Nautiche del Secolo XIV al XVII, conservati nella biblioteca e nell'archivio di Parma", Archivio Storico per le Provincie Parmensi, Vol. VII. offprint
- Revelli, P. (1951) "Una nuova carta di Batista Beccari ('Batista Becharius')?", Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana,vol. 88, p.156-66.
- Uzielli, G. and P. Amat di S. Filippo (1882) Studi biografici e bibliografici sulla storia della geografia in Italia, Vol. 2 - Mappamondi, carte nautiche, portolani ed altri monumenti cartografici specialmente italiani dei secoli XIII-XVII, Rome: Società geografica italiana, 2nd ed., Vol. 2
- Winter, Heinrich (1952) "Petrus Roselli", Imago Mundi, Vol. 9, p.1-11