Cornaro Atlas
Encyclopedia
The Cornaro Atlas is an extensive Venetian
collection (c.1489) of nautical charts and tracts, currently held by the British Library
.
manuscript volume, estimated to date c.1489. It is named after the Cornaro
family, one of the leading patrician families of the Republic of Venice
, who once owned the volume, and whose coat of arms
adorns its frontispiece. The Cornaro Atlas was brought to England in 1832, and is currently held (Egerton MS 73) by the British Library
in London
, UK.
The first half of the volume contains a large collection of nautical charts, faithful copies of portolan chart
s composed earlier in the 15th C. The second half of the volume is dedicated to a myriad of written tracts on matters of nautical interest (e.g. astronomy, sailing directions, tariffs, etc.)
covering the "normal portolan" range (Black Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic coast up to the British isles). Most cartographers are named, some of them notables, such as Grazioso Benincasa of Ancona and Petrus Rosell of Majorca, others are lesser known. The last few charts are anonymous. Notable in this collection are the final charts on West Africa ("Portuguese Guinea") by an anonymous cartographer (often attributed to Cristoforo Soligo), which seem to be based on a Portuguese
nautical chart. It is one of the few indicators of the existence of Portuguese portolans from before the earliest extant specimens.
.
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
collection (c.1489) of nautical charts and tracts, currently held by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
.
Background
The Cornaro Atlas is an 80-page VenetianVenice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
manuscript volume, estimated to date c.1489. It is named after the Cornaro
Cornaro
The Cornaro, also known as Corner, are an illustrious patrician family in Venice, from which for centuries senior office-holders and Doges sprung...
family, one of the leading patrician families of the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
, who once owned the volume, and whose coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
adorns its frontispiece. The Cornaro Atlas was brought to England in 1832, and is currently held (Egerton MS 73) by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK.
The first half of the volume contains a large collection of nautical charts, faithful copies of portolan chart
Portolan chart
Portolan charts are navigational maps based on realistic descriptions of harbours and coasts. They were first made in the 14th century in Italy, Portugal and Spain...
s composed earlier in the 15th C. The second half of the volume is dedicated to a myriad of written tracts on matters of nautical interest (e.g. astronomy, sailing directions, tariffs, etc.)
Calendars
Three of the pages are calendars:- (p. 1) – a perpetual astronomical calendarCalendarA calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
of lunar revolutions - (p. 2) – a calendar of moveable feastMoveable feastIn Christianity, a moveable feast or movable feast is a holy day – a feast day or a fast day – whose date is not fixed to a particular day of the calendar year but moves in response to the date of Easter, the date of which varies according to a complex formula...
s from 1489 to 1600 - (p. 79) – a calendar of Dominical letterDominical letterDominical letters are letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G assigned to days in a cycle of seven with the letter A always set against 1 January as an aid for finding the day of the week of a given calendar date and in calculating Easter....
s.
Nautical charts
Following the opening calendars, there are 38 nautical charts depicted in 35 pages (numbered p. 3 to p. 38). All the maps seem to have been copied around the same time and by the same hand. Several pages can be grouped together to form a single portolan chartPortolan chart
Portolan charts are navigational maps based on realistic descriptions of harbours and coasts. They were first made in the 14th century in Italy, Portugal and Spain...
covering the "normal portolan" range (Black Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic coast up to the British isles). Most cartographers are named, some of them notables, such as Grazioso Benincasa of Ancona and Petrus Rosell of Majorca, others are lesser known. The last few charts are anonymous. Notable in this collection are the final charts on West Africa ("Portuguese Guinea") by an anonymous cartographer (often attributed to Cristoforo Soligo), which seem to be based on a 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...
nautical chart. It is one of the few indicators of the existence of Portuguese portolans from before the earliest extant specimens.
- (3 + 4) – portolan chart of Petrus Rosell
- p. 3 – chart of east Mediterranean and Black Sea
- p. 4 – chart of west Mediterranean and Atlantic coast
- (5 + 6) – portolan chart of Giovanni de Napoli (Zuan de Napoli)
- p. 5 – east Mediterranean and Black Sea.
- p. 6 – west Mediterranean and Atlantic coast
- (7 + 8) – portolan chart of Grazioso Benincasa
- p. 7 – east Mediterranean and Black Sea
- p. 8 – west Mediterranean and Atlantic coast
- (p. 9) – two charts on one page:
- the first is a special map of the Black Sea by Grazioso Benincasa (or F. Beccario)
- the second is a special map of the Black Sea by Francesco Beccario.
- (10 + 11) – portolan chart of Francesco Beccario
- p. 10 – East Mediterranean and Black Sea
- p. 11 – West Mediterranean and Atlantic Coast. Notable here is the "ixolla del Brazil" (mythical Brasil) west of Ireland, followed by "ixolla damam" (mythical Isle of Mam), then the usual list of AzoresHistory of the AzoresThe following article describes the history of the Azores.-Myth and legend:Stories of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, legendary and otherwise, had been reported since classical antiquity. Utopian tales of the Fortunate Islands were sung by poets like Homer and Horace. Plato articulated the legend...
names (corvi marini, etc.)
- (12 + 13 + 14) – portolan chart of Nicolò Fiorino
- p. 12 – East Mediterranean and Black Sea
- p. 13 – Central Mediterranean
- p. 14 – West Mediterranean and Atlantic coast. Notable here is a rare mythical island "Mons Orins" west of Ireland, as well as the usual mythical del brazil to the southwest. It also gives the customary Azores list (deli corbi marini, degli conigli, de S. Zorzi, etc. including a second de bracil (TerceiraTerceira IslandReferred to as the “Ilha Lilás” , Terceira is an island in the Azores archipelago, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the larger islands of the archipelago, with a population of 56,000 inhabitants in an area of approximately 396.75 km²...
))
- (p. 15) – special map of the Adriatic Sea by Francesco de Cesanis ("Cexano").
- (p. 16) – several charts on one page by Zuan Soligo,
- map of Italy, the Adriatic and the Ionian islands
- map of Sicily and Corsica
- (17 + 18) – portolan chart of Alvise de Cesanis ("Alvise Cexano")
- p. 17 – Black Sea
- p. 18 – eastern mediterranean, including Aegean up to Morea.
- (19 + 20) – special charts of Domenico de Zane
- p. 19 – chart of Mediterranean
- p. 20 – chart of the Aegean Sea
- (21 + 22) – special charts of Grazioso Benincasa
- p. 21 – chart of the Mediterranean
- p. 22 – chart of the Aegean Sea, including Greece and Asia Minor.
- (p. 23) – chart of the Aegean Sea by Nicolò Pasqualini
- (p. 24) – chart of the Aegean Sea by Benedetto Pesina, explicitly dated 1489 (the only dated map in the atlas).
- (25 + 26 + 27 + 28 + 29) – portolan chart of Alvise Cesanis (noted as "compimento" of earlier Cexano chart).
- p. 25 – central Mediterranean (from where chart on p.18 left off) until Livorono
- p. 26 – west Mediterranean until the Balearic islands.
- p. 27 – west Mediterranean and south Atlantic coast
- p. 28 – north Atlantic coast, from Lisbon to Texel.
- (p. 29) map of Atlantic coast, from northwest Africa to British isles, by an anonymous cartographer.
- (p. 30) – South Atlantic chart by Cristoforo Soligo, Portugal down to Cape VerdeCape VerdeThe Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, and including the Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores and mythical AntilliaAntilliaAntillia 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...
. Notable for including both the "traditional" 14th C. names and the new Portuguese 15th C. names for the AzoresAzoresThe Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
islands, specifically:- y de luovo and y de santa maria (Santa MariaSanta Maria IslandSanta Maria , Portuguese for Saint Mary, is an island located in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago and the southernmost island in the Azores...
) - y caprara and y de san michiel (São MiguelSão Miguel IslandSão Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...
) - y del brazil and y de jhs xpo (TerceiraTerceira IslandReferred to as the “Ilha Lilás” , Terceira is an island in the Azores archipelago, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the larger islands of the archipelago, with a population of 56,000 inhabitants in an area of approximately 396.75 km²...
) - y de san zorzi and y de san piero (São JorgeSão JorgeSão Jorge, Portuguese for Saint George, may refer to many saints that have used the name, but it also includes:-Brazil:*São Jorge, Goiás, is a village in the State of Goiás*São Jorge, Rio Grande do Sul, is a municipality in the State of Rio Grande do Sul...
) - y de colonbi and y de san dinis (PicoPico IslandPico Island , is an island in the Central Group of the Portuguese Azores noted for its eponymous volcano, Ponta do Pico, which is the highest mountain in Portugal, the Azores, and the highest elevation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge...
) - y de la venture and y de salvis (FaialFaialFaial is a Portuguese word derived from faya, referring to a species of plant/tree, Myrica faya.It may also refer to:=In the archipelago of the Azores*Faial Island, an island in the Central Group of islands...
) - no traditional name and y gracioxa (Graciosa)
- y deli Conilgi and y de san tomas (Flores)
- y di corbi marini and ya de santa ana. (CorvoCorvo IslandCorvo Island , literally the Island of the Crow, is the smallest and the northernmost island of the Azores archipelago and the northernmost in Macaronesia, with a population of approximately 468 inhabitants constituting the smallest single municipality in Azores and in Portugal.-History:A small...
)
- y de luovo and y de santa maria (Santa Maria
- (31 + 32 + part of 33) – Map of west African coast (noted as "Ginea Portogalexe", or Portuguese GuineaPortuguese GuineaPortuguese Guinea was the name for what is today Guinea-Bissau from 1446 to September 10, 1974.-History:...
) by an anonymous cartographer (often attributed to Christoforo Soligo)- (p. 31) – from the Straits of Gibraltar to Cape Vert (Senegal)
- (p. 32) – from Cape RoxoCape RoxoCape Roxo , is a headland in West Africa, marking the westernmost frontier of Guinea-Bissau with Senegal. On the lower side is the São Domingos district of the Cacheu Region of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, above it is the Oussouye Department of the Ziguinchor Region of the Republic of...
to Cape Saint-Catherine (Gabon), depicting construction of Elmina CastleElmina CastleElmina Castle was erected by Portugal in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina Castle, also known simply as Mina or Feitoria da Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana . It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, so is the oldest European building in existence below the Sahara...
("Qui se defiando uno altro Castello del Re de portogal") - (p. 33, top) – from Cape Fremoxo to Cape Negro, with all the toponyms in PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
.
- (p. 33 bottom) – map of the Caspian Sea (Mar de Bacu), anonymous.
- (p. 34) is a blank page.
- (p. 35) two maps on one page, both anonymous
- top – map of the Black Sea
- bottom – map of the Aegean Sea
- (p. 36) – General portolan chart (Mediterranean, Black Sea, Atlantic coast), possibly to serve as a "summary map" of all the prior charts. Anonymous.
- (p. 37) – map of northern Germany ("Sea of Germany") and the Baltic Sea. Anonymous.
- (p. 38) – a corographic map of the Holy LandHoly LandThe Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
(entitled: "Descriptio totius Terre Sancte, quam posiderunt filii Israhel; vocatur etiam Terra Promisionis"). Similar to the map of the Marino SanutoMarino Sanuto the ElderMarino Sanuto or Sanudo the Elder of Torcello was a Venetian statesman and geographer.He is best known for his life-long attempts to revive the crusading spirit and movement; with this object he wrote his great work, the Secreta Fidelium Crucis, otherwise called Historia Hierosolymitana, Liber de...
atlas.
Tracts
The remaining forty pages of the Cornaro Atlas (pp. 39–78) are various tracts, lists and notes on various subjects, written in the Venetian languageVenetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
.
- (pp. 39 to 46) are dedicated to astrologyAstrologyAstrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
and astronomyAstronomyAstronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
. Discusses matters such as the relation of the stars to parts of the human body, instructions on the course of the sun and moon, eclipses, timing of Easter and feast days, etc. (the content is similar to the Catalan AtlasCatalan AtlasThe Catalan Atlas is the most important Catalan map of the medieval period. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham , a Jewish book illuminator who was self-described as being a master of the maps of the world as well as compasses...
of 1375 and the Pinelli–Walckenaer AtlasPinelli–Walckenaer AtlasThe Pinelli–Walckenaer Atlas is a late 14th-century atlas of portolan charts, explicitly dated 1384, primarily composed by an anonymous Venetian cartographer, and held by the British Library.- Background :...
of 1384) - (p. 47) is a chapter entitled la raxon del martologio relating the rule of marteloioRule of marteloiothumb|300px|The tondo e quadro from [[Andrea Bianco]]'s 1436 atlasThe rule of marteloio is a medieval technique of navigational computation that uses compass direction, distance and a simple trigonometric table known as the toleta de marteloio...
(similar to Andrea Bianco's 1436 atlas). - (p. 48), there is the replica of a 1428 document VenetianRepublic of VeniceThe Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
captain-general Andrea MocenigoAndrea MocenigoAndrea Mocenigo , son of Lunardo, was a Venetian senator of the republic and a historian and in 1495 Protonotary apostolic. He composed a work on the League of Cambrai entitled Belli memorabilis Cameracensis adversus Venetos historiae libri vi .-References:...
listing the captains of the Venetian galleys, followed (p. 49), by an ordered list of armed galleys of the government (SignoriaSignoriaA Signoria was an abstract noun meaning 'government; governing authority; de facto sovereignty; lordship in many of the Italian city states during the medieval and renaissance periods....
) of Venice, and (p.50) a list of the captains of the Flanders galleys. - (p. 52) beginning of a new treatise on astronomy, apparently dated 1388, tracing the movement of the twelve zodiacZodiacIn astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
constellations, the seven planets, the moon, etc. - (p. 55) an explanation of how to measure the height of buildings.
- (p. 59) a list of tariffTariffA tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
s on merchandise in different countries, comparative to the tariffs of AlexandriaAlexandriaAlexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. - (p. 63) is a manual on sailing.
- (p. 67 to p. 78) is a detailed portolan handbook detailing the sailing directions and distances of the various ports of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts, albeit apparently left incomplete.
- (p. 79) – the final calendar of Dominical letterDominical letterDominical letters are letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G assigned to days in a cycle of seven with the letter A always set against 1 January as an aid for finding the day of the week of a given calendar date and in calculating Easter....
s.
Sources
- Entry on the Cornaro Atlas at COPAC, British Library
- Campbell, T. (2010) "A Note on the Cornaro Atlas" online, including a color and attribution table.
- D'Avezac, M.A.C. (1850) Note sur un Atlas Hydrographique manuscrit, executé à Venise dans le XVe siècle, et conservé aujourd'hui au Musée Britannique Paris: Martinet online
- 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