Slide #246
TITLE: Catalan-Estense World Map
DATE: 1450-1460
AUTHOR: unknown
DESCRIPTION: The oldest of the portolan [nautical] charts to
survive are of Italian origin, made at Genoa and Pisa; those dating from
the latter half of the 14th century are mainly Catalan. But the typical
Catalan map is not strictly speaking a portolan chart. It is more
than that; for while the latter is essentially a sailing guide concerned
with coastwise navigation, the Catalan map is really a world map built up
around the portolan chart. It is true that in some cases the term
'world' connotes simply the habitable earth as known by the author, nevertheless,
in others, as the Catalan-Estense map, it is interpreted to include
lands not yet discovered, but only posited. This aggravated the cartographer's
task very considerably for it meant that he was continually being faced
with the problem of choosing between scanty and often poorly substantiated
fact on the one hand, and plausible and often well-attested theory on the
other. It is a tribute to the integrity of these men that their work contains
so much that subsequent investigation has proved true. In fact it is this
careful sifting of evidence that constitutes one of the chief merits of
the Catalan school of cartography, in an age when intellectual honesty was
none too common. The value of the Catalan maps, as commentaries upon the
state of contemporary knowledge at once becomes apparent and we are hardly
surprised to find that the Catalan Atlas of 1375 (Slide
#235) has the finest delineation of Asia the world had seen up to that
time, or that, in its knowledge of Cathay [China] and the Sudan,
the same map is surpassed in the Middle Ages only by the 1459 Fra Mauro
map (Slide #249).
Scarcely less valuable and certainly more interesting for the student of
geographical theory, are the Catalan speculations concerning the unexplored
territories of the earth. Unlike many medieval scholars the draughtsmen
of Majorca showed a praiseworthy restraint in this respect. Thus we may
look almost in vain for those fanciful creatures with which the cosmographers
of that age filled their empty continents. At the same time, these men saw
nothing strange about a belief in the Terrestrial Paradise, or in
a hydrographical system stretching from sea to sea. For the most part their
speculations were of another kind, and usually they contained at least a
partial truth. For instance, Lacus Nili, the Pactolus of Strabo
and the Palolus of later maps, which in the Catalan Atlas and
subsequent works is located in the neighborhood of Timbuktu, may reasonably
be identified with the flood region of the Niger River above that town.
However, on one matter the mapmaker could hardly refrain from speculating,
for this reason: land exploration had for a long time now outrun oceanic
discovery, and so, concerning Africa, for example, much more was known of
the Sudan by the end of the 14th century than was known of the oceanic fringe
in the same latitudes. The earlier draughtsmen insisted upon cutting the
continent short just beyond the limit of coastal knowledge, that is, in
the vicinity of Cape Bojador. By so doing, however, they found themselves
reducing the vast extent of the Sahara almost to a vanishing point. Thus,
in the Catalan Atlas of 1375, Sigilmesa and the Rio del
Oro [i.e., the Senegal-Niger River system] are placed in closer proximity
than Ceuta and Cape Non (Slide #235).
Later draughtsmen, in order to escape the embarrassment caused by indicating
the great trans-Saharan caravan routes within these narrow limits, began
to speculate on the course of the African coast, south of Bojador. By general
agreement it was made to tend south-south-east. Speculation of this sort
did at least have the merit of enabling the mapmaker to draw the Sahara
with greater accuracy. It should be noted that all of the Catalan maps,
with the exception of this Catalan-Estense world map, which was the
last of its line, stop short of their southern side in the latitude of Sierra
Leone approximately, that is, where knowledge gave place to ignorance.
Associated with this habit of speculation, was the practice of what Kimble
calls 'harmonizing' established facts with long-held 'traditions'; a practice
which became very popular from the 14th century onwards. The people who
found pleasure in reconciling the views of such influential ancients as
Pliny, Ptolemy, Aristotle and Ambrose were not easily disturbed by the challenge
of the new school of practical cartography. On the contrary with real but
heedless enthusiasm they set about the task of pouring the new wine into
the old skins, an occupation offering more and more difficulties as exploration
extended the known world. Not even the Catalan cartographers could avoid
it. But as they were predisposed to eschew wild guesses and to be sceptical
of travellers' tales, their maps do not afford the best illustrations of
this characteristic. As a single example, at the beginning of the Catalan
period the Rio del Oro [River of Gold], a heritage of classical geography,
was made to debouch into the Atlantic immediately south of Cape Bojador.
With the extension of trans-Saharan commerce in the 14th century, and, along
with it the enlargement of geographical knowledge, the Rio del Oro
was pushed, little by little, farther south until at length in the Catalan-Estense
map it is located approximately in the latitude of the Senegal-Niger system,
which no doubt, it is intended to represent. Prior to the mid-15th century,
this harmonizing problem presented few serious obstacles. Maritime exploration
had hardly begun to yield fruit while the land explorations of the Polos
and their contemporaries had not yet produced a systematic revision of current
ideas. Where the results were found not to coincide with the ideas, as was
of course usually the case, it was quite customary to find them being either
distorted beyond recognition, or neglected altogether. Thus in the geography
of Abyssinia, Fra Mauro's map (Slide #249)
weaves Polo's narrative into Arab theory, and makes these together fit the
topographical notions of Abyssinia which he obtained from first-hand
sources. Again , while professing knowledge of Polo's Asiatic wanderings,
Mauro does not even hint at the peninsular nature of South India, a fact
which is implicit in Polo's statements.
With the development of Portuguese seafaring in the 15th century and the
subsequent widening if the southern horizon, the 'harmonizing' problem became
increasingly acute. Each mapmaker tackled it de novo, so that scarcely any
two world maps of this period provided the same world-view. Compare, for
instance, this Catalan-Estense map, the Walsperger world map
(Slide #245) and the Genoese world map (Slide #248), all of approximately the same date, ca.1450.
According to Kimble, there are at least three distinct influences, in addition
to the portolan chart tradition, that can be detected. These influences
are Classical, Christian and Arab. Of these only the Arab influence is strong,
while it is improbable that the Classical influence was direct. Thus, in
the case of the Catalan-Estense map, it owes nothing to the Ptolemaic
tradition, and it is less likely that its author should have taken his idea
of a southern continent direct from Crates, the originator of the concept
(150 B.C., Slide #113), than that he should have
taken it from Arab or Christian cosmographers, such as Abu'l Fida or Isidore
(Slide #205), who revived it. The influence of the
medieval Christian tradition on the Catalan-Estense map is betrayed
in such elements as the legend relating to Prester John and the portrayal
of the Terrestrial Paradise. There can be no mistaking the Arab influence.
We have only to compare the delineation of the southern half of Africa on
the map with the description given by the 11th century writer, Al-Biruni,
of the shores of the Southern Ocean to be convinced of the kinship.
Thus, the Catalan-Estense map, although embellished with castellated
towns, ships and portraits of African princes, attempts to furnish an up-to-date
picture of the world and to resolve the ancient riddle of Africa nondum
cognita.
The circular Catalan-Estense map, measuring 113 cm in diameter, is
very colorful with a large number of princes shown throughout Africa (where
Prester John has been placed), 52 legends, castellated towns for
major settlements, loxodromes, ships, mermaids, domesticated reindeer and
horses. Although almost a hundred years later, it is clearly related to
the pivotal Catalan Atlas of 1375 (Slide #235).
This resemblance in the content of the two maps strengthens the contention
that the latter was derived from a circular prototype. The nomenclature
and the numerous legends on the Catalan-Estense, mostly in Catalan
with a few in corrupt Latin, are often very similar to those of the 1375
Atlas. In some instances the legends are more complete, in others
they are less detailed; they suggest, therefore, not direct copying but
possibly a common source. This similarity is also evident in the delineation
of the main features, most of those in the 1375 Atlas are to be found
on the Estense map.
The northern portions of Asia and Europe on the Estense map, which
lay outside the limits of the Catalan Atlas, significantly, contain
very little detail. On the southern coastline of Asia there are some differences,
generally slight, between the two maps. The peninsula of India is much less
pronounced on the Catalan-Estense map, and to the south is the large
island of Salam or Silan [Ceylon/Sri Lanka] which also fell
outside the physical limits of the Catalan Atlas. A legend refers
to its wealth in rubies and other precious stones. There can be no doubt
however that the two outlines are fundamentally identical. To the east is
the island of Java, as on the Catalan Atlas. The island of
Trapobana is much enlarged, and is placed on the southeastern margin
of the map. The surrounding ocean, the Mar deles indies is filled
with numerous nameless and featureless islands.
Africa occupies most of the southern half of the map. The continent ends
in a great arc, conforming to the circular frame of the map, and extending
eastwards to form the southern boundary of the Indian Ocean. On the west,
a long narrow gulf from the circumfluent ocean almost severs this southerly
projection from northern Africa. The southern interior is blank save for
the legend Africa begins at the river Nile in Egypt and ends at Gutzola
in the west: it includes the whole land of Barbaria, and the land in the
south. This outline and legend have been interpreted to imply some knowledge
of the southern extremity of Africa, and perhaps of a practicable route
from the west to the Indian Ocean.
That the great western gulf reflects some knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea
is more probable. The design of the northern half of the continent in general
resembles that of the other Catalan charts, but the northwestern coast embodies
some details of contemporary Portuguese voyages as far as C. ude [Cape
Verde] and C. groso. From this evidence, the map is usually dated
about 1450. Near the gulf are the Mountains of the Moon, from which
five rivers flow northwards to a lake on the western Nile. This lake
probably represents the area around the Upper Niger liable to inundation;
Kimble has pointed out that these rivers may well represent the five main
sources of the Niger. These Mountains of the Moon are stated to be
on the Equator, and the streams are called the riu de lor. We may
therefore assume that the headwaters of the Niger marked the approximate
limit of contemporary knowledge in this region, and it is not improbable
that reports of the sea to the south had been received. These may have induced
the cartographer to accept the western gulf of Ptolemy, but to enlarge it
considerably. Again, the name Rio del Oro [river of gold] recalls
the inscription on the Catalan Atlas and the classical tradition.
The portrayal of the interior thus goes back at least to 1375. Apart therefore
from a small portion of the coastline, the map owes nothing to Portuguese
exploration.
Some surprise has been expressed that a map of 1450 should contain relatively
up-to-date details coupled with antiquated ideas in other areas, and this
has produced some rather involved explanations. Taking into consideration
the lack of details and names in the southern regions of Africa, we may
plausibly conjecture that, as an exception to the usual conservatism, the
draughtsman, in Africa at least, had removed all the detail for which he
had no evidence, to obtain a framework on which to insert the latest Portuguese
discoveries. It must remain debatable whether the outline of the southern
extremity represents some knowledge of the Cape. The outline may be entirely
imposed by the frame of the map: at the most, it may reflect the kind of
report that we find on Fra Mauro's map (Slide
#249).
The merit of the Catalan cartographers lay in the skill with which they
employed the best contemporary sources to modify the traditional world picture,
rarely proceeding further than the evidence warranted. In the same spirit
they removed from the map most of the traditional fables which had been
accepted for centuries, and preferred, for example, to omit the northern
and southern regions entirely, or to leave southern Africa a blank rather
than to fill it with the Anthropagi and other monsters which adorn
so many medieval maps. Though drawings of men and animals still figure on
their works they are in the main those for which there was some contemporary,
or nearly contemporary, warrant; for example, Mansa Musa, the lord
of Guinea, whose pilgrimage to Mecca created a sensation in 1324, or Olub
bein, the ruler of the Tatars. In this spirit of critical realism, the
Catalan cartographers of the 14th century threw off the bonds of tradition,
and anticipated the achievements of the Renaissance.
LOCATION: Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy
REFERENCES:
*Bagrow, L., History of Cartography, plate XLIII.
*Cardini, F., Europe 1492, p. 208 (color).
Crone, G.R., Maps and Their Makers, pp. 47-50.
*Destombes, M., Mappemondes, A.D. 1200-1500, pp. 217-221, plate XXXIII.
*George, W., Animals and Maps, pp.13, 39-43, 48-49.
*Gross, J., Mapmakers' Art, p. 45 (color)
*Kimble, G.H.T., Geography in the Middle Ages, pp. 113, 182-3, 194-197.
*Skelton, R.A., The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, pp. 113, 118-19,
127, 131, 250, plate XI.
*illustrated