St Dié, and died in 1521. He published in 1507 a huge map of the
world, in 12 sheets, together with a small globe of a diameter of
110 mm., the segments for which were printed from wood-blocks.
On these documents the new world is called America, after
Amerigo Vespucci, its supposed discoverer. In 1511 Waldseemüller
published a large map of Europe, in 1513 he prepared his
maps for the Strassburg edition of Ptolemy, and in 1516 he
engraved a copy of Canerio’s map of the world. The Strassburg
Ptolemy of 1522 contains Waldseemüller’s maps,[1] edited on a
reduced scale by Laurentius Frisius, together with three additional
ones. The same set of maps is reprinted in the Strassburg
edition of 1524, newly translated by W. Pirckheimer with notes
by Joh. Müller Regiomontanus, and in the Lyon edition of 1535,
edited by Michael Servetus. The new maps of the Basel edition
of 1540, twenty-one in number, are by Sebastian Münster;
Jacob Gastaldo supplied the Venice edition of 1548 with
34 modern maps, and these with a few additions are repeated in
Girolamo Ruscelli’s Italian translation of Ptolemy published at
Venice in 1561.
Equally interesting with these Ptolemaic supplements are collections like that of Anton Lafreri, which contains reprints of 142 maps of all parts of the world originally published between 1556 and 1572 (Geografica tavole moderne, Rome, n.d.), or that of J. F. Camocio, published at Venice in 1576, which contains 88 reprints.
The number of cartographers throughout Europe was considerable, and we confine ourselves to mentioning a few leading men. Among them Germany is then represented by G. Glockedon, the author of an interesting road-map of central Europe (1501), Sebastian Münster (1489–1552), Elias Camerarius, whose map of the mark of Brandenburg won the praise of Mercator; Wolfgang Latz von Lazius, to whom we are indebted for maps of Austria and Hungary (1561), and Philip Apianus, who made a survey of Bavaria (1553–1563), which was published 1568 on the reduced scale of 1 : 144,000, and is fairly described as the topographical masterpiece of the 16th century. For maps of Switzerland we are indebted to Konrad Türst (1495–1497), Johann Stumpf (1548) and Aegidius Tschudi (1538). A map of the Netherlands from actual survey was produced by Jacob of Deventer (1536–1539). Leonardo da Vinci, the famous artist, while in the service of Cesare Borgia as military engineer, made surveys of several districts in central Italy. Other Italian cartographers of merit were Giovanni Battiste Agnese of Venice, whose atlases (1517–1564) enjoyed a wide popularity; Benedetto Bordone (1528); Giacomo Gastaldo, cosmographer of the Venetian Republic (1534–1568), and his successor, Paolo Forlani. New maps of Spain and Portugal appeared in 1560, the former being due to Pedro de Medina, the latter to Fernando Alvarez Secco and Hernando Alvaro. Among the French map-makers of this period may be mentioned Oronce Finée (Finaeus), who in 1525 published a map of France, and Jean Jolivet (c. 1560). Gregorio Lilly (1546) and Humphrey Lhuyd of Denbigh (d. 1510) furnished maps of the British Isles, Olaus Magnus (1539) of Scandinavia, Anton Wied (1542), Sigismund von Herberstein (1549) and Anthony Jenkinson (1562) of Muscovy.
The cylindrical and modified conical projections of Marinus and Ptolemy were still widely used, the stereographical projection of Hipparchus, was for the first time employed for terrestrial maps in the 16th century, but new projections were introduced in addition to these. The earliest of these, a trapeziform projection with equidistant parallels, by D. Nicolaus Germanus (1466), naturally led to what is generally known as Flamsteed’s projection. Joh. Stabius (1502) and his pupil J. Werner (1514) devised three heart-shaped projections, one of which was equivalent. Petrus Apianus (1524) gave his map an elliptical shape. H. Glareanus (1510) was the first to employ an equidistant zenithal polar projection.
No reasonable fault can be found with the marine surveyors of this period, but the scientific cartographers allowed themselves too frequently to be influenced by Ptolemaic traditions. Thus Gastaldo (1548) presents us with a map of Italy, which, except as to nomenclature, differs but little from that of Ptolemy, although on the Portolano charts the peninsula had long since assumed its correct shape. Many of the local maps, too, were excellent specimens of cartography, but when we follow any cartographer of the period into regions the successful delineation of which depended upon an intelligent interpretation of itineraries, and of information collected by recent travellers, they are generally found to fail utterly. This is illustrated by the four sketch maps shown in fig. 28.
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| Fig. 28. |
Columbus, trusting to Toscanelli’s misleading chart, looked upon the countries discovered by him as belonging to eastern Asia, a view still shared about 1507 by his brother Bartolomeo. Waldseemüller (1507) was the first to separate America and Asia by an ocean of considerable width, but J. Ruysch (1508) returns to the old idea, and even joins Greenland (Gruenlant) to eastern Asia. Bologninus Zalterius on a map of 1566, and Mercator on his famous chart of 1569, separates the two continents by a narrow strait which they call Streto de Anian, thus anticipating the discovery of Bering Strait by more than a hundred and fifty years. Anian, however, which they place upon the American coast, is no other than Marco Polo’s Anica or Anin, our modern Annam. Such an error could never have arisen had the old compilers of maps taken the trouble to plan Marco Polo’s routes.
Globes, both celestial and terrestrial, became popular after the discovery of America. They were included among the scientific apparatus of ships and of educational establishments. Columbus and Magellan had such globes, those of the latter produced by P. Reinel (1519), and Conrad Celtes tells us that he illustrated his lectures at the university of Vienna with the help of globes (1501). Globes were still engraved on copper, or painted by hand, but since 1507, in which year Waldseemüller published a small globe of a diameter of 110 mm., covered with printed segments or gores, this cheap and expeditious method has come into general use. Waldseemüller constructed his gores graphically, A. Dürer (1525) and Hen. Loriti Glareanus (1527) were the first who dealt scientifically with the principles underlying their construction. Globes
- ↑ Facsimiles of the maps of 1507 and 1517 were published by J. Fischer and F. M. von Wieser (Innsbruck, 1903).
