Baptista Agnese and American Cartography in the Sixteenth Century

BAPTI STA AGNESE A M ERICAN C ARTOGRAPHY T E IXT EN H ENT RY H S E T C U . 'U S T I N W I N S O R . R P R I N T D O N E HU N D R D C O P I S F R O M T H E PR O C D I N G S O F T H E ' E E , E E , EE M A S S A C H U S T T S HI S T O R I C A L SO C I T Y M A Y E E , , C A M B RI D G E O H N W I L N ' S O A N D S O N . anihzmitg 191758. 1 89 7 . BAPTISTA AGNESE AND AMERICAN CARTOGRAPHY IN THE SIXTEENTH C ENTURY . So as n t h r n far I k ow , e e are but two of the Italia portolanos ’ n e m i an d of Ag ese s tim in A erican l braries , both of these are - in the Carter Brown Collection at Providen ce . They have n n . bee acquired of late years . O e is undoubtedly by Agnese m n It is the ost beautiful of his works , and well know in the t r x u history of car og aphy . The other is a work which in e ec tion bears in parts a strong resemblance to his recogn ized pro duction s t n e . It represents , however, wi hi the sam covers on some sheets the well-known views of Agnese as t o the con fig uration of the New World , but on others the conjectures of a x rival school , which made North America an easterly e tension of Asia . This is a peculiarity which militates against the atlas b n w e eing in all parts the work of Agnese , u less accept the n belief of Kretschmer, who avers that Ag ese latterly became a v th e con ert to this Asiatic theory , as shown in a world map in N b n o ational Li rary at Naples , and which with hesitation he n . X . ascribes to Ag ese He gives a sketch of it (Atlas, VIII No . 5) wh ich closely resembles a map in gores in the Carter Brown atlas . Neither of these atlases at Providence is dated ; n or are they signed . It is more diffi cult to determine the period of ’ Agnese s undated work t han that of almost any other map maker of the sixteenth century , for the reason that he was i n clined to cling to favorite geographical conceptions lon g after they were thrown in doubt by n ewer discoveries . He is generally th ought to have expended more care upon the appearance of his maps than upon securing correspondence in n them to the latest views . These diverge ces are of course 1 5 71 1 3 4 m h is ost apparent in the American parts of atlases , as it was a period necessarily of constant change I n the geographical conception s of the New World . Of no other cartographer of that time have so many speci n mens of work come down to us , and it is by no means certai ’ l n e that the cata ogue of Agnese s productio s is yet complet . i n His method of signing his maps was in these words, or v ' a ' some slight ariation of the legend Baptist Agnese , anu ” s Ven et iis ensi , fecit , to which the year and sometimes the month and day were occasionally added . By h is own prof es sion , therefore , he was a Genoese , working at Venice . In that s city he labored for about thirty years , turning out atlase , l t en f e w which usua ly have from to fifteen plates , but in a w t at instances sho more han double that number. These l an d lases commonly have a world map of an elliptica shape , almost invariably on that particular map he marks three or l O n e more great ocean routes by silvered or pricked ines . M ’ of these is the route , as followed by agellan s ship , to the M . An oluccas , and its return by the Cape of Good Hope other is to the Isthmus of Panama , and down the South m t . l A erican coas to Peru His earlier maps a so , where the is n Sea of Verrazano recog ized , show a track , called that of F the rench , to an isthmus midway along the Atlantic coast of North America , and continued beyond across the Pacific m a towards India . The presence of these tracks on a p hav ing other of Agnese ’ s characteristics is a pretty sure sign of his authorship . What we know of Agnese ’ s career is almost wholly derived from his works ; and at least half of these , as we recognize b them , are anonymous and undated . There has een some dif ference of Opinion as to the length of his cartographical ser e an d t vic . Wieser Kre schmer assign to him atlases in the Brit ish Museum of as early dates as 1 527 an d 1 529 . Kohl 1 puts his earliest work in 530 . Harrisse start s his career with a group of portolanos known to have been made in 1 536 . r Kohl does not trace him beyond 1 545. Har isse and Kretsch n m er find h is latest work to be in 1 564 . It is sig ificant of his want of care in regist ering the progress of geographical knowl i n 1 564 edge , that this atlas of , which is preserved in the bl M Bi ioteca arciana at Venice , the Chilean coast is still unde it w i n fined , though had been kno n Europe to have been 5 k n l s trac ed ear y thirty year . Cartier had established the insu l arit y of Newfoundland at about the same time, and still in 1 564 Agnese does not recognize its island character. F 1 885 Professor ischer , of Kiel, in counted twelve of ’ Agnese s atlases, of which he had knowledge and the editor of the Catalogue of the Geographical Exhibit in London in 8 a 1 9 5 gave the number as thirteen . Both of these prob bly ’ r b s B r eferred to Agnese s indubita le and signed atla es . ar isse , who in his French book on the Cabots first reckoned their D number, revised his count in his iscovery of North Amer ” - ica , and enumerates twenty one which are dated , and eighteen - t all . which are withou year, making thirty nine in Kretsch n -s mer, who is the latest enumerator , gives twe ty even dated , fif t - u in and an equal number undated , or y fo r all . He claims r t on e to have added to ea lier enumerations, two with da es , of 'u 8 1 542 t 1 1 543 ne , , in the Vatican , and ano her of September , , In t n u in the M useo Civico at Venice . addi ion he joins to the of b dated list six others , which two are in the National Li rary at Naples , two in the Royal Library at Berlin , and one each in the Museo Civico at Venice and in the University Library at Bologna . It is fair to say that Ruge , who touches the sub “ ” ec t j in his Kartographie von America , does not accept the ’ Kret sch m e r s . Bellio authenticity of all of newer specimens , in a section on cartography in the great Italian work co m m em o rative s o f . of Columbu , describes ten those preserved in Italy There exists more or less u ncertainty i n determining the u genuineness of the undated atlases , beca se of the productions ’ of imitators of Agnese s work , though those of inferior skill i n artistic handling are easily discarded . In the Catalogue t é e ” des documen s g ographiques de la Biblioth que Nationale , 2 4 x b 1 89 . 1 5 which were e hi ited in Paris in , No is called Con t refa on c des Atlas de Baptista Agnese . Though Agnese was con spicuous for his conservative habit m i n in geographical views, there are a few arked stages his pro f ession al w progress , and it is to sho these , as well as his neg O lect of pportunities for better knowledge , that it may be - worth while n o w to follow his thirty odd years of work . Harrisse n a F does not appare tly ccept the views of ischer , Weiser, and Kretschmer regarding the atlases ascribed to the 1 52 7 1 52 years and 9 , though they seem to be accepted by “ Canale in his Storia del Commercio (Geneva , and 6 are chronicled by Amat and U z ielli in their Studi della soci eo rafi ca eta g g Italiana (Roma, 1 52 7 1 529 u e These dates, and , correspond curio sly to thos t Bor ian W of the two grea g maps of the New orld , which Kohl has illustrated in his D ie beiden al st est en General ” t h are Karten von America , and which in e be st opinions t h e work of the Spanish Royal hydrographer , Ribero .

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