An Important Atlas in the British Museum Author(s): E. C. Abendanon Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 57, No. 4 (Apr., 1921), pp. 284-289 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1780561 Accessed: 03-05-2016 10:33 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Tue, 03 May 2016 10:33:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ( 284 ) AN IMPORTANT ATLAS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM E. C. Abendanon AMONG British the Museum valuable there and isperhaps one that not deserves enough knownour special atlases attention. of the It is catalogued under No. 1513 Bibl. Egerton. On the first page of the fine modern binding of this atlas one reads : " The title written in irik on the original parchment binding, was, as far as could be read, * Livrd'de la marine de* Pilote Pasterot,f Pan 1587. F.M.'" As a fact the title is most indistinct, especially as to the name, but the 8 of the number (year ?) cannot be misinterpreted. Harrisse twice quoted this atlas. In 1892 (' The Discovery of North America'; London and Paris, 1892) he wrote about it: " A Portolano, of seventy-eight charts of the coasts of both hemispheres, drawn on a plane scale; with pen-and-ink drawings of cities, fortrfications, native inhabitants, animals, and vegetation. The original pencil outlines are visible under the ink. At the end of the volume are original letters of Charles IX of France, exempting Nicolas du Tour, Sieur de Couldray, from the billet of soldiers ; dat. Rouen, 16 Aug. 1563." Then again, in 1900 (' Decouverte et Evolution cartographique de Terre-Neuve et des pays circonvoisins,' p. 263; London and Paris, 1900), he mentions it: "Quatre anne*es s'e'coulent et, en 1587, un pilote appele* Pastoret, d'ailleurs completement inconnu, construit un bel atlas de soixante-dix-huit cartes, en France, mais sans qu'on puisse dire dans quelle ville." To these descriptions (and others have not come to our knowledge) we may add the following particulars. All the maps of this atlas dis- tinctly want a finishing touch. There are many duplicates and tripli- cates, but only one of two or three identical representations of coasts has been supplied with geographical names. All maps contain the indications of north and south latitude in degrees. Moreover, all maps are divided by two sets of quadrangles, one standing upright, the other at an angle of 450. A circle has been drawn round all of them. The seas of these maps are especially livened by very finely drawn sailing vessels, sometimes by monsters of the sea. On the land we see mostly trees, tents, castles, or houses, and more seldom human beings or animals. In all these respects the maps of this French atlas differ from the well-known Desceliers and Desliens maps of the Dieppe cartographic school. But as we have learned to consider the Dieppe maps, especially for the cartography of the East Indian archipelago, as the missing mile- stones J in the historical development of its early cartography, so our * Ought to be du. t In the catalogue itself the name is written " Pastoret." X " Missing lipks in the development of the ancient Portuguese cartography of the Netherlands East Indian archipelago," the Geographical Journal, 1919, p- 347- This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Tue, 03 May 2016 10:33:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms AN IMPORTANT ATLAS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 285 thought was that a comparison of the atlas attributed to Pastoret and the world-maps of Desceliers and Desliens might teach us, if not the year of that atlas, at least the state of the cartographical knowledge repre? sented by it. These mappemondes are the Harleian (1536 ?), the Desliens map of 1541, and the Desceliers maps of 1546 and 1550. For this comparison it is not necessary to look at the coast-lines of Africa, but we have to study those of the afore-mentioned archipelago, the south part of the Indian Ocean, and the coasts of North and South America. Folio 4 of the Egerton 1513 atlas, as we will call it henceforth, contains a " partie delaterre de linde occidentalle " in a very old-fashioned way, namely one of the end of the fifteenth century. " Isle Zipango " (= Japan), " Isle St. Lazare," " Ziloly vel silloly " (= Halmahera, much too big), "Timor," and "aubenon" (= Ambon), all put too near to one another, form a mixture of cartographical fantasy after data which had their origin in the times shortly before and shortly after the arrival of the first Europeans in the East Indian archipelago. One may presume that this map was meant by its constructor to be considered as a piece only of historical value in his time. Folio 55 contains the map of the East Indian archipelago without a title. The north coast of Java, which island is connected with the large imaginary South land, is almost the same as on the Harleian (1536 ?). In the eastern part occur two deep south-extended bays, separating a north- south peninsula with the name of " Simbana " (Eg. 1513), or " Symbana " (Harleian), and a long north-south island with " C : dafrelles" (Eg. I5I3)> or "C. de flones" (Harl.). East therefrom we see"entree de solcec" or " Lentree de soLog," and still more eastward a triangle- shaped "Tmor" or "Timoros." A series of small islands leads on both maps to the island * of " Seillam " or " Seillan," and a second series of small islands, a little more to the north than the first, leads westward back to the island of " Amadura" (Eg. 1513 and HarL). The concep- tion of the island of Halmahera on both maps is very much the same, and so it is for the first embryonic representation of Celebes. The differences belong, firstly, to the north-west coast-line of the latter island, which is not shown on Eg. 1513, and is given, approximately, on the Harleian; and secondly, the name of "celebis" (Eg. 1513) or "C: des Sselebres" (Harl). North of Celebes is drawn a large west-east island, with the name of "mandano" (Eg. 1513, no east coast) or "mindearao" (Harl., hypothetical east coast). North of this island of Mindanao, three others are drawn near to one another and stretching nearly south-north (Eg. 1513, without north coasts; Harl., with hypothetical north coasts). To the west of these three islands stretches the south-eastern coast of * East of this island both maps give blanks. This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Tue, 03 May 2016 10:33:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 286 AN IMPORTANT ATLAS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM " palabecara " (Eg. 1513), viz. the island of Pelawan; the same island with roughly outlined south-western, north-western, and north-eastern coasts on the Harleian mappemonde. South of this island of Pelawan, Eg. 1513 contains the whole island of Borneo (without name) with the name of " port de bormio" and " mont S : pol" in the north part. The Harleian map contains only the north-west coast of Borneo (the well-known Spanish discovery of 1521 of the famous Magalhaes expedition), whereas the north-east, southeast, and south-west coasts are merely roughly outlined. This difference in the large island of Borneo is most peculiar, for it forms the only real cartographic advance in the archipelago of Eg. 1513 on the Harleian. As a fact, the draughtsman of Eg. 1513 refrained from drawing coast- lines where they were not known,* whereas the draughtsman of the Harleian (Pierre Desceliers) evidently wanted an island to be drawn as an island. If we now turn to the Desliens mappemonde of 1541, we immediately remark many cartographic amendments. Flores and "timor" have become east-west islands. Halmahera has slightly but distinctly im? proved; so has "midartao" (= Mindanao), and have the three islands north of it. Pelawan has no more than its south-east coast. But " borne " (= Borneo) and Celebes (without its name) show great cartographic improvements. The Desceliers mappemonde of 1546 equals, in its cartography of the East Indian archipelago, that of Desliens in nearly every respect. But of Pelawan, once more, as in 1536 (?) on the Harleian, Desceliers gives the imaginative south-west, north-west, and north-east coasts. It is clear that, in the cartography ofthe East Indian archipelago, the Eg. 1513 atlas represents the cartographical knowledge from slightly after 1536, but before 1541. We have still to mention fol. 56 of Eg. 1513, containing the north part of the archipelago and the sea north of it to the south of Japan. It represents the same piece of coast-line for the island of Celebes with the name "celebis" or perhaps "celebre." Fol. 61 of the Indian Ocean stretches eastward to the west coast of the " Isle de bornio." North of the Philippines the ocean remains open on the maps of 1536 (?) and 1541, but is bounded by a concave-shaped coast on Eg.