Detail View: Old Maps Collection: Southwest Atlantic Ocean with Brazil

4687820501034

Southwest Atlantic Ocean with Brazil

[Océan Atlantique Sud-Ouest avec le Brésil]

Atlas Miller

Lopo Homem-Reineis Atlas

Homem, Lopo, fl. 1517-1565, cartographer

Reinel, Pedro, ca. 1464-ca. 1542, cartographer

Reinel, Jorge, ca. 1502-ca. 1572, cartographer

António de Holanda, 1480?-1556, illustrator

Santarém, Manuel Francisco de Barros e Sousa de Mesquita de Macedo Leitão e Carvalhosa, 1791-1856, 2nd viscount of, former owner

Miller, Emmanuel, 1812-1886, former owner

Sea Charts

Manuscripts

Latin

Portuguese

1519

JPEG 2000, 14583 × 10440, 23MB

5

Scale not given.

42 x 60 cm, on sheet 50 x 67 cm

This map is from an Atlas known as Atlas Miller or Lopo Homem-Reineis Atlas. It was a joint work of cartographers Lopo Homem, Pedro Reinel and Jorge Reinel, and illustrated by Flemish miniaturist António de Holanda. It is considered one of the most beautiful Renaissance cartographic documents from Portugal. According to some authors the Atlas formed by 6 sheets is missing a 7th sheet which probably included a map of Africa. The five sheets with the maps were sold by Jacques Charavey -a Paris bookseller- to Portuguese viscount of Santarém that later sold them to Emmanuel Clement Miller, hence the name Miller Atlas. In 1897 Millers widow sold it to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The mapamundi sheet was later found in an auction in London in 1930 with the no. 91 in a catalog of Sotheby & Co. The buyer -Marcel Destombes- with the help of experts, concluded in 1939 that belonged to the Miller Atlas and in 1976 donated it to Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The title page bears a later inscription -probably after 1559- with the arms of Catherine de Medici, queen of France. It is thought to have been an offering from King Manuel I of Portugal to Francis I of France. However many authors agree that it had a political ground for it secretly denies the idea that the actual circumnavigation of the globe was possible and it was made to hinder Magellan’s voyage under the Spanish King. This map of Southwest Atlantic Ocean with Brazil shows the north coast of Brazil to way beyond the south estuary of River Plate. It is mostly a hydrographic chart for it has all the elements required to make navigation possible but it was not made for that specific purpose. It stands out for its details less than twenty years after the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral, particularly for name places as it has much more -122- than any map made decades before or after. The accuracy of the Amazon is astonishing for being a bit of unexplored territory for no one could be sure of the precise location of the line that separated Portuguese and Spanish territory and it meant that very few ships crossed from one side to the other. Actually even subsequent maps by fine cartographers would represent it incorrectly or even not at all.

Original is a manuscript vellum Atlas with 6 sheets with both recto and verso, 42 x 59 cm. Title from provenance library.

Title from provenance library.

The map is very ornamented with Portuguese flags and heraldic devices; on the coast of Brazil representations of indian tribes collecting Paubrasilia, trees, birds, monkeys, a jaguar and even a a dragon -probably representing a crocodile. In the sea are depicted 7 different vessels, 5 are big ships of Portuguese India Armadas, and 2 are caravels in the Guinean seas.

The map has 2 full and 2 half 32-point compass roses with an arrow indicating north. The compass roses are colored in red, blue and gold. As for the rhumb lines the principal winds are in black, the half winds in green and the quarter winds in red.

The Latin legend in a bordure on the top left side of the map describes the 'Big Brazil' -'magni brasilis'- that borders with the Antilles of the King of Castile, the inhabitants are dark skinned, cruel and cannibal and very skilled with bow and arrow. There are multi-coloured parrots and innumerable other birds and monstrous wild beasts. Many kinds os monkeys and it grows in great quantity Paubrasilia which is very useful to dye textiles purple.

Tropic of Cancer and Equator -here named 'Circulus Equinocialis'- in red.

Place names in minuscule written in black and red.

The coast line is outlined in green with islands in red, blue and gold.

Relief is shown pictorially.

Scale line is vertical on the right side of the map outlined in cartouche.

Map is outlined in simple fillet with a wide gold border.

Cortesão, A. Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, vol. 1. p. 55-61

La Mappemonde Lopo Homem et L'atlas Miller, The Geographical Journal, vol. 94, no. 6, p. 485-492 Miró, M. Atlas Miller, p. [272]-[283]

龚缨晏. 《米勒之地图集》之谜, 地图, 02期

Marques, A.P. Os Descobrimentos e o 'Atlas Miller

Denucé, J. Les origines de la cartographie portugaise et les cartes des Reinel

Pastoureau, M. Sur la route des deux Indes http://expositions.bnf.fr/marine/arret/03-2-2.htm

Brazil -- Maps

Brazil

South Atlantic Ocean

Sheet 5 recto

[Atlas nautique du Monde, dit Atlas Miller]

Homem, Lopo, fl. 1517-1565, cartographer

Reinel, Pedro, ca. 1464-ca. 1542, cartographer

Reinel, Jorge, ca. 1502-ca. 1572, cartographer

Santarém, Manuel Francisco de Barros e Sousa de Mesquita de Macedo Leitão e Carvalhosa, 1791-1856, 2nd viscount of, former owner

Miller, Emmanuel, 1812-1886, former owner

1519

[Lisbon?]

Bibliothèque Nationale de France

https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40887480s

GE DD-683 (5 RES)

https://must.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/853MUST_INST/135m6n2/alma991002923430305076