Part 2

In central Asia, we note two rivers entering the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, the Jaxartes (117) and Oxus (118). The Lake of Aral, in which these great streams actually have their outlet, seems to have been wholly unknown to the geographers both of antiquity and of medieval Europe. Moslem scholars, however, were aware of its existence. Leardo’s castles of Organa and of Organzia (Urganj) (120, 121) at the mouth of the Jaxartes and his place name Orcania (132) on the Oxus recall Matthew Arnold’s description of the Oxus at the close of _Sohrab and Rustum_:

But the majestic river floated on ... Right for the polar star, past Orgunjè, Brimming, and bright, and large.

The Tigris and Euphrates (165, 166) join, reaching the Persian Gulf (267) as a single stream flowing between two large edifices that represent Susiana (172) and Babylonia (173). To the east of the Tigris a nameless river (139) having its headwaters in a large lake (138) also enters the Persian Gulf. This same stream on the Catalan Atlas and on the Este map rises in a double source, two bodies of water that have been identified with Lakes Van and Urmia. Leardo connects the Euphrates (166) with the Mediterranean through the Orontes (168) and with the Red Sea (268) through the Jordan (167).

The most prominent feature in Arabia is Mecca (211), a large domed and towered building in good Italian Renaissance style and presumably representing a mosque. Several corrupted Turkish place names (227, 228, 229, 232) along with classical names (224, 231, 233-235) appear in Asia Minor.

The Indian Ocean is filled with yellow and red islands. A legend asserting that pepper and spice are found in these islands (275) comes from Marco Polo’s description of the East Indian archipelago. The largest of all the islands, lying off the coast of India, is marked Taprobana (269) and probably represents Sumatra.

Africa

Leardo’s Africa, like that of the Este map, has a very unusual shape. Two gulfs reach inland from the Indian Ocean and from the Atlantic, partially cutting off the southern extremity of the continent. On the Este map the eastern gulf is not as prominent as that of Leardo’s map, but the western is even deeper. Kretschmer suggests that these features have sprung from a combination of the ancient doctrine of a vast austral continent with Ptolemy’s theory that the Indian Ocean is surrounded by land.[23] Certain Arabic maps show an eastward projection of Africa like those of the Este map and Leardo, although they do not indicate anything corresponding to the western gulf.

Prester John’s castle (299) bulks large in the interior of Africa. In the twelfth century, reports spread through Europe of the vast realm of a fabulous Christian monarch in the heart of Asia. By the fourteenth century, however, Prester John’s empire had been transferred to Africa, where it became associated with the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia. The elaborate edifice with which Leardo represents Prester John’s empire may be intended for the sumptuous palace described in the thirteenth-century _Letter of Prester John_.

Like most medieval cartographers, Leardo makes the Nile (312) rise in West Africa (338). In this he follows Herodotus, Pliny, Mela, and other ancient authorities. Ptolemy, however, seems to have had a more correct view, placing the sources of the river in the Mountains of the Moon in eastern Africa. Nothing daunted, most of the fifteenth-century cartographers who used the writings of Ptolemy boldly transferred the Mountains of the Moon to West Africa to suit their theory of the river’s course. Thus, on the Leardo map we see the Montes Lunae (334) on the north coast of the West African gulf. Thence four streams flow north into a lake, out of which the Nile makes its way eastward and another stream flows westward into the Atlantic. The latter stream represents, perhaps, a combination of Niger and Senegal, of which some faint knowledge may have been gained through traders who had crossed the Sahara. The lower Nile is joined by the River “Stapus” (313), doubtless the Astapus of Ptolemy or the modern Blue Nile. On the Este map this tributary rises in the Terrestrial Paradise, there placed in East Africa.

To the mountain range of North Africa, the Carena of the Catalan maps, Leardo has added Ptolemaic names (385-392).

The Mediterranean

The outlines of the Mediterranean (433) and Black Seas (431) are more correct than any other features which Leardo draws. This, of course, is due to the fact that they were derived ultimately from the portolan charts. Leardo preserves the faulty orientation of the Mediterranean characteristic of the latter. If we assume that the perpendicular line extending from the wind-blower off the west coast of Spain through Jerusalem to the wind-blower east of the Terrestrial Paradise is intended to run due east and west, we see that the axis of the Mediterranean with the adjoining shores has been turned counter-clockwise some twelve degrees. This is probably because of failure on the part of the makers of the original portolan charts to take into consideration the declination of the compass.[24]

Leardo’s place names along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts are all derived from the portolan charts, although Leardo wrote names only where it was easy to do so without crowding. The least successful portion of Leardo’s Mediterranean coast is that of Spain: the shore is here unduly elongated as compared with that of the Este Catalan map, Barcelona (475) and Ampurias (476) being placed too far northeast on what ought to be the French shore line.

Europe

As on the Catalan maps, the geography of northwestern Europe is badly distorted. The Seine (448), Rhine (487), and Elbe (488) all flow parallel with one another but slightly to the south of west. The course of the Danube (552) with its southern branches is more true to nature. The Baltic Sea (577) and Scandinavia are drawn much as on the Este map.

NOTES

[1]Giuseppe Crivellari, _Alcuni cimeli della cartografia medievale esistenti a Verona_, Florence, 1903, pp. 5-28.

[2]This map was discovered by Vincenzo Lazari in 1850. A detailed description and interpretation of it will be found in Santarem, Vol. 3, pp. 398-442 [fuller bibliographical details regarding this and other abbreviated references in these notes will be found on pp. 63-67]; black and white reproduction in Santarem’s _Atlas_, Part 3, No. 49; also in A. E. Nordenskiöld, _Periplus_, p. 61.

[3]The map was discovered in 1879 by Major Friedrich von Pilat, Imperial Counsellor of the Austro-Hungarian Legation and Consul-General of Austria-Hungary in Venice. At the time it was presented to the Society a brief anonymous description appeared in the _Bulletin of the American Geographical Society_, Vol. 38, 1906, pp. 365-368. This was based upon a sixteen-page pamphlet by Dr. Guglielmo Berchet, _Il planisfero di Giovanni Leardo dell’ anno 1452_, Venice, 1880, accompanying a photographic facsimile constituting No. XIV of the series _Raccolta di mappamondi e carte nautiche del XIII al XVI secolo_ published by Ferdinand Ongania, Venice. Dr. Berchet’s paper, while useful to the present writer, has on the whole proved disappointing because of its many inaccuracies in transcriptions and also because almost no attempt was made to deal with the place names, in many respects the most interesting features of all.

[4]As much of this digit as remains might be the upper part of either a 2, a 3, or a 7. Since the Easter calendar begins with 1453 the date could hardly be earlier than Easter, 1452. For the same reason, it is not likely to have been as late as 1457, the only possible date after 1453. On the Vicenza Leardo map the Easter calendar begins with the year in which the map is dated, 1448; on the Verona map of 1442 the calendar begins with the preceding year, 1441. A discrepancy of four years between the beginning of the calendar and the date of the map, however, is most improbable.

Santarem, Vol. 3, p. 399, and Berchet, _op. cit._, p. 6, cite two mid-eighteenth century MSS in the Library of St. Mark’s, Venice, which contain entries relating to a map by Giovanni Leardo dated 1447. One of these MS is that of the Doge Marco Foscarini (Codex ital., XI, 123, p. 42), the other that of a contemporary scholar, Giovanni degli Agostini (Codex ital., VII, 291, p. 542; this and the preceding reference were furnished to the present writer by the Chief Librarian of the Library of St. Mark’s; they do not agree exactly with the references as given by Santarem and Berchet).

The passage from the Foscarini MS (Fig. 2) may be translated thus: “Gio. Leardo, who flourished in 1440, made a planisphere on parchment on which was written _Leardius de Venetiis me fecit anno 1447_. It was at the house of (_era presso_) Bernardo Trevisano. Apostolo Zeno saw it many times and marveled at seeing the exactness of the design.” The passage from the Agostini MS (Fig. 3) runs as follows: “Giovanni Leardo: This (man) lived shortly before the middle of the fifteenth century, and he delighted in geography and spheres. In the Trevisan Library was preserved a planisphere by him on parchment on which could be seen delineated the whole terraqueous globe with all the signs and celestial constellations, beneath which, according to his assertion, every part is placed. At the bottom of this parchment these words may be read: _Joannes Leardius de Venetiis me fecit ab anno 1447_. It is curious to see how in his time, when not many discoveries had been made and navigation was so little advanced, the positions of the provinces and of the seas were conceived.”

Berchet, _op. cit._, p. 7, points out that the arms at the top of the parchment of the Leardo map now belonging to the American Geographical Society are those of the Trevisan house. He reads incorrectly, however, the date given by Agostini as 1452, concluding therefrom that the map mentioned by the latter was the same as the Society’s map, the date of which he also reads as 1452. In view of the actual difference in the dates, we may conclude that Leardo constructed two maps for the Trevisan family, and that the one dated 1447 is yet to be rediscovered.

Figs. 2 and 3—Passages from mid-eighteenth century manuscripts in the Library of St. Mark’s, Venice, in which reference is made to a map by Giovanni Leardo, dated 1447. See note 4.

[5]Although the Society’s map is not, perhaps, one of the great, outstanding monuments of medieval cartography, the assertion of Theobald Fischer (_Sammlung mittelalterlicher Welt- und Seekarten_, Venice, 1886, p. 104) that the Leardo maps of 1448 and 1452 were “von geringem Wert,” seems too harsh.

[6]There follows a transcription of this legend. Missing passages supplied from the Vicenza map as transcribed on Santarem’s reproduction are given in square brackets:

_... chreatore de Tute le Cose chreate et non chreato et E En 3 persone et una medexima sustanzia et uno Idio El quale En .i.inita (divinita?) E Incomprensibelle aiomeni et aianzelli quanti uisono dal zentro per sino Ala zirconferenzia En umanita ... | ... ene Maria et farsi homo pasibelle et sostener morte per Redimer Lumana zenerazione et resusito Il Terzo zorno et asexe ... (en?) ziello ala destera del padre et al nouisimo di zudigera zusti et pechatori. Al nome de quel dio che cosi veramente chre ... at_|

_... como La Tera et le Ixole stano nel mare et Molte prouinzie et monti et fiumi prenzipalli sono nela Tera El diamitro dela Tera sie meglia 6857 secondo Macobrio ezelentisimo Astrologo et geumetrico. El diamitro de Laqua| [sie meia 14796. El diametro de laiere sie m]eglia 31929¹/₇. E diamitro del fuoguo 68191²/₇. El diamitro de La Luna sie meglia 147149. El diamitro de mercurio sie meia 20(?)7533. El diamitro de venus sie meglia 692703. El diamitro del solle sie meia 1494781. El diamitro de mar(te) |... eia 6532374¹/₇ (Jupiter). El diamitro de saturno sie Meia 13997942⁴/₇. diamitrus horbis signiorum sie meia 29995591. diamitrus horbis aplanes sie meia 64276266⁵/₇. diamitrus horbis christalini sie meia 137724(?)856. pitagora dize che da La |...._

[El primo zircholo che zirconscrisse Il sopra schri]_to mapamondo sie de la raxon de la pasqua de la Rexurezione per Ani 95. Comenza nel 1453 adi primo aprille conpie nel 1547 adi 10 Aprille. quando si Troua nele caxelle Letera M aueremo La pasqua de marzo, quando si Trouera Letera A Aueremo| [quando la viene daprille. quando si troua letera B que]lano aueremo Bixestro. El segondo zircolo sie de I12 mexi dellano et quando Il sole Entra En cadauno dei 12 segni zelesti. El Terzo zircollo sie de 19 Letere de lalfabeto per Atrouar la raxon de La Luna. El quarto zircollo sie dei numeri (?)| [di zorni de mexi. El quinto sie de le ore.] El sesto zircollo sie Iponti de le hore. El setimo zircollo sie Le Letere dominicale. Lotauo zircollo sie Le ore de La grandeza del di En tututo (sic!) El tenpo de lano (?). El nono zircolo sie dei menudi che auanza oltra Le ore ne la grandeza del di. El dezim |... uoler sapere quando rinoua La Luna de Zugnio del 1453. nel dito mileximo Abiamo per letera concorente Letera C. Auoler atrouar La conioncion de la Luna dobiamo Atrouar Letera C nel mexe de zugnio E alincotro se trouera di.. |... (rin) ouera La Luna de cadauno mexe del dito mileximo. El mileximo comenz(a) de Zenaro nel 1454 aueremo concorente Letera d ecosi se schore ogniano 1 Letera de lalfabeto. Et quando sizunze aletera T l’Altro ano drieto sitorna Aletera A. |... raxone comenza Ala Leuar del solle e intendese atanti di et Atante hore et atanti (?) ponti. ponti 1080 sintende 1 hora. Ale fiade En uno mexe si troua 2 fiade una Letera en quel mexe La luna rinoua 2 fiade etc._

[7]By the “diameters” of the sun, moon, and planets Leardo obviously means the diameters of the orbits. Macrobius, _Commentaria in somnium Scipionis_, I, 20: 20, gives the diameter of the earth as 80,000 stades, which might, if converted into Arabic miles, be approximately the 6857 miles of Leardo. According to Macrobius the radius of the sun’s orbit is 4,800,000 stades (_ibid._, I, 20: 21); the diameter of the sun’s orbit would therefore be 9,600,000 stades, or 120 times that of the earth. The diameter of the sun’s orbit according to Leardo is 218 times that of the earth. On the authority of Porphyry, Macrobius (_ibid._, II, 3: 14) gives the relative distances between the planets; but Leardo’s figures bear no relation to these. I have not been able as yet to trace the origin of Leardo’s figures.

[8]H. Grotefend, _Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit_, Vol. 1, Hannover, 1891, p. 203 (reference kindly suggested by Dom Hugh G. Bévenot of Weingarten Abbey, Württemberg, Germany).

[9]Grotefend, _op. cit._, p. 113, asserts that O was usually omitted to avoid confusion with zero. Leardo, however, includes O. J and I are counted as one letter. The golden number of 1453 is 10; Leardo’s A corresponds with golden number 8.

[10]The following is a comparison of the times of the new moon on certain dates as indicated by Leardo with the actual times as determined for the meridian of Venice from Th. von Oppolzer, _Canon der Finsternisse_ (constituting _Denkschr. Kaiserl. Akad. der Wiss. in Wien, Math.-naturw. Classe_, Vol. 52, 1887).

Leardo’s Times Actual Times

1453 Dec. 1 ? hrs. 203? pts. Nov. 30 2.40 P. M. 1455 Apr. 16 21 hrs. ? Apr. 17 12.22 A. M. 1456 Apr. 6 7 hrs. 229 pts. Apr. 5 4.25 A. M. 1461 Jan. 11 21 hrs. ? Jan. 11 8.44 P. M. 1468 Feb. 23 14 hrs. 747 pts. Feb. 23 10.15 P. M.

The discrepancies are too great and too variable to enable us to come to any very definite conclusions as to the place or manner of origin of Leardo’s figures.

[11]The division of the hour into 1080 points (3×6×60, as Dom Bévenot points out) is puzzling. More usually the hour was subdivided into four points. See Grotefend, _op. cit._, p. 188.

[12]The dominical letter for 1453 was G.

[13]On the basis of certain of the figures given by Leardo for the lengths of the days at about the times of the solstices, I have estimated that this table was worked out for about lat. 42° 45′ N, which is more nearly the latitude of Orvieto than that of Venice (45° 30′). (This calculation was made with the _Smithsonian Meteorological Tables_, 4th edit. (constituting _Smithsonian Misc. Colls._, Vol. 69, No. 1), Washington, 1918: Table 87, “Duration of Sunshine at Different Latitudes,” and Table 88, “Declination of the Sun for the Year 1899.” The difference in the declination of the sun for 1452 and 1899 is negligible.) Dom Bévenot writes: “I fancy day lengths were reckoned roughly for degrees. Here in Weingarten about 1490 they used tables drawn up for lat. 45° N, though the place is actually 47° 40′.”

[14]I am indebted to Dom Bévenot for the following comment:

“Concerning the calendar of saints I find the good Venetian has inserted besides the usual feast of St. Mark, patron of Venice, on April 25 two more: that of his apparition and the finding of his relics on June 25 and a third feast on Jan. 31 (translation). The last two were special for the diocese of Venice (Aquileia). The calendar for Aquileia is given at the beginning of Grotefend, _op. cit._, Vol. 1, but does not quite tally with Leardo’s list of saints. Perhaps this is because Grotefend has modernized the calendar. It may be that Leardo, living perhaps elsewhere than in Venice or its diocese, put in feasts that were dear to him. Indeed, in view of your findings for latitude from the length of the days [see preceding note], Rome is the most likely place, perhaps, for the Venetian embassy. It lies nearly in lat. 42° N; if we allow for Leardo measuring the length of the days according to the apparent sunset and sunrise, this may well explain a discrepancy of the greater part of a degree.”

[15]Berchet, _op. cit._, p. 7.

[16]See H. F. Lutz, _Geographical Studies Among Babylonians and Egyptians_, in _Amer. Anthropologist_, Vol. 26 (N.S.), 1924, pp. 160-174.

[17]See Appendix, Nos. 305, 619.

[18]Kretschmer, CE see p. 63.

[19]Particularly the famous Catalan Atlas of 1375 see p. 63.

[20]For the names of and for bibliographical references relating to some of these maps see the list of references on pp. 63-67, _sub_ CD, Mauro, Piz., Vat., Vilad.

[21]This Latin translation of Ptolemy’s _Geography_ was begun by the Byzantine scholar Emmanuel Chrysoloras and completed by Jacopus Angelus in 1410; manuscripts of this translation were accompanied by maps, which, however, differ from the well-known maps in the Ptolemaic atlases of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The latter were the work of Dominus Nicolaus Germanus, known as Nicholas Donis. See A. E. Nordenskiöld, _Facsimile Atlas to the Early History of Cartography_, transl. by J. A. Ekelöf and Clements R. Markham, Stockholm, 1889, pp. 9-10.

[22]Like the Leardo map of 1452, the map of Walsperger, 1448, reveals Ptolemaic influence in some of its names although all the topographical features are strictly medieval. The Genoese world map of 1447 in its elliptical form is the result of a more serious attempt to reconcile the Ptolemaic geography with the traditional views. See Kretschmer, CE, pp. 76-77; on the Walsperger map, Kretschmer, _Eine neue mittelalterliche Weltkarte der vatikanischen Bibliothek_, in _Zeitschr. Gesell. für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, Vol. 26, 1891, pp. 371-406, reference on pp. 376-377. On the Genoese world map see the extended commentary of Fischer, _op. cit._, pp. 155-206.

[23]Kret., CE pp. 82-83.

[24]See Kret., Port., pp. 81-93; see also E. L. Stevenson, _Portolan Charts: Their Origin and Characteristics, with a Descriptive List of those Belonging to the Hispanic Society of America_, New York, 1911, p. 19, where it is suggested that the faulty orientation of the Mediterranean may be in part connected with the persistence since the time of Ptolemy of the practice of placing Constantinople on maps “too far to the north by at least two degrees.”

APPENDIX DETAILED COMMENTS ON THE MAP

Explanation

The following commentary is divided into sections numbered with Roman numerals corresponding to the Roman numerals on the general key map (Fig. 4, at end of book). Each item is given an Arabic numeral which corresponds to the Arabic numerals on the detailed key maps (Figs. 5-10, at end of book).

For each feature which bears a place name and for each longer legend on the Leardo map the transcription is given below in italic. Many of these transcriptions, particularly of names written on edifices (castles, churches, etc.), are mere guesses, owing to the obscurity of the original. Particular difficulty was encountered in distinguishing between the letters _a_, _e_, _o_, _c_, and _t_, and between _s_ and _f_. A clue to the reading of many names, however, was furnished by other maps contemporary with or earlier than that of Leardo. Illegible letters are indicated by dots; doubtful readings by (?); interpolated letters are enclosed in square brackets. Illeg. means “wholly illegible.”

No data beside the transcriptions are given for such names as _f. tigris_, _corsicha_, _galizia_, etc., the meaning of which is obvious.

In the case of the less familiar names, the forms in which they appear on certain other medieval maps are supplied. In general, if a name occurs on the Catalan Atlas of 1375 (CA), on the Catalan map in the Este Library at Modena (CE), or on the Ptolemaic maps (Ptol.), no attempt is made to indicate its occurrence elsewhere.

Each doubtful identification with a medieval name is preceded by ?. For names along the coast of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic, references are given to the pages in Kretschmer’s _Die italienischen Portolane des Mittelalters_ (= Kret., Port.) where the variant spellings of these names as they are found in the more important portolans and portolan charts are listed and the places identified with modern localities.

Identifications with modern localities are indicated by =, or =mod.; with well-known ancient localities by =anct. Suggested but doubtful identifications are preceded by =?, and names for which I have been unable to find or to suggest any identification with a modern locality are indicated by =? standing alone.

With the identification of Ptolemaic and medieval names in the Far East, in Africa, and in Scandinavia, we enter upon a hazardous and controversial field. While in many instances I have indicated identifications that have been made by competent scholars, needless to say, these should not be accepted as final. One cannot but feel that where an identification is based upon mere similarity in sound it is often a case of one man’s guess being as good as another’s. The scope and purpose of the present study does not permit of an exhaustive examination of these questions of detail.