Peter Martyr map

Details of the map's provenance remain unclear, though a good few theories have been proposed.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|p=146}}{{refn|group=n|{{harvnb|Camelo|Escandón|2012|p=173|loc=fn. 33}} notes Joseph H Sinclair 'says that this map is attributed to Nuño García de Toreno and must have been drafted in Seville.' {{harvnb|Varela Marcos|2005|p=148}} notes the professor Ramos Pérez dates the map's drafting to prior to the 1513 Ponce de León voyage to Florida, while Ramón Ezquerra Abadía dates it to 1511. {{harvnb|Peck|2003|pp=94–95}} notes '[m]ost of the published works on early cartography' deem Andrés Morales as the map's drafter, but Peck themselves deem this an error, noting that Morales 'was one of the lesser experienced and travelled pilots of the period.' {{harvnb|Conti|2011|p=44}} notes Cerezo Martínez suggests the map 'is a schematic copy of the first Padrón Real, prepared at the Casa de Contratación in 1510 by Amerigo Vespucci with the help of the Sevillian Nuño García de Toreno,' though {{harvnb|Conti|2011|pp=43–44}} themselves suggest Morales as the drafter.}} Traditionally, it has been dated to 1511 and attributed to Martyr, in keeping with the provenance of the first edition of Decades of the New World.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=149-150}}{{refn|group=n|Martyr's first decade, covering 1490s and 1500s discoveries, is thought to have been written in 1493–1494, 1500–1501, and 1510, and published in April 1511 {{harv|Camelo|Escandón|2012|pp=172–173, 183}}. His second and third decades were written in late 1513 to late 1515, published in November 1516 {{harv|Camelo|Escandón|2012|pp=174–175}} His remaining decades were intermittently written in late 1517 to late 1524, and posthumously anthologised with the previous decades in 1530 as the completed Decades {{harv|Camelo|Escandón|2012|pp=175–182, 185}}.}} Recently, however, the University of Valladolid-affiliated scholar, Jesús Varela Marcos, has proposed that the map was created jointly by Martyr and Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca in 1514, and thereafter included a posteriori in copies of the former's 1511 edition of Decades.{{sfnm|1a1=Meinecke|1y=2019|1p=85|2a1=Varela Marcos|2y=2005|2p=147}} Varela Marcos argues that the map's noticeable distortion is political in nature, and proffers Fonseca as the most likely candidate for said influence.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=147-150}}{{refn|group=n|Varela Marcos had prior proposed Fonseca as a political influence during the drafting of the 1500 Juan de la Cosa map, depicting the New World as then discovered {{harv|Varela Marcos|2005|p=150}}.}} Furthermore, they argue, (i) the map depicts post-1511 discoveries, (ii) some exemplars of the 1511 Decades have no map, and (iii) at least some exemplars with the map have had it inserted at a later date.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=150-151}}{{refn|group=n|Examining the Biblioteca de la Catedral de Palencia copy, call number XXIII-IV-17, Varela Marcos noted, '[t]he book was set in two distinct types, and the leaf on which the map was found had been inserted subsequently[; t]his visual analysis offers us the solution that this book had been bound on distinct dates' {{harv|Varela Marcos|2005|p=151}}. Decades 1511 edition examplars {{em|without}} the map include the Institución Colombina copy, call number 10-3-3(2), among others; exemplars {{em|with}} the map include Wellcome Trust copy, call number [https://wellcomecollection.org/works/m2mmt58r 7208/D], the University of Salamanca copy, call number [https://gredos.usal.es/handle/10366/83437 BGH 31200(1)], among others. {{harvnb|Harrisse|1866|pp=122–126}} and {{harvnb|Harrisse|1872|pp=54–56}} describe the Decades{{spaces|hair}}'s first edition.}} The Varela Marcos provenance has been accepted in some, but not all, recent literature.{{refn|group=n|For instance, in {{harvnb|Meinecke|2019|p=86}} and {{harvnb|León Cázares|2015|p=57|loc=fn. 20}}, but not in {{harvnb|Camelo|Escandón|2012|p=173|loc=fn. 33}} nor {{harvnb|Conti|2011|pp=42, 44}} nor {{harvnb|Woodward|2007|p=756, 1148}}. {{harvnb|Peck|2003|p=95}}, dating the map to 1511, notes Martyr 'was not limited to the discoveries of official crown voyages, but could picture on his map all of the discoveries including those from unofficial, unreported, and often illegal voyages of unnamed pilots.'}}

Curiously, Varela Marcos claims the following Decades passage, describing a map-making session by Martyr and Fonseca, {{em|in fact}} describes a 4 December 1514 session in which the very Peter Martyr map was composed.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=149-150, 152, 154}} {{blockquote|text=[W]e examined numerous reports of those expeditions, and we have likewise studied the terrestrial globe on which the discoveries are indicated, and also many parchments, called by the explorers navigators’ charts. [...] When all these maps were spread out before us, and upon each a scale was marked in the Spanish fashion, [...] we set to work to measure the coasts with a compass, [...].|author=Martyr in Decades.{{refn|group=n|In his second decade, tenth book, translated by Francis A MacNutt in {{harvnb|MacNutt|1912a|pp=271–272}}. Also quoted in {{harvnb|Meinecke|2019|p=86}}, {{harvnb|Varela Marcos|2005|p=149}}. {{harvnb|MacNutt|1912b|p=247}} and {{harvnb|Peck|2003|p=94}} further interpret a later short phrase as a Martyr reference to the map, namely, '[b]y studying a little parchment map I gave to your representative, Tomaso Maino, when he left Spain, you will also find the exact positions of these countries and the dependent islands' (seventh decade, first book).}}}}

The map makes note of maritime hazards, such as banks and reefs, and further outlines known insular and continental coasts, listing some placenames near these, but lacks elementary cartographic elements, such as lines of longitude and latitude, and is noticeably distorted.{{sfnm|1a1=Meinecke|1y=2019|1p=85|2a1=Varela Marcos|2y=2005|2p=148}} The distortion is particularly along the y-axis.{{sfnm|1a1=Varela Marcos|1y=2005|1pp=156-157|2a1=Peck|2y=2003|2pp=96-97|3a1=Tilton|3y=1989|3p=21}} For instance, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Isla de beimeni are depicted on roughly the same latitude, despite actually being at 37º, 32º, and 25º (assuming Florida as beimeni) north, respectively. Similarly, the Canary Islands, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico are depicted at roughly the same parallel, despite being at 28º, 18º, 17º north, respectively.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=156-157}}

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Martyr, in virtue of his 'privileged position' within the court of the Catholic Monarchs, is thought to have been privy to current discoveries of the day, and to classified intelligence therefrom, via, for instance, personal debriefings from leading explorers.{{sfnm|1a1=Meinecke|1y=2019|1pp=84-85|2a1=Peck|2y=2003|2p=95}} Varela Marcos has recently claimed the following Decades passage, listing sources employed during a map-making session by Martyr and Fonseca, {{em|in fact}} names the very sources of the Peter Martyr map.{{sfn|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=154-155}} {{blockquote|text=[W]e examined numerous reports of those expeditions, and we have likewise studied the terrestrial globe on which the discoveries are indicated, and also many parchments, called by the explorers navigators’ charts. One of these maps had been drawn by the Portuguese, and it is claimed that Amerigo Vespucci of Florence assisted in its composition. [...] Columbus, during his lifetime, began another map while exploring these regions, and his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, Adelantado of Hispaniola, who has also sailed along these coasts, [added what he saw fit to it]. From thenceforth, every Spaniard who thought he understood the science of computing measurements, has drawn his own map; the most valuable of these maps are those made by the famous Juan de la Cosa, companion of Hojeda, [... and] Andrés Morales [...].|author=Martyr in Decades.{{refn|group=n|In his second decade, tenth book, translated by Francis A MacNutt in {{harvnb|MacNutt|1912a|pp=271–272}}. Also quoted in {{harvnb|Meinecke|2019|p=86}}, {{harvnb|Varela Marcos|2005|pp=154–155}}.}}}}

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File:Peck correction 2003.tif

Commenting on the map's noticeable distortion, Jesús Varela Marcos suggests Fonseca, the bishop of Burgos, may have requested or required it 'in order to highlight clearly that what was shown on the map was within the area of natural expansion of Spain.'{{sfnm|1a1=Meinecke|1y=2019|1pp=84-86|2a1=Varela Marcos|2y=2005|2pp=148-150, 156-157}} In a 2005 paper for The Florida Geographer, the unaffiliated scholar Douglas T Peck proposed a correction of the northwestern portion of the map which shifted the western continental coastline down by some six degrees.{{sfn|Peck|2003|p=96-97}}{{refn|group=n|{{harvnb|Peck|2003|p=97}} suggests the error was introduced during the map's drafting, via a misalignment of source maps. {{harvnb|Tilton|1993|pp=25, 28, 32}} suggests it was introduced during the {{em|source}} maps' drafting, as dead reckoning introduced 'substantial error due to magnetic variation and the difficulty in measuring speed accurately,' such that 'latitudes would be raised several [some four to six] degrees to the north.'}}

Copies of the Peter Martyr map 'have long been separated from their parent document and have been reproduced extensively in studies and popular literature on early cartography.'{{sfn|Peck|2003|p=94}}

• Cantino map, ca 1502 Portuguese world map
• Caveri map, ca 1504 Genoese world map
• Waldseemüller map, ca 1507 German world map
• Egerton 2803 maps, ca 1508 or ca 1510 Italian world atlas

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• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOX0Kdg7vNQ From the Collection: The Peter Martyr Map], short 2020 video presentation by the Tampa Bay History Center

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Category:16th-century maps and globes

Category:1510s works

Category:History of cartography

Category:Historic maps of the Americas