The New World on the Kunstmann III Chart of the Atlantic Ocean

Various dates between 1502 and 1521 have been suggested for the Portuguese “Kunstmann III” manuscript chart. As recently demonstrated, the map was made in at least four stages beginning in about the year 1501 and continuing until sometime after 1505. The uncertainty about the date of the chart has led to it being underappreciated as a primary source and important contemporary record of the voyages of the Corte Real brothers to Greenland and Newfoundland. The erased compass rose and partially effaced toponyms on the coast of Brazil reveal multiple emendations to the chart, further confirming the chart was a “living document” for a decade or more.Le Nouveau Monde sur la carte Kunstmann III de l'océan AtlantiqueLes chercheurs ont proposé diverses dates entre 1502 et 1521 pour la carte manuscrite portugaise connue sous le nom de ‘Kunstmann III.’ Comme on l’a démontré récemment, la carte a été réalisée en pas moins de quatre étapes, entre 1501 et peu après 1505. L'incertitude quant à la date de la carte a conduit à sous-estimer son importance comme source primaire et comme témoignage contemporain des voyages des frères Corte Real au Groenland et à Terre-Neuve. La rose des vents gommée et les toponymes partiellement effacés de la côte brésilienne révèlent de multiples amendements apportés à la carte, ce qui confirme que celle-ci a été un document vivant pendant plus d’une décennie.El Nuevo Mundo en la Carta Kunstmann III del Océano AtlánticoLos investigadores han sugerido varias fechas entre 1502 y 1521 para la carta manuscrita portuguesa ‘Kunstmann III.’ Como se ha demostrado recientemente, el mapa se elaboró en al menos cuatro etapas, desde aproximadamente el año 1501 hasta algún momento después de 1505. La incertidumbre sobre la fecha de la carta ha hecho que esta no sea apreciada suficientemente como fuente primaria y registro contemporáneo fundamental de los viajes de los hermanos Corte Real a Groenlandia y Terranova. La rosa de los vientos borrada y los topónimos de la costa de Brasil parcialmente perdidos revelan múltiples modificaciones de la carta, confirmando aún más que fue un documento vivo durante una década o más.Die Neue Welt auf der Seekarte des Atlantiks „Kunstmann III”In der Forschung wurden für die portugiesische Manuskriptkarte „Kunstmann III“ verschiedene Datierungen zwischen 1502 und 1521 vorgeschlagen. Wie jüngst nachgewiesen, entstand die Karte in mindestens vier Phasen ab dem Jahr 1501 bis nach 1505. Aufgrund dieser Unsicherheit in der Datierung wurde die Bedeutung der Karte als frühe Quelle und zeitgenössischer Beleg für die Fahrten der Brüder Corte Real nach Grönland und Neufundland unterschätzt. Die gelöschte Kompassrose und teilweise getilgte Ortsnamen an der Küste Brasiliens verweisen auf zahlreiche Korrekturen und beweisen einmal mehr, dass die Portolankarte für ein Jahrzehnt genutzt und aktuell gehalten wurde („living document“).KEYWORDS: NewfoundlandGaspar Corte RealMiguel Corte RealBrazilAmerigo VespuccipalaeographytoponymyPortuguese explorationsmaritime chart AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 714033-MEDEA-CHART /ERC-2016-STG. I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of the manuscript and their many insightful comments and suggestions.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Département Cartes et Plans (DCP), Planisphère nautique, c. 1501-02 [1836], CPL GE B-1120 (RES). The facsimile was donated to the BnF by Michel Hennin in 1843.2 Edward Luther Stevenson, Maps Illustrating Early Discovery and Exploration in America, 1502–1530, Reproduced by Photography from the Original Manuscripts: Text and Key Maps, 2 vols. (New Brunswick, N. J.: [E. L. Stevenson], 1903–1906), 1: no. 3.3 Gregory C. McIntosh and Joaquim Alves Gaspar, ‘Kunstmann III: The Oldest Known Nautical Chart Incorporating Latitudes?’ Imago Mundi 73, no. 2 (2021): 162–78. On two other Portuguese charts made by the same mapmaker, see Bruno Almeida, ‘Famous Charts and Forgotten Fragments: Exploring Correlations in Early Portuguese Nautical Cartography,’ International Journal of Cartography 7, no. 1 (2021): 38–59.4 Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Carta del Cantino, 1502, C.G.A.2; Museo Naval, Cartografía, Carta de Juan de la Cosa, c. 1500–02, MNM 257.5 Frederick J. Pohl, Amerigo Vespucci: Pilot Major (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944), 227.6 Oscar Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen (Stuttgart and Augsburg: J. G. Cotta, 1858), 331n1.7 J. G. Kohl, A History of Discovery of Maine (Portland: Bailey and Noyes, 1869), 174 (1503–1505); Stevenson, Maps Illustrating, no. 3 (1503–1505); Justin Winsor, The Kohl Collection (Now in the Library of Congress) of Maps Relating to America, rev. repr. of Bibliographical Contribution Number 19 of the Library of Harvard University, ed. Philip Lee Phillips (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 31 (1501–1505), 63 (1503 & 1503–1504); Heinrich Winter, 'The Pseudo-Labrador and the Oblique Meridian,' Imago Mundi 2 (1937): 62 (1503–1504).8 Ivan Kupčík, Münchner Portolankarten: 'Kunstmann I-XIII' und zehn weitere Portolankarten / Munich Portolan Charts: 'Kunstmann I-XIII' and Ten Further Portolan Charts (Munich and Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2000), 37.9 J. A. Schmeller, ‘Ueber einige ältere handschriftliche Seekarten,’ Abhandlungen der I. Klasse d. Akademie der Wissenschaften no. 4, pt. 1 (1844 [1845]): 250, and subsequently repeated by Friedrich Kunstmann, Karl Spruner von Merz, and Georg Martin Thomas, Die Entdeckung Amerikas: Nach den ältesten Quellen geschichtlich dargestellt (Munich: A. Asher & Cie in Berlin, 1859), 127; and Richard Henry Major, The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, Surnamed the Navigator (London: A. Asher 1868), 415, 416. Actually, the Portuguese first visited Madagascar on 10 August 1500.10 Duarte Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ in História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil, 3 vols., ed. Carlos Malheiro Dias (Porto: Litografia Nacional, 1921-24), 2:435-38; Duarte Leite, História dos Descobrimentos: Colectânea de Esparsos, 2 vols., ed. Vitorino Magalhães Godinho (Lisbon: Cosmos, 1958–1960), 2:246–52.11 Dácio Tavares de Freitas Galvão, ‘Imagens da Colonização: Leitura de “Brasil de Madrugada” e “Banzo”,’ Imburana – Revista do Núcleo Câmara Cascudo de Estudos Norte-Rio-Grandenses no. 6 (July-December, 2012): 19, fig. 1 (1506, and incorrectly stating that the map is preserved in the Library of Augsburg, Germany); Joaquim Alves Gaspar, ‘How Large Was the Earth in the Sixteenth Century? The Length of the Degree of Latitude in the Iberian Cartography of the Renaissance,’ The Cartographic Journal 52, no. 4 (2015): 321 (c. 1506); Max Justo Guedes, ‘A carta náutica de Piri Reis (Piri Reis Haritasi), 1513,’ Anais do Museu Paulista: História e Cultura Material 17, no. 1 (January-June, 2009): 109 (c. 1506); R. A. Skelton, ‘The Cartography of the Voyages,’ appendix in James A. Williamson, The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII (Cambridge: The Hakluyt Society, 1962), 308 (post–1506); R. A. Skelton, Looking at an Early Map, University of Kansas Libraries Series no. 17 (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Libraries, 1965), fig. 7 (post-1506); Armando Cortesão and Avelino Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, 7 vols., reprint of 1960[–62] (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1987), 1: pl. 6; Paulo Márcio Leal de Menezes, et al., ‘Rio de Janeiro City – Brazil Historical Center Evolution Under a Cartographic Approach,’ 23rd International Cartographic Conference, Moscow, Russia, 4–10 August 2007, http://icaci.org/files/documents/ICC_proceedings/ICC2007/html/Proceedings.htm [2; no pagination] (1506).12 Axel Anthon Bjørnbo, ‘Cartographia Groenlandica,’ Meddelelser om Grønland, vol. 48 (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 1911 [1912]), 210–11.13 E. G. R. Taylor, ‘A Letter Dated 1577 from Mercator to John Dee,’ Imago Mundi 13 (1956): 56–68.14 Taylor, ‘A Letter Dated 1577,’ 57, 61, 63, 64; and Gregory C. McIntosh, The Johannes Ruysch and Martin Waldseemüller World Maps: The Interplay and Merging of Early Sixteenth Century New World Cartographies (Long Beach, Calif.: Plus Ultra Publishing, 2012), 25–27.15 The original Kunstmann III chart is believed lost during the Second World War; see Norbert Fischer, 'With Fire and Sword, III,' Imago Mundi 10 (1953): 56. Thomas Horst, ‘Cartographic Treasures Destroyed “With Fire and Sword”? The Unwritten Story of the Map Collection of the Bavarian Army Library,’ Journal of Map and Geography Libraries 16, no. 2 (2020): 110–39, however, suggests the maps missing from Munich may not have all been lost. The present chart in the BnF is the coloured facsimile by Progel.16 Catalog über die im Königlich Bayer'schen Haupt Conservatorium der Armee befindlichen Landkarten und Pläne (Munich: [Königlich Bayer'schen Haupt Conservatorium der Armee], 1832), 6–7.17 Fridtjof Nansen, In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, trans. Arthur G. Chater, 2 vols. (London: William Heinemann, 1911), 2:377. James Robert Enterline, Erikson, Eskimos, and Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 248, in consideration of the range of proposed dates, cautiously dated the chart as 1503–1511 and c. 1509.18 Roberto Levillier, América, la bien llamada, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Guillermo Kraft Ltda., 1948), 2:53; Roberto Levillier, ‘A propósito de Vespúcio: Crítica ou sabotagem?’ Revista de História 7, no. 12 (1952): 416.19 Heinrich Winter, ‘The Changing Face of Scandinavia and the Baltic in Cartography up to 1532,’ Imago Mundi 12 (1955): 49, fig. 4c; 52n2. Earlier in 1937, Winter had accepted the date of 1503–1504.20 Bernard G. Hoffman, Cabot to Cartier: Sources for a Historical Ethnography of Northeastern North America, 1497-1550 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961), 57, 86–87.21 Theodore E. Layng, ‘Commentaries and Map Notes, Part II,’ in Crucial Maps in the Early Cartography and Place-nomenclature of the Atlantic Coast of Canada, ed. William Francis Ganong (Toronto: University of Toronto Press in co-operation with the Royal Society of Canada, 1964), 480.22 It would appear that the intent of the cartographer was to colour only the sea north of the Arctic Circle. Dark blue colouring of the entire Atlantic Ocean is unusual on a navigational chart because it would render the surface less useful for recording navigational plots and positional fixes.23 The similarity of the ring of mountains in the Arctic depicted on the Kunstmann III chart and the same described in the Inventio Fortunata is noted in Enterline, Erikson, Eskimos, and Columbus, 250. On the Inventio Fortunata, the single best article remains Taylor, ‘A Letter Dated 1577.’24 Stevenson, Maps Illustrating, no. 3, and BnF, DCP, Carte de l'Océan Atlantique, de la Mer Méditerranée et de la Mer Noire, c. 1501–02 [1836], CPL GE B-1120 (RES).25 For some discussion of the types and forms of cartographic designs for Greenland on early maps, see Bjørnbo, ‘Cartographia Groenlandica’; Axel Anthon Bjørnbo and Carl S. Petersen, Anecdota Cartographica Septentrionalia (Hauniae [Copenhagen]: Sumptibus Societatis regiae scientiarum Danicae, 1908); and Winter, ‘Changing Face of Scandinavia,’ 48, 50, 52.26 The earlier voyage is alluded to in the letters patent of 12 May 1500; see Henry Percival Biggar, The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534: A Collection of Documents Relating to the Early History of the Dominion of Canada (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1911), 32, 35, 68, 69. Henry Harrisse, The Discovery of North America (London: Henry Stevens and Son, 1892), 59n2, suggests the wording of the letters patent implies more than one such earlier voyage.27 Damiam de Goes, Chronica do felicissimo Rei dom Emanuel (Lisbon: Françisco Correa, 1566-1567), pt. 1, ch. 66, fol. 65r: ‘ ... partio do porto de Lisboa no começo do verão do anno de mil, & quinhétos’ (... he departed from the port of Lisbon at the beginning of the summer of the year of 1500); António Galvão, Tratado ... dos diuerdos & desuayrados caminhos, por onde nos tempos passados a pimenta & espesearia veyo da Indias ás nossas partes, ed. Francisco de Sousa Tavares ([Lisbon], [1563]), fol. 28v: ‘Partio da ilha terceira com duos nauios ... ,’ (He left from Terceira island with two ships ...); Antonio Galvano, The Discoveries of the World, trans. Richard Hakluyt, ed., C. R. Drinkwater Bethune (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1862), 96–97: ‘He went from the Island Terçera with two ships ... ’.28 Letter of Pietro Pasqualigo to the Signiory of Venice, 18 Oct 1501, in Biggar, Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 65–67. Also, the inscription on Greenland (DOLAVRADOR) on the Kunstmann IV planisphere, by Jorge Reinel with his father Pedro, c. 1519, reads: ‘Terram istam portugalenses viderũt atame nom intraverunt’ (This country was sighted by the Portuguese, but they did not enter it); see Harrisse, Discovery of North America, 76; and Winter, ‘Pseudo-Labrador,’ 62. The Kunstmann IV chart was also photographed before its loss in World War II (Stevenson, Maps Illustrating, no. 5), and facsimiled by Otto Progel in the nineteenth century (BnF, DCP, Carte du Monde, c. 1519–21 [1836], CPL GE AA-564 (RES)).29 An example of a nineteenth-century reproduction preserving toponyms is where Vicomte de Santarém, Atlas composé de mappemondes et de cartes hydrographiques et historiques (Paris: Faix et Thunot, 1842), pl. 13A, documents two toponyms, y de lob(?) and omean, in the area of green pigmentation on the southwest coast of Africa on the Juan de la Cosa planisphere. These are not recorded in Hugo O'Donnell and Duque de Estrada, El mapamundi denominado “Carta de Juan de la Cosa” (Madrid: Gabinete de Bibliofilia, 1992), 159, and perhaps were no longer legible after 150 years.30 McIntosh and Gaspar, ‘Kunstmann III,’ 165, fig. 2.31 This toponym is almost totally effaced in the Stevenson photograph of 1903 and apparently was also illegible in 1836, since the name was not copied at that time onto Progel’s extant facsimile. The presence of this erased toponym on Greenland was noted in Enterline, Erikson, Eskimos, and Columbus, 250.32 Defense Mapping Agency, Sailing Directions (Enroute) for Greenland and Iceland, Pub. 181, 4th ed. ([Washington, D.C.]: Defense Mapping Agency, 1991), 108, 111.33 On the King-type design, see Bjørnbo, ‘Cartographia Groenlandica,’ 181; Hoffman, Cabot to Cartier, 52; Gregory C. McIntosh, The Vesconte Maggiolo World Map of 1504 in Fano, Italy, 2nd ed. (Long Beach, California: Plus Ultra Publishing Company, 2015), 11–12; Winter, ‘Pseudo–Labrador,’ 62, 66.34 João Fernandes, known as the Labrador or Lavrador was under the of Corte Real on letters patent for from on Precursors of Jacques Cartier, & the in the of Greenland is and in the present discussion of the Kunstmann III chart. the is to have first been as a toponym to where he is to have and to the because of the of contemporary it is his voyage was to Labrador of the manuscript with are in Biggar, Precursors of Jacques Cartier, Biggar, Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 68, the of the brothers to in have been repeated by the voyages of the Corte to Greenland and Newfoundland. The of Goes, Chronica do felicissimo Rei dom pt. 1, ch. 66, fol. 65r: ‘ ... partio de Lisboa de de from Lisbon on the of May of Harrisse, Discovery of North America, Biggar, Precursors of Jacques Cartier, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Carta del Cantino, 1502, Maggiolo The Vesconte Portolan chart, For more on the Maggiolo planisphere, see Vesconte Maggiolo und Cartographica no. 13 12 no. and Richard L. of Portolan Charts & Richard L. Kunstmann I and c. 1519, 1 BnF, DCP, Jorge and Atlantique, c. 1519, GE The was by a in and by and Jorge it a year or of the father and son from of the maps in the were by the António de The 1 for this chart was first in Henry Harrisse, et de et des (Paris: Henry & 3, of Kohl, History of Discovery of The toponyms on on Portuguese maps are in Cortesão and Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, The as de as early as the Maggiolo and on the Kunstmann I chart by Reinel (c. On the 1 chart (c. the is da and the is de the de on the Kunstmann I chart. Skelton, of the Voyages,’ suggests the name on the Kunstmann I is It is this in the that with the voyage of João in c. The on a Portuguese chart is on the chart by of (BnF, DCP, Carte de l'Océan et de la Mer CPL GE see Harrisse, Discovery of North America, and Henry Harrisse, et et et des voyages au de à (Paris: E. da on the Maggiolo of Vesconte Portolan chart, and de on the planisphere, c. c. Letter by from Lisbon to of dated 17 Biggar, Precursors of Jacques Cartier, A and of the cartographic of in the century is the or of the The however, is not the of the Kunstmann III chart. The is first on the early Reinel charts c. Kunstmann c. and 1, c. and The the island of was not on maps until the century by the as An example of the many maps the name or to is The and Part of New in Atlas or a and of maps, in are all the in all the known of the ... (London: and John no. For the Progel see McIntosh and Gaspar, ‘Kunstmann III,’ fig. James A. Williamson, The Voyages of the and the Discovery of North America Under Henry VII and Henry (London: The Press, the of Estense Universitaria, Carta two of that with the by the coast of North A in a in about the voyages of and by the of the coast between and by the It is this to the of the of and the by the of the Corte Real et and Bernard G. Hoffman, of a in to the New World, and from the with and no. 1 This may have been by but is to on voyage to in The Portolan chart, is dated to c. but research by the chart was made about see ‘The Chart at the A Historical Map by Imago no. On the see Armando The of An of the from the to in and in the of Francisco of a in the Nautical and Maps, and in the before (London: Hakluyt Society, the coast of the map the to the the of the King-type and the that on the voyage from to the on did not range this entire depicted that copied the from a Portuguese cartographic of perhaps a decade Cortesão and Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, Kupčík, Münchner The date of for the of is from the of 10 1502 from de to Pietro to see I vols. The date of 7 for from the in a is from of the extant of the Amerigo una del e 6 carte that on the date in the Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos Duarte de (Lisbon: Nacional, 1892), de de also was and the toponyms to the dates of the voyage of was by Francisco de Vespucci: son les moins et carte les de to have been in the of toponyms that were see McIntosh, Vesconte Maggiolo World Map, a source for this toponym has been de de la in de la for its with see Harrisse, Discovery of North America, The Portuguese would not a than a Portuguese For a of this see Gregory C. McIntosh, Amerigo and the of the of no. 2 The name was to the The of is The for the entire year only by a – The name is to the of the sea to a from the the coast of A. mais do Brasil,’ Revista do e de Paulo 7 the name as de this name was from the on the see Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos by of João da May 1501, and on the planisphere, and by de on May in the present discussion of the Kunstmann III is also a in Africa because of the many first visited by the Portuguese, on Portuguese and c. 73, du Monde, c. 2 Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Carta del Cantino, 1502, C.G.A.2; BnF, DCP, de Planisphère nautique, c. GE and de this to de los and the chart also de suggested were two voyages a of on the same date see Harrisse, Discovery of North America, Duarte suggests de may the same as the da on the see Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos with dos on the coast of Africa in this as ‘Rio de of see Harrisse, Discovery of North America, da see The or were an important of the coast of Brazil between dos Reis and and a in Portuguese in the und der in der America pt. ch. 3 R. on a at Journal of the Society of 4 Antonio de ou Chronica dos da do Brasil, vols., 2nd ed. de A of Robert History of 3 vols. (London: and The of of in the of trans. Richard (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1, de & do Brasil (Lisbon: de da Leite, of the suggested other see Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos or is the name of a of the of Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos noted in sobre Paulo no de Ltda., Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos Duarte the of in the on the map is that it a in on the of the see Leite, ‘O mais antigo mapa do Brasil,’ Leite, História dos noted in Leite, História dos McIntosh and Gaspar, ‘Kunstmann III,’ 165, fig

Art · Cartography · Chart · Geography · Humanities · Portuguese · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Mathematics · Philosophy