De Virga world map
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The De Virga world map was made by Albertinus de Virga between 1411 and 1415. The map contains a mention in small letters:
- "A. 141.. Albertin diuirga me fecit in vinexia"
- "Made by Albertinius de Virga in Venice in 141.."
(the last number of the date is erased by a fold in the map)
Albertin de Virga, a Venetian, is also known for a 1409 map of the Mediterranean, also made in Venice.
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[edit] Structure
The world map is circular, drawn on a piece of parchment 69.6x44 cm. It consists of the map itself, about 44 cm in diameter, and an extension containing a calendar and two tables.
The map is oriented to the North, with a wind rose centered in Central Asia, possibly the observatory of Ulugh Begh in the Mongol city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, or the western shore of the Caspian sea. The wind rose divides the map in eight sectors.
The map is colored: the seas are left white, although the Red Sea is colored in red. Continental land is colored in yellow, and several colors are used for islands. The mountains are in brown, the lakes are in blue, and rivers are in brown.
The extension shows a calendar with depictions of the signs of the zodiac and a table to calculate lunar positions.
The map is generally consistent with the Fra Mauro map (1457), also drawn before the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, and today visible in Venice.
[edit] Regions
The regions of Asia, Africa, yet unexplored, are described with surprising accuracy. In particular, the contour of Africa is quite accurately rendered, even before the first Portuguese voyages of exploration along Africa (the Portuguese first rounded Cape Bojador in Western Sahara in 1434), and of course before the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487.
The ocean surrounding the continental mass bears the mention "Mari Oziano Magno".
Jerusalem is indicated (Jordan and Gorlan), although not at the exact center of the map. The three continents are rather clearly represented, and labeled "Europa", "Africa" and "Axia". The Indian Ocean contains many colored islands, in a style reminiscent of Arab map.
[edit] Atlantic Ocean
The island of the Canaries and the Azores are particularly well marked, although the Azores were not discovered until 1427 by the Portuguese.
[edit] Africa
Africa contains depictions of the Atlas mountains and the Nile river, with mention of the territory of Prester John ("Pre. Joanes") in Ethiopia.
The Garden of Eden is depicted at the southernmost tip of Africa with the symbol of two concentric rings, from which emerge the four rivers mentioned in Genesis.
[edit] Asia
The locations described in Asia are consistent with Mongolian rule: Medru, Calcar, Monza sede di sedre ("the Mangi of northern China"), and Bogar Tartarorum ("the Great Bulgarian" or "Golden Horde"). On the emplacement of Karakorum, fortifications are depicted, with the mention "M[on]gol". The names shown for Chinese rivers and cities are those used by Marco Polo.
The shores of the Indian Ocean contain the mention of the kingdoms of Mimdar and Madar (Malabar?) and probably Sri Lanka with the mention "Ysola d alegro suczimcas magna". In the eastern part of the Indian Ocean southeast, the large island of Java has the following note: "Caparu sive Java magna". The shape of the islands of Japan with the name "Cipangu" are also depicted at the east of the Asian continent.
[edit] Australia
The northern part of Australia (from Courier bay in the West to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the East) is rather accurately depicted and properly located in respect to the Asian continent.
[edit] Europe
Europe is quite clearly and accurately depicted. In northern Europe, various places are mentioned, such as "Ogama, Goga" Gog and Magog, "Rotenia" Russia, Naia, Samolica, and the kingdom of "Norveca" Norway beyond Denmark and Scotland. There is speculation that the landmass represented in the northwest is Greenland (often shown on pre-1492 medieval maps), or even the North American continent.
[edit] History of the map
The map indicates much knowledge of the world before the European age of exploration, and maybe the one mentioned by the Portuguese historian Antonio Galvao in 1563:
- "... It was told to me by Frances de Sousa Tavares that in the year 1528, Dom Fernando, the king's son and heir did show him a map which was found in the study of the Alcobaca (a renowned Cistercian monastery used as a library by Portuguese kings) which had been made 120 years before (ie 1408) which map did show forth all the navigation of the East Indies, with the Cape of Boa Esperanca as our later maps had described it; whereby it appeared that in ancient times there was as much or more discovered than now there is..." Antonio Galvao "Tratado Dos Diversos e Desayados Caminhos"
The map was re-discovered in a second-hand bookshop in 1911 in Srebrenica, Bosnia by Albert Figdor, a map collector. The map was analysed by Doctor Professor Franz Von Weiser, of the Austrian State University in Vienna. Authenticated photographs were taken, which are today in the British Library.
The map was stolen during an auction in 1932, and has never been recovered.
The map is discussed by Leo Bagrow in "History of Cartography", and Dr. Gunnar Thompson in "The Friar's Map".
[edit] Historical issues
Just as the Fra Mauro map, made in 1457, the De Virga world map gives a fairly accurate shape of Africa, at a time when the continent had not yet been rounded by European explorers: when the De Virga map was drawn circa 1415, the Portuguese were barely starting the Age of Discovery, occupying Ceuta on the northern tip of the African Continent, and none of their sailors had ever been beyond the Canary islands.
The source of such cartographic information is yet un-clarified, although it has been suggested they could be Muslim traders, or possibly Chinese cartographers under Admiral Zheng He.
[edit] References
- "Mappemondes, AD 1200-1500", Destombes
