Dieppe maps

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Jave La Grande's east coast: from Nicholas Vallard's atlas, 1547. This is part of an 1856 copy of one of the Dieppe Maps. Copy held by the National Library of Australia.
Jave La Grande's east coast: from Nicholas Vallard's atlas, 1547. This is part of an 1856 copy of one of the Dieppe Maps. Copy held by the National Library of Australia.

The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s. They are large hand-produced maps, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England. The Dieppe school of cartographers included Pierre Desceliers, Johne Rotz, Guillaume Le Testu and Nicholas Desliens.

Because many of the inscriptions on the Dieppe maps are written in French, Portuguese or Gallicised Portuguese, modern historians generally accept that the Dieppe school of mapmakers were often working from Portuguese sources that no longer exist. There seems to be convincing evidence that Portuguese cartographers were bribed for information of the latest discoveries, despite the official Portuguese Politica de sigilio (policy of silence). An example of this is the Cantino map of 1502 (not a Dieppe school map) which clearly shows evidence of second hand Portuguese sources. [1]

A common feature of most of the Dieppe world maps (see Vallard 1547, Desceliers 1550) are the compass roses and navigational rhumb lines, suggestive of a sea-chart. However, they are best understood as works of art, clearly intended to be spread out on a table, and containing information on the latest discoveries, side by side with mythological references and illustrations. For example, the Desceliers 1550 map carries descriptions of early French attempts to colonise Canada, the conquests of Peru by the Spanish and the Portuguese sea-trade among the Spice Islands. On the same map can be found descriptions of legendary Cathay, king Prester John in Ethiopia, and the race of Amazons in Russia. [2] Other Dieppe maps also carry fictitious features such as the Marco Polo inspired Zanzibar/Îles des Geanz. (see Vallard 1547, Rotz 1542 and Dauphin c1536-42). As with other maps made before the seventeenth century, the Dieppe maps show no knowledge of longitude. While latitude could be marked in degrees as observed by astrolabe or quadrant, easting could only be given in distance. [3] Mercator's projection first appeared in 1568-9, a development too late to influence the Dieppe cartographers .

Contents

[edit] Existing Dieppe Maps

The Dieppe Maps known to have existed into modern times include the following[4] [5] [6]

[edit] The Dieppe Maps and the Theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia

Main article: Theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia

The Dieppe maps are thought by some to provide clues towards the Portuguese exploration of Australia's coasts in the 1520s. Most of the Dieppe maps show a land mass entitled "Jave La Grande", between what is now Indonesia and Antarctica. As the Portuguese were active in Southeast Asia from 1511, and in Timor from 1516,[7] it has been suggested by some writers that “Jave La Grande” is a result of an error by the Dieppe mapmakers who were working from Portuguese charts of Australia's coastline. Although the Dieppe maps are not specifically concerned with Australia, discussion about them in contemporary Australia is generally confined to this “Jave la Grande” feature.

The first writer to put these maps forward as evidence of Portuguese discovery of Australia was Alexander Dalrymple in 1786, in a short note to his Memoir Concerning the Chagos and Adjacent Islands[8]. Dalrymple was intrigued enough to publish 200 copies of the Dauphin map.[9]

Since then a number of other writers have contributed to the debate about the “Jave La Grande” landmass that appears on the Dieppe maps. These include;

  • R.H.Major, in 1859, then Keeper of Maps in the British Museum, who wrote Early Voyages to Terra Australis, arguing “Java La Grande” was Australia’s west and east coastline. [10]
  • George Collingridge wrote The Discovery of Australia in 1895 [11] and reproduced a number of the “Jave La Grande” sections of several Dieppe maps for English speaking audiences. He also argued “Jave La Grande” was substantially Australia’s coastline.
  • In 1977, lawyer Kenneth McIntyre wrote The Secret Discovery of Australia. Portuguese ventures 200 years before Captain Cook. This book achieved widespread publicity in Australia. It remains the best known of the books attempting to prove that Jave La Grande is Australia. McIntyre attributed discrepancies in “Java la Grande” to the difficulties of accurately recording positions without a reliable method of determining longitude, and the techniques used to convert maps to different projections.
  • In 1982, Helen Wallis, then Curator of Maps at the British Library, suggested that the French 1529 voyage to Sumatra of Jean Parmentier and his brother may have collected information that found its way onto the Dieppe Maps. While admitting the evidence for this was circumstantial, she suggested that perhaps a Dieppe cartographer such as Jean Rotz may have accompanied the expedition. [13]
  • In 1984, Brigadier (ret’d) Lawrence Fitzgerald wrote Java La Grande (sic)[14]In this book he compared the coastlines of “Jave la Grande” as shown on the Dauphin (1536-42) and Desceliers (1550) maps with the modern Australian coastline, arguing the Dieppe mapmakers had incorrectly assembled Portuguese charts. He also suggested some of the illustrations on “Jave la Grande” may relate to Australia.
  • In 2007, journalist Peter Trickett’s book Beyond Capricorn[15] was published. This stated that an assembly error had been made by cartographers working on the Vallard Atlas of 1547, and that if part of it (see 1856 copy above right) was rotated 90 degrees, it became an accurate map of the Australian coasts, and New Zealand's north island. He also suggested some of the illustrations and embellishments on “Jave La Grande” may relate to Australia. Some media publicity at the time of the book's release incorrectly suggested the Vallard map is not well known.[16]

[edit] Alternative interpretations of “Jave La Grande”

  • Ernest Scott, first Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, wrote on the significance of Dieppe Maps in several books between 1916 and 1929. He argued that while intriguing, the Dieppe maps alone could not be accepted as evidence the Portuguese had a knowledge of Australia in the sixteenth century. [17]
  • In his exhaustive work on Luis Váez de Torres, Queensland historian Captain Brett Hilder suggested “Jave La Grande” as depicted on the Dieppe maps was simply a mythical continent. [18]
  • Associate Professor W.A.R. (Bill) Richardson was former reader in Portuguese and Spanish at Flinders University, South Australia. Between 1983 and 2004 Richardson wrote more than 20 articles on the “Jave La Grande” question for academic journals. In 2006 his book Was Australia charted before 1606? The Jave La Grande inscriptions was published. Richardson devotes much of this book to considering the "Jave La Grande" connection to Australia and in particular the information that toponymy (the study of placenames) can provide in identification. His conclusion is that “Jave La Grande” is unmistakably connected to the coasts of southern Java and Indochina. [19] Richardson has also criticised Gavin Menzies assertion the Dieppe maps provide clues as to a possible Chinese discovery of Australia.[20]
  • James R. McClymont was of the opinion that the explanation of the mystery of the Dieppe maps lay in cosmographical theory rather than in actual geographical discovery. He pointed out that the placement of "Jave la Grande" on the Dieppe maps was a theoretical construct and not the result of an actual discovery of Australia. In 1892, he drew attention to the identity of the "Jave la Grande" of the Dieppe maps with the outline of the coasts of South America and noted the placement on it of American place names such as Baye bresill, and adduced this as proof of “the complete absence of all connection between the theory of a Terra Australis and the geographical fact of the Australian continent”. His lament was that, “to this day a confusion exists between these distinct phenomena, which blurs the outlines of early Australian history”. McClymont cited the Franco-Portuguese navigator and cosmographer Jean Alfonse who, in his work of 1544, La Cosmographie, identified Java Minor (Sumatra) as an island but Java Major (Java) as part of the continent of Terra Australis, which extended as far as the Antarctic Pole and the Strait of Magellan. Based on a faulty reading of Marco Polo, Alfonse wrote in La Cosmographie: “La Grand Jave is a land that goes as far as under the Antarctic Pole and from the Terre Australle in the west to the land of the Strait of Magellan on the eastern side. Some say that it is islands but from what I have seen of it, it is a continent [terre ferme]…That which is called Jave Mynore is an island, but la Grand Jave is terra firma.” (“Cest Jave est un terre qui va jusques dessoubz le polle antarctique et en occident tient à la terre Australle, et du cousté d’oriant à la terre du destroict de Magaillant. Aulcuns dient que ce sont isles. Et quant est de ce que j’en ay veu, c’est terre firme… Celle que l’on appelle Jave Mynore est une isle. Mais la Grand Jave est terre ferme”.) [21]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Richardson, W.A.R. (2006). Was Australia charted before 1606? The Jave La Grande inscriptions. Canberra, National Library of Australia, p.5, ISBN 0 64227642 0
  2. ^ Showcases :: Pierre Desceliers' World Map
  3. ^ McIntyre, K.G. (1977). Secret Discovery of Australia: Portuguese Ventures 200 Years Before Captain Cook. Medindie, South Australia: Souvenir Books Australia, P.147-8. ISBN 028562303 6
  4. ^ Richardson, W.A.R. (2006) P.96
  5. ^ McIntyre, K.(1977) P.207.
  6. ^ Herve, R. (1983). Translated by John Dunmore. Chance Discovery of Australia and New Zealand by Portuguese and Spanish Navigators between 1521 and 1528. Palmerston North, New Zealand. The Dunmore Press, P 19. ISBN 0 86469013 4. Herve provides a slightly different list of Dieppe Maps
  7. ^ McIntyre,K. (1977) P.52+
  8. ^ cited in McIntyre,K. (1977) P.327+
  9. ^ Richardson, W.A.R (2006) P.33
  10. ^ Major's book can be viewed at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600361h.html
  11. ^ Collingridge, G. (1895). The Discovery of Australia Reprinted facsimile edition (1983) Golden Press, NSW ISBN 0 85558956 6
  12. ^ Herve, R. (1983)Chance Discoveries of Australia and New Zealand by Portuguese and Spanish Navigators between 1521 and 1528 Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, New Zealand. ISBN 0864690134
  13. ^ Wallis, H. "The Dieppe Maps" in The Globe: Journal of the Australian Map Curator's Circle Canberra, No. 17, 1982. p23-51.
  14. ^ Fitzgerald, L (1984). Java La Grande The Publishers, Hobart ISBN 0 94932500 7. It is unclear why he preferred the modern spelling Java rather than Jave.
  15. ^ Trickett, P (2007). Beyond Capricorn. How Portuguese adventurers discovered and mapped Australia and New Zealand 250 years before Captain Cook East St. Publications. Adelaide. ISBN 9 78097511459 9
  16. ^ See http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=255927 for example
  17. ^ Scott, E. (1928) A Short History of Australia. p.5, 5th Edition, Oxford University Press. Also see Scott, E (1929) Australian Discovery by Sea, at http://gutenberg.net.au/ausdisc/ausdisc0-contents.html
  18. ^ Hilder, B. (1980) The Voyage of Torres p.11. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia. ISBN 0 7022 1275x
  19. ^ Richardson, W.A.R.(2006) P.93
  20. ^ Richardson, W.A.R. "Gavin Menzies Cartographic fiction. The case of the Chinese 'discovery' of Australia" The Globe, Number 56, 2004. See http://www.1421exposed.com/html/imaginography.html
  21. ^ James R. McClymont, “The Theory of an Antipodal Southern Continent during the Sixteenth Century”, Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Hobart, January 1892, Hobart, the Association, 1893, pp.442-462; James R. McClymont, “A Preliminary Critique of the Terra Australis Legend”, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1890, Hobart, 1890, pp.43-52, n.b. p.50; James R. McClymont, Essays on Historical Geography, London, Quaritch, 1921, pp.16-18; Georges Musset (ed.), Receuil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographie, XX, La Cosmographie, Paris, 1904, f.147r. p.388-9; Pierre Margry, Les Navigations Françaises et la Révolution Maritime du XIVe au XVIe Siécle, Paris, Librairie Tross, 1867, pp.316-7.

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