Catalan-Estense World Map

#246

TITLE: Catalan-Estense World Map

DATE: 1450-1460
AUTHOR: unknown
DESCRIPTION: This Catalan world map in the Biblioteca Estense,
(C.G.A.1) has no author or date. It is circular, on a sheet of vellum
with a 10 mm blue border and is very well preserved. Although the
catalogue of that library gives a greater size, Kretschmer’s figures of
1157.5 mm (east to west) by 1140 mm (north to south) (45.5 x 44.8
in.) the diameter measures, taking into account the border, 1130 mm
which is nearer the mark. Seas are mostly in blue or green, rivers in
blue, mountains in green or brown. The map belonged to the collection of the Dukes of
Ferrara, who since 1452, had also been Dukes of Modena and Reggio. Many of them had
collections in more than one place and the Estense library is very rich in their collections
of different periods. The map was taken there in 1598 by Cesare d’Este who was the
illegitimate son of Duke Alfonso I.
To the extent that it is based on the portolan [nautical] chart tradition, there are
rhumb-lines (thirty-two out of each of sixteen centers) and two unlabeled scales; also the
map features shields and flags over Europe and kings in tents elsewhere. However, the
equator is drawn in and named three times. The map aims at covering all the lands of the
“Old World”, but including the whole of Africa. The central point is not Jerusalem but
near the abode of the mythical Christian king Prester John [Presta Iohan], placed in Nubia
between the two branches of the Nile. The abandonment of Jerusalem as a central point is
found on several other European mappaemundi of the 14th and 15th centuries. Africa, to
which the cartographer’s attention was clearly directed as new discoveries were
incorporated, is enlarged, crosses the equator, and reaches a southern coast. Asia is
largely confined to the northern hemisphere. The Atlantic occupies a larger space than is
usual for the period.
The legends for the lower part are written so as to be read from the North above,
and for the upper part from the South at the top.The language of the fifty-two legends,
apart from the one in Latin on the Canaries, is Catalan. A Latin cosmography with very
similar wording exists in Genoa University Library Codex B.1.36. Textually comparable
are the legends on the Catalan map at the Central National Library, Florence Port. 16, to
be dated after 1416. There are also linguistic and topographical similarities with a
fragment of a Catalan world map in the Topkapu Sarav Library, Istanbul. As these
Catalan maps developed, some of them aimed at including the latest information
available from European navigators and compilers. This offers clues to historians of
cartography as to approximate dates.
The map uses a system of rhumbs of 800 mm. in diameter to sixteen secondary
centers, each comprising thirty-two lines; The center of the system is on the vertical axis of
the map, but at 150 mm. south of the horizontal axis. The east-west horizontal line passing
through the center of the rhumb system is designated by three legends as the equinoctial
line. There are two scales of miles (in the North West of Africa and the North of Europe),
no doubt taken from the nautical chart which served as a model for the Mediterranean
basin. The land forms a roughly circular block, offset from the center of the ocean around
them, the latter being wider to the West.
The oldest of the portolan charts to survive are of Italian origin, made at Genoa and
Pisa; those dating from the latter half of the 14th century are mainly Catalan. But the
typical Catalan map is not strictly speaking a portolan chart. It is more than that; for while

1
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

the latter is essentially a sailing guide concerned with coastwise navigation, the Catalan
map is really a world map built up around the portolan chart. It is true that in some cases
the term ‘world’ connotes simply the habitable, or known earth as conceived by the
author; nevertheless, in others, as the Catalan-Estense map, it is interpreted to include
lands not yet discovered, but only posited. This aggravated the cartographer’s task very
considerably for it meant that he was continually being faced with the problem of
choosing between scanty and often poorly substantiated facts on the one hand, and
plausible and often well-attested theory on the other. It is a tribute to the integrity of these
men that their work contains so much that subsequent investigation has proved true. In
fact it is this careful sifting of evidence that constitutes one of the chief merits of the
Catalan school of cartography, in an age when intellectual honesty was none too common.
The value of the Catalan maps, as commentaries upon the state of contemporary
knowledge at once becomes apparent and we are hardly surprised to find that the Catalan
Atlas of 1375 (#235) has the finest delineation of Asia that Europe had seen up to that time,
or that, in its knowledge of Cathay [northern China] and the Sudan, the same map is
surpassed in the Middle Ages only by the 1459 Fra Mauro map (#249).
The main axis of the Mediterranean Sea is a little north of the horizontal axis of
the map, with Jerusalem indicated only by the mention San Sepulcra without vignette. The
whole of Asia is in the eastern half of the map, its North-South extension being reduced
by the enlargement of the Indian Ocean. India does not have a peninsula shape like the
Catalan Atlas of 1375 (#235). The southern part of Africa is represented as a mass of land in
the shape of a crescent that draws a large arc at the eastern end of which the Ocean Indian
spreads towards the South. It is almost cut off from the North of Africa by a deep gulf of
the Atlantic Ocean which extends towards the East and which communicates with the
Indian Ocean by a narrow strait to the south of which is the legend: Aphrica comensa al
flum de nilles in the parts degipta e fenex in Gutzola vert ponent circuit tota la barbaria e the part
of mig jorn.
Scarcely less valuable and certainly more interesting for the student of
geographical theory, are the Catalan speculations concerning the unexplored territories of
the earth. Unlike many medieval scholars the draftsmen of Majorca showed a
praiseworthy restraint in this respect. Thus we may look almost in vain for those fanciful
creatures with which the cosmographers of that age filled their empty continents. At the
same time, these men saw nothing strange about a belief in the Terrestrial Paradise, or in a
hydrographical system stretching from sea to sea. For the most part their speculations
were of another kind, and usually they contained at least a partial truth. For instance,
Lacus Nili, the Pactolus of Strabo and the Palolus of later maps, which in the Catalan Atlas
and subsequent works is located in the neighborhood of Timbuktu, may reasonably be
identified with the flood region of the Niger River above that town.
However, on one matter the mapmaker could hardly refrain from speculating,
for this reason: land exploration had for a long time now outrun oceanic discovery, and
so, concerning Africa, for example, much more was known of the Sudan by the end of the
14th century than was known of the oceanic fringe in the same latitudes. Africa is more
carefully represented than Eurasia. The comments of the descriptive legends are longer,
the decoration richer and the information more recent. The west coast carries a
nomenclature up to the points reached by the Portuguese in 1446. Cape Verde and Cape
Rosso (c. Groso), are indicated with the legend A quest cap es.fi de la terra del ponent on the
part of Affrica a questa Zinia es an la equinocsiall ... [To this end of the land of the west on the
part of Africa to this Zinia is the equinocial ...] Two islands off the coast are designated as

2
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Illa de cades esi posa ercules due colones. The coasts of Africa at this place, like the coasts of
Western Europe, are surrounded by red on the side of the earth, while elsewhere they are,
like the coasts of South Asia, surrounded by green on the side of the Sea. Perhaps it was
intended to mark a distinction between known shores and those whose trace would only
be supposed. The Gambia River flows into the sea near the Senegal estuary, north of Cape
Verde. Beyond the point where the northern shore of the gulf bends towards the east, the
Monts de 1a Lune (Aquesta montay (n) dien los saraysis mont gibe! Camar qui voldir en n (ost) ra
lengua mons de la luna la qual montay (n) es sobre la Zinja equinocsiall). Mountains of the
moon towards the northwest flow five rivers (riu de lor) which flow into a lake, probably a
representation of the region of the upper Niger between Jenne and Timbuktu where
annual floods occur.

The earlier draftsmen insisted upon cutting the continent short just beyond the
limit of coastal knowledge, that is, in the vicinity of Cape Bojador. By so doing, however,
they found themselves reducing the vast extent of the Sahara almost to a vanishing point.
Thus, in the Catalan Atlas of 1375 (#235), Sigilmesa and the Rio del Oro [i.e., the Senegal-
Niger River system] are placed in closer proximity than Ceuta and Cape Non. Later
draftsmen, in order to escape the embarrassment caused by indicating the great trans-
Saharan caravan routes within these narrow limits, began to speculate on the course of the
African coast, south of Bojador. By general agreement it was made to tend south-south-
east. Speculation of this sort did at least have the merit of enabling the mapmaker to
draw the Sahara with greater accuracy. It should be noted that all of the Catalan maps,
with the exception of this Catalan-Estense world map, which was the last of its line, stop
short of their southern side in the latitude of Sierra Leone approximately, that is, where
knowledge gave place to ignorance and speculation.
The shape of Africa on this map is unique, and it is much enlarged in relation to
Europe and Asia. Below the Gulf of Guinea, which nearly cuts the continent in two, is a
large crescent-shaped appendage extending to the east and forming a southern shore for
the Indian Ocean. A thin canal across its narrow waist implies a passage between the

3
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The southern landmass, which may be intended for a
separate continent, has no place-names or pictures, demonstrating remarkable restraint on
the part of the artist.
Africa occupies most of the southern half of the map. The continent ends in a great
arc, conforming to the circular frame of the map, and extending eastwards to form the
southern boundary of the Indian Ocean. On the west, a long narrow gulf from the
circumfluent ocean almost severs this southerly projection from northern Africa. The
southern interior is blank save for the legend Africa begins at the river Nile in Egypt and ends
at Gutzola in the west: it includes the whole land of Barbaria, and the land in the south. This
outline and legend have been interpreted to imply some knowledge of the southern
extremity of Africa, and perhaps of a practicable route from the west to the Indian Ocean.
That the great western gulf reflects some knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea is more
probable. The design of the northern half of the continent in general resembles that of the
other Catalan charts, but the northwestern coast embodies some details of contemporary
Portuguese voyages as far as C. ude (Cape Verde) and C. groso. From this evidence, the
map is usually dated about 1450. Near the gulf is the Mountains of the Moon, from which
five rivers flow northwards to a lake on the western Nile. This lake probably represents
the area around the Upper Niger liable to inundation; G.H. T. Kimble has pointed out that
these rivers may well represent the five main sources of the Niger. These Mountains of the
Moon are stated to be on the Equator, and the streams are called the riu de lor. We may
therefore assume that the headwaters of the Niger marked the approximate limit of
contemporary knowledge in this region, and it is not improbable that reports of the sea to
the south had been received. These may have induced the cartographer to accept the
western gulf of Ptolemy, but to enlarge it considerably. Again, the name Rio del Oro
[River of Gold] recalls the inscription on the Catalan Atlas and the classical tradition. The
portrayal of the interior thus goes back at least to 1375. Therefore, apart from a small
portion of the coastline, the map owes nothing to Portuguese exploration.
Some surprise has been expressed that a map of 1450 should contain relatively up-
to-date details coupled with antiquated ideas in other areas, and this has produced some
rather involved explanations. Taking into consideration the lack of details and names in
the southern regions of Africa, we may plausibly conjecture that, as an exception to the
usual conservatism, the draftsman, in Africa at least, had removed all the detail for which
he had no evidence, to obtain a framework on which to insert the latest Portuguese
discoveries. It must remain debatable whether the outline of the southern extremity
represents some knowledge of the Cape. The outline may be entirely imposed by the
frame of the map: at the most, it may reflect the kind of report that we find on Fra Mauro’s
map (#249).
The merit of the Catalan cartographers lay in the skill with which they employed
the best contemporary sources to modify the traditional world picture, rarely proceeding
further than the evidence warranted. In the same spirit they removed from the map most
of the traditional fables which had been accepted for centuries, and preferred, for
example, to omit the northern and southern regions entirely, or to leave southern Africa a
blank rather than to fill it with the Anthropagi and other monsters which adorn so many
medieval maps. Though drawings of men and animals still figure on their works they are
in the main those for which there was some contemporary, or nearly contemporary,
warrant; for example, Mansa Musa, the lord of Guinea, whose pilgrimage to Mecca created
a sensation in 1324, or Olub bein, the ruler of the Tatars. In this spirit of critical realism, the

4
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Catalan cartographers of the 14th century threw off the bonds of tradition, and anticipated
the achievements of the Renaissance.
In the case of the Catalan-Estense map, whose date was earlier conjectured to be
14th century, the determining area would appear to be the west coast of Africa. The map
names Cape Verde, which was discovered by Dias in 1444 and whose first recorded
mapping is by Andrea Bianco in 1448 (#241). The Cape Verde islands also appear
cartographically in Benincasa’s map of 1468 but are not featured on the Catalan-Estense
map. This coastline looks in the Modena map rather similar in its outline to Bianco’s 1448
chart. So that would suggest a date soon after for the Catalan-Estense map. Differences in
ink and supposed linguistic variants caused earlier scholars to wonder if two different
periods of composition were involved, but George Kimble (1934) pointed out that the
handwriting had been judged the same throughout.
Also shown off the west coast of Africa is a ship that is located somewhat south of the
Jacme Ferrer ship that appears in the 1375 Catalan Atlas (#235). While it is depicted
differently, it is still low slung but carries a single square sail and has a sternpost rudder,
more reminiscent of the types of vessels common to northwest Europe than to the
Mediterranean.
Further south, no discoveries are evident in the Gulf of Guinea later than a friar’s
journey, ca. 1350, recorded in a book called Libro del conoscimiento de todos los reynos y
tierras [Book of knowledge of all kingdoms and lands]. Nevertheless it is interesting that
his islands Gropis and Quible reappear on the Catalan-Estense map in the west-east order of
the friar’s navigation (the cartographer does not change the order to east-west as Kimble
implies). Nor can we prove a date from the legend to a mountain near the same gulf,
which may be translated as This mountain is called by the Saracens Mt Gibel Camar, which in
our language means Mountain of the Moon; this mountain is on the equator. Five rivers are
shown flowing north from it, one of them a river of gold, flowing through a lake not
connected with the Nile. This river of gold is different from the Rio del Or reported in the
Catalan Atlas of 1375 (#235) as having been discovered in 1346; that is an inlet in the
former Spanish protectorate of Rio de Oro. A Mons Lune [Mountain of the Moon] is also
found by the Gulf of Guinea on the Medici Atlas (#233), whose world map is now thought
to be 15th century. In the interior the Catalan-Estense map has the land of King of Melli
said, as on the Paris and Florence maps, to be rich in gold, to which the Modena map adds
that it is poor in salt, which comes to be worth its weight in gold. Both salt and gold in
West Africa are mentioned by al-Idrisi (1099-1164, #219, Book II).
A prominent feature of this map is the very long extension of the Gulf of Guinea
eastwards, linked apparently by a river to the Indian Ocean, which is given a gulf south of
the Horn of Africa. A waterway linking east and west Africa is reminiscent of the
tradition going back to Crates of Mallos (168 BC, Book I, #113) and Macrobius (AD 400,
Book II, #201), according to whom northern and southern Africa were separated near the
equator by a body of water. South of the narrowest point, rather irrelevantly, is a legend
which may be translated: Africa begins at the R. Nile in Egypt and ends at Gutzola [i.e. the land
of the Gaetuli, near the Atlas Mountains] to the West; it encompasses all Barbary and the land of
the South.” Gutzola is shown on the Moroccan coast just south of Safi. Near Cape Verde we
are told, “At this cape is the end of the land of the west part of Africa. This line is at the equator on
which the sun stays continually, making twelve hours of night and twelve of day.” Nearby is an
island labeled Illa de eades: Here Hercules placed his two columns. So the Pillars of Hercules
have slipped down the coast and will eventually disappear completely.

5
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Africa contains half a dozen reigning monarchs, from Musa Melli to Prester John,
sitting in splendor in their royal tents. The mapmaker omits the usual array of monsters in
Africa, and the only animal depicted is a camel with a rider, sedately proceeding along
the caravan route to the sea. The Saharan cities that appeared on the Catalan Atlas also
appear here; among them are Siguilmese, Tenduch, Tagort, Buda, and Melli. It is likely that
the southern extension reflects an Arab tradition. The continent widens out again
enormously, and the peninsula presents a curved south coast roughly parallel to a
surrounding sea. The eastern part of this peninsula resembles that of al-Idrisi (#219).
In the north of Africa, the course of the Atlas Mountains is very similar to that on
the Catalan Atlas of 1375, even including a curved northern prong in the central area.
There is more detailed information on the interior than is usual on portolan charts. Clearly
the pass in Morocco leads from Marrakesh to the Wadi Draa: the legend begins: This pass
is called Dra valley and Sus valley; through this pass travel the merchants who want to go to Melli.
A pass in the eastern part of the range is called a route of Islamic pilgrims, another piece
of evidence of Arab sources. The eastern end of the Atlas range is extended too far east,
ending in Cyrenaica.
Associated with this habit of speculation, was the practice of what G.H.T. Kimble
calls ‘harmonizing’ established facts with long-held ‘traditions’; a practice which became
very popular from the 14th century onwards. The people who found pleasure in
reconciling the views of such influential ancients as Pliny, Ptolemy, Aristotle and
Ambrose were not easily disturbed by the challenge of the new school of practical
cartography.
With the development of Portuguese seafaring in the 15th century and the
subsequent widening if the southern horizon, the ‘harmonizing’ problem became
increasingly acute. Each mapmaker tackled it de novo, so that scarcely any two world
maps of this period provided the same world-view. Compare, for instance, this Catalan-
Estense map, the Walsperger world map (#245) and the Genoese world map (#248), all of
approximately the same date, ca. 1450. According to Kimble, there are at least three
distinct influences, in addition to the portolan chart tradition, that can be detected. These
influences are Classical, Christian and Arab. Of these only the Arab influence is strong,
while it is improbable that the Classical influence was direct. Thus, in the case of the
Catalan-Estense map, it owes nothing to the Ptolemaic tradition, and it is less likely that its
author should have taken his idea of a southern continent direct from Crates, the
originator of the concept (150 B.C., #113, Book I), than that he should have taken it from
Arab or Christian cosmographers, such as Abu’l Fida or Isidore (#205, Book II), who
revived it. The influence of the medieval Christian tradition on the Catalan-Estense map is
betrayed in such elements as the legend relating to Prester John and the portrayal of the
Terrestrial Paradise. There can be no mistaking the Arab influence. We have only to
compare the delineation of the southern half of Africa on the map with the description
given by the 11th century writer, Al-Biruni (Book II, #214.3), of the shores of the Southern
Ocean to be convinced of the kinship. Thus, the Catalan-Estense map, although
embellished with castellated towns, ships and portraits of African princes, attempts to
furnish an up-to-date picture of the world and to resolve the ancient riddle of Africa
nondum cognita [not yet identified].
The northern portions of Asia and Europe on the Estense map, which lay outside
the limits of the Catalan Atlas, significantly, contain very little detail. On the southern
coastline of Asia there are some differences, generally slight, between the two maps. The
peninsula of India is much less pronounced on the Catalan-Estense map, and to the south

6
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

is the large island of Salam or Silan [Ceylon/Sri Lanka] which also fell outside the physical
limits of the Catalan Atlas. A legend refers to its wealth in rubies and other precious
stones. There can be no doubt however that the two outlines are fundamentally identical.
To the east is the island of Java, as on the Catalan Atlas. The island of Trapobana is much
enlarged, and is placed on the southeastern margin of the map. The surrounding ocean,
the Mar deles indies is filled with numerous nameless and featureless islands.
Recollections of medieval maps include the Earthly Paradise with Adam and Eve
and the tree, here not in Mesopotamia but in Abyssinia, between the eastern branch of the
Nile and the Red Sea, at a spring from which the four medieval rivers of Paradise flow. A
legend of the Genoese world map of 1457 (#248) in the Central National Library of
Florence tells us that some have put Paradise in this part of Africa, while others have said
it is beyond India. The Catalan-Estense map also gives a short caption on the Diamond
Mountains, said to be guardians of the Earthly Paradise. In translation: This region is the
Terrestrial Paradise, an especially lovely place. Paradise is completely surrounded by fire whose
flames reach the sky. ... In Paradise lies a source divided in four rivers: One is Euphrates, the
second Tigris, the third Gyon, the fourth Phison.... Isidore speaks about this place saying that
Paradise is situated in the middle of the Equator. This is an abbreviated caption from the
Catalan Estense map describing a circular garden surrounded by flames and placed in
eastern Africa, from which the mentioned source springs and in which two red figures
pray under a tree. Placing Paradise in eastern Africa on medieval maps is very unusual
and is at the same time typical for late medieval mappae mundi that were both bound by
tradition and innovation, determined by contemplations of salvation history as well as
practical spatial considerations.
A legend on the island of Meroe on the White Nile claims this as the place where
there is a deep well, on the bottom of which the sun shines; similar ones on the Pizigano
map of 1367 (Parma) and the Florence Catalan map mentioned give the month when this
happens as June. The legend of the nefarious Gog and Magog enclosed behind mountains
is provided in far eastern Asia.
In addition to the Terrestrial Paradise, we find Jerusalem (santasepulcra), only
slightly shifted from the center of the world. The Red Sea is, following medieval tradition,
painted red, but with a caption that hints at empirical knowledge: not the water, but the
sea bottom is red.
Elsewhere, the mapmaker was aware of the empirical travel knowledge of his
time, be it in Asia or in Western Africa. In the hinterland of Asia the most prominent
feature is the Caspian Sea, orientated northwest-southeast as in the Topkapu Siray
fragment, but similar in shape to Ptolemy’s. Not only are the Portuguese discoveries up to
1445 represented, but we find the Caspian Sea only once on the map and as an inland sea
with the names Mar de sala (from Sarai, the Mongol central place at the lower Volga that
flows into that sea), and de bacu (from the city of Baku in Azerbaijan, still today on the
western coast of that sea). This clearly is a decision by the mapmaker in favor of empirical
knowledge and against antique traditions, while other geographical sources chose to
combine the different descriptions by putting one alongside the other. Twelve figures of
rulers are depicted in Asia and Africa, mostly in front of their tents: in Asia Minor the
anonymous sultan of the Ottomans, in the Middle East, the rey dilli (Delhi) and the rey
tauris (Tabriz, c. 1300 center of the Mongol il-khanat). There are also two east Asian
Mongol rulers, known, among others, from the work of Marco Polo, which was still
considered useful, described by lengthy map legends. Further south, on the easily
recognizable Arabic peninsula, we find the biblical reyna sabba [Queen of Sheba],

7
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

characterized as a ruler from the past whose land is possessed by the Saracens; and civitas
meca is depicted at the side of the provincia arabia. In Africa rule rey melli, rey dorgana, rey de
nubia and solda[n]babilonia (the Sultan of Babilonia/Cairo), known also from earlier
(mostly Catalan) maps.
In the far south of Africa, a ruler has the head of a dog (rey benicalep), like the
Cynocephali on older maps. But the mapmaker does not refer to Latin European tradition,
claiming instead that “this people are called benicalep in the Saracen language, in our
language fill de cha [Son of the Dog] because their faces resemble those of dogs.”
The depiction of Asia and the Indian Ocean is simpler and less extensive than on
the Catalan Atlas, and is derived from Marco Polo and accompanied by legends, inspired
or transcribed from the Divisament dou Monde, like the Catalan Atlas, this map indicates the
great islands of Java and Trapobana (Sumatra, rectangular), Chinese junks (inquis) in the
North Indian Ocean. But it also shows Ceylon/Sri Lanka (silan) with a legend and three
types of sirens, particular to this map. For the hydrography and the orography of Eurasia,
the Estense map is similar to the Catalan Atlas, as well as for the representation of the
northwest of Europe and the British isles. The figuration of Iceland by a group of eight
islands (Questas illas son appelladas islandes) is only found on this map and that of Florence.
In the West of Ireland, illa de brezill [the mythical isle of Brazil] and illa de mam [the
mythical isle of Mam]; and off the coast of Africa the Fortune Islands with a long legend in
Latin: Fortunarum Insule que multa nomina rep (er) iuntur ut dicit ysidole i (n) XV capitols and
a beato brandano Insule fortunate ... [indicating the mythical St. Brendan island]. More to the
South, Illa of cades and illa of gentiles, the latter with a legend recalling the myth of Atlantis
of Plato.
The map has 52 legends (oceans and islands 13, Europe 14, Asia 19, Africa 16). All
are in Catalan, except that of the Fortune Islands which is in Latin. They were entirely
transcribed by Kretschmer (1897) and (with corrections) by Pulle and Longhena (1908). By
collating them with the legends of the other Catalan maps, one notes such a similarity
(sometimes word for word) that one cannot doubt that these maps derive from a common
source. The nomenclature is also Catalan, except for a few Portuguese names on the West
coast of Africa.
Southern Asia, separated from Africa by a Red Sea, has a flattened and too
northerly coastline. The Persian Gulf is rectangular as in Ptolemy but does not narrow at
the exit. A barcha seen from the stern is shown nearby whose description and
measurements are given in a legend (a barcha is a single-masted ship descended from the
Viking longship used by the Portuguese sailors in early voyages of exploration along the
African coast). The northern coast of the gulf continues east almost straight, the whole
coast of India being much foreshortened. There is nothing corresponding to the Malay
peninsula, only a gentle bend leading north-westwards to surrounding Ocean. What
mountains are given are well north of the Himalayas or in China.
Of the many islands in the Indian Ocean the largest, to the southeast, has the
shape of a rectangle surrounded by mountains with the legend, in translation: Island called
Trapobana [sic], where there are wild mountains, in which live people very different from others:
they are strong and as big as giants [1375 atlas: 12 cubits high, like giants], and are black, and if
they capture any people from the mainland, they eat them... This refers not to Sri Lanka which
appears as Silan (so is not the Ptolemy Taprobane) but to Sumatra, called by the Genoese
world map of 1457 Taprobane and Ciamutera and by Fra Mauro Siomatra or Taprobana. The
description of its alleged cannibals comes from Marco Polo (III,10), as does the similar
description of Java, here named as Jana.

8
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

The account of China is also derived from Marco Polo, who mentions charts and
gives occasional bearings, and from whose voyages the map that existed in 1459 in the
Palace of the Doges, Venice, was drawn. The Catalan Atlas of 1375 is the earliest still
surviving to incorporate material from Marco Polo’s text. The Catalan-Estense map not
only incorporates no new material, but some omission and corruption have occurred.
Thus the capital [Beijing] of Cathay is said to be Cambalec and to have had an ancient city
called Garibalu nearby. What Marco Polo says (II.11) is that the capital was Camaluc and
the earlier town across the river was Taidu; hence Garibalu is probably a corruption of
Cambaluc. The circumference of the capital in Marco Polo is 24 miles, in the Catalan-Estense
map 24 leagues. Despite this primitive cartographic approach to Asia, the evidence given
above from West Africa seems conclusive on the dating.
To the generally good delineation of European coasts there are exceptions,
especially in more northern areas. Britain, as in many medieval maps, is shown split in
two, or almost so, by a stretch of water, which may or may not reach the east coast
between Scardenburgh [Scarborough] and Bernie [Berwick]. One may wonder if this
originated as a misunderstanding of Hadrian’s Wall or of a line of hills, for example the
Cheviots. Of the northern islands, the furthest northwest is Islanda [Iceland], one of eight
in an archipelago. Archana is clearly, by comparison with other maps, Orkney. But south
of it is inssula [sic] destillant, whose inhabitants are said to be Norwegian-speaking
Christians. This island is surely not a misplaced Estland [Estonia], as Kretschmer gives,
but Shetland [Hjaltland], for which compare Ilia de Scillanda, near Archania, in the 1375
Catalan Atlas.
The Estense map also shows some significant deviation from contemporary
mappamundi. As mentioned above, Jerusalem is not in the center and has no city vignette;
it is simply marked San Sepulera and located on the River Jordan. Other than the coastal
cities, only the Dead Sea (Mar Gomora), Judea, and the Jordan are mentioned.
On this Catalan map Christian and Muslim forces are positioned opposite each
other. As the mapmaker points out, the king of Organa is continuously fighting the
Sarains, and the king of Nubia is constantly fighting the Nubian Christians, who are under
the rule of presta iohan [Prester John], the great Latin crusade hope from the 12th century.
He is seated a just west of the Terrestrial Paradise.
Slightly north of Prester John, two rivers flow together and then go onward, as the
Nile, to Egypt and the Mediterranean. One of the rivers springs from Paradise, the other
from the west, where it shares a headwater with another river that then flows to the west
and into the Atlantic. The latter has five tributaries that come from the south and out of
the gibelcamar. This name quotes Ptolemaic and Arabic traditions, in which it usually is
the Nile that springs from the Djibal-qomr, the Mountain of the Moon. On Ptolemaic, Arabic,
and Latin European world maps that note this version of the Nile’s sources, these
mountains are usually placed south of Egypt. Of course, the Nile’s western African source
was an alternative discussed in Antiquity. In terms of content, we here have Paradise as
source of the Nile and an alternative to Paradise as source of the Nile worked into one and
the same map, but the latter is used for another river close to the Nile. Only slightly south
of Paradise, a small land bridge, crossed by yet another river, connects inhabited northern
Africa to the uninhabited or unknown south. These parts of the continent are mostly
separated by a broad estuary reaching eastward from the Atlantic. We may see here a
reminiscence of the southern continent (terra australis) found on several medieval maps, or
it may reflect the great hope of Portuguese seafarers of the time that the Indian Ocean was
easily accessible—even though Africa reaches out far to the south.

9
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

The far north in Europe and Asia is more frightening than Africa, showing a naked
giant pursuing a fox, a nine-headed idol being adored by two worshippers, and a strange
hanging head, which appears on several other 15th century world maps. The Caspian Sea
is enclosed, but there are two unlabeled gulfs in the northern ocean. China is pretty much
the world of Marco Polo; the Great Khan is still ruling there. To the south the Indian
Ocean is greatly enlarged and full of brightly colored islands, but only three are named:
Silan, Trapobana, and Java. A Chinese junk, identified in a legend, sails through the water,
menaced by three half-human figures: one part fish, one part bird, and one part horse.
South Asia lacks a definite Indian peninsula and shows no trace of the Golden Chersonese.
The entire map has been shifted to the east in its circular frame, thus making more
room in the Atlantic for its islands. The Azores, Canaries, and Madeira’s are shown. Next
to the Canaries, a long Latin text, drawn from Isidore and the voyage of Saint Brendan,
describes the Fortunate Islands of antique fame. Plato’s tale of Atlantis is recalled near an
island labeled illa de gentils; it was once as large as all Africa but now, by the will of God, is
covered with water. In the north is a group of colorful islands marked, These islands are called
‘islandes’, which may be a reference to Iceland. West of Ireland can be found the islands of
Main and Brezill.
The combination of archaism and modernism is an outstanding characteristic of
this map, and it is interesting to note that the cultured and humanistic Duke of Ferrara,
Ercole d’Este, the owner of this map, also had in his library a copy of Ptolemy’s Geography,
edited by Nicholas Germanus. As mentioned, no evidence of Ptolemy’s influence on this
map can be discovered. The duke owned a copy of Mandeville’s Travels as well, which he
must have treasured, as there survives a letter he wrote demanding its return from a
borrower.
This map is of interest because of its eclectic identity. Circular in shape, with
different religious and legendary motifs along with certain Arab influence, it retains the
rigor of portolans. It has no titles, notes or dedications, clues to its intended use. Such a
map implies several highly complex unknown factors as regards the level of realism
aimed at by the artist. It is, for example, inconceivable that contemporary seafarers
believed that a large expanse of land actually existed in the south of Africa. Or that the
scientists of new Humanism believed that kings with dogs’ faces did exist. Or that
theologians could accept that Paradise, which ceases to appear in Asia following Marco
Polo’s travels, could be relocated to Ethiopia. It is also difficult to imagine that they
believed that the laws of God and nature ceased to apply beyond the frontiers of Europe
and that it was possible anything was there. It is more logical to think that this map
depicts different levels of representation.
According to Chet Van Duzer, a legend says that there are three types of sirens in
the Indian Ocean on the Catalan Estense mappamundi. The three types of sirens are half-
woman half-fish, half-woman half-bird, and half-woman half-horse, and all three types of
sirens are depicted below. The half-woman half-fish siren holds a mirror, symbolically
indicating beauty but also vanity. The sirens on the Catalan Estense mappamundi are of
particular interest because they provide insight into the techniques for making sea
monsters in a cartographic workshop. The wavy lines representing the water are
discontinuous at a rectangle around each of the sirens, indicating that a blank space had
been left for each creature, and that the sirens were painted by a different artist, no doubt
a specialist in decorations such as sea monsters. The same discontinuity in the wavy lines
is visible around the two ships on the map, and given the similarities between the faces of
the sirens and those of some of the sovereigns painted in Africa, it is tempting to conclude

10
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

that one specialist painted all of the more artistically sophisticated decorative elements on
the map: the sirens, the ships, the sovereigns, and so on. The legends about sirens on the
Catalan Estense mappamundi derive ultimately from the so-called Tuscan bestiary, perhaps
by way of a Catalan bestiary.

The decoration includes flags and pavilions (in Europe only), vignettes of vines (tower
profiles), rulers generally in tents (in Asia and, sines with more care, in Africa). We can
also note in the north of Europe a man mounted on a reindeer, his head hanging from a
gibbet; in Africa, a man rides a camel, Adam and Eve with the tree in the Terrestrial
Paradise; in Asia, Noah’s Ark, a human figure playing a double metal flute (on Alexander’s
wall), two characters praying in front of a big black idol (at Castema on the Volga), three
horsemen heading towards l'Est (corresponding to the caravan of the Catalan Atlas and the
fragment of Istanbul). On the Western Ocean, a European ship; in the Indian Ocean, a
ship and three sirens, but there are no decorated wind roses.
Coloring - the border is in blue fence. The Ocean, the Baltic Sea and the Caspian
Sea (mar de sola e de baw) have blue stripes and a pale blue shore; the Mediterranean and
the Black Sea, wavy green fence lines with a pale green shore. The rivers are in blue, the
mountain ranges in green (some in brown), the islands in red, black, blue and brown, the
terrestrial Paradise in pink shade of bruno The names are in black or red.
The Estense map was certainly intended to represent the geography of Africa, for
which it gives details later than those of other Catalan maps. As George H.T Kimble has

11
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

shown, the design and nomenclature of the African coast from Cape Bojador to Cape
Verde is very similar to that of Andrea Bianco’s 1448 map (#241) and must come from a
common Portuguese source. The Gulf of South Cape Verde (already represented,
although less marked, by Petrus Vesconte c. 1320, #228) may indicate some knowledge of
the Gulf of Guinea which, according to Taylor (1928), would have been common in the
Mediterranean world at the beginning of the 14th century. Destombes believes that it does
not seem possible to agree with Kimble that the author of the Estense mappamundi
borrowed this trace from the Liber del Conoscimiento de todos los reynos y tierras, written by a
Spanish Franciscan between 1330 and 1350 who would have had before his eyes Catalan
maps. The extension of Africa towards the South, below the Gulf of Guinea reflects
(according to Kimble, who quotes Abulfeda) an Arab conception of the world, the oldest
cosmographic conceptions of a mass of southern land and of an enclave of the Indian
Ocean towards the South (Kretschmer 1897). But since Petrus Vesconte has a similar trace,
it would be risky to conclude that the author of the Estense map directly used an Arab
source.
Regarding the representation of Europe and Asia, although these extend further north
and south than on the Catalan Atlas, it seems that the Estense map is of the same type as
the Atlas, but simplified. The drawing of Asia, inspired by Marco Polo, is simplified, but
could not be considered more archaic than that of the Atlas. That there is borrowing from
Nicolo de Conti also seems doubtful.

LOCATION: Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy

SIZE: 113 cm diameter

Bibliography:
Andrews, Michael Corbet, “The boundary between England and Scotland in the portolan charts,”
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, ser. V, Volume XII (1926), p. 23.
Andrews, Michael Corbet, “The British Isles in the nautical charts of the XIVth and XVth centuries,”
The Geographical Journal, London, LXVIII (1926), pp. 474-480.
Bagrow, Leo, History of Cartography), pp. 71, 72.
Björnbo, Alex Anton, Cartographica Groenlandica (Kobnhavn, 1912), p. 121.
Carbonieri, Luigi, Cennu storici della R. Biblioteca Estense (Modena, 1873),p. 71.
*Cardini, F., Europe 1492, p. 208 (color).
Crone, Gerald Roe, Maps and their makers, an introduction to the history of cartography (London:
Hutchinson’s University Library, 1953), pp. 47-49.
*Destombes, Marcel, ed., Mappemondes A.D. 1200-1500. Catalogue prépare par la Commission des Cartes
Anciennes de l’Union Géographique Internationale (Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964), 52.12.
Destombes, Marcel, “Fragments of two medieval world maps at the Top Kapu Saray Library,”
Imago Mundi, XII (1955), p. 150.
*Dilke O. A. W. and Dilke Margaret, “The Catalan World Map at Modena,” The Map Collector,
Winter, 1990, No. 53, pp. 15-19.
*Edson, Evelyn, The World Map, 1300-1492, pp. 111, 158, 197-199.
Fischer, Theobald, Sammlung mittelalterlicher Welt und Seekarten italienischen Ursprungs . . . (Venice:
F.Ongania, 1886).
Gasparrini Leporace, Tullia, Comune di Venezia. VII Centenariodella nascità di Marco Polo. Mostra
‘L’Asianella cartografia degli Occidentali’. Catalogo (Venezia: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 1954), 27,
no. 17.
*George, W., Animals and Maps, pp. 13, 39-43, 48-49.
*Goss, J., Mapmakers’ Art, p. 45.
Hermannsson, Halldor, The Cartography of Iceland (Cornell Univ. Press, 1931), p. 8.

12
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Hinks, Arthur Robert, The Portolan Chart of Angelino de Dalorto . . . (London: Royal Geographical
Society, 1929), pp. 8-9.
Kammerer, Albert, La Mer Rouge, l’Abyssinie et l’Arabie depuisl’antiquité (Le Caire, 1929-52), 1935,
vol. II, pp. 348-349.
Kimble, George H.T., The Catalan world map of the R. Biblioteca Estense at Modena (London: Royal
Geographical Society, 1934).
*Kimble, George H.T., Geography in the Middle Ages, pp. 113, 183, 194-197.
Kretschmer, Konrad C. Heinrich, “Die katalanische Weltkarte der Biblioteca Estense zu Modena,”
Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, Berlin, XXXII (1897), no. 50.
Pullé, Francesco Lorenzo, La cartografica antica dell’India (Firenze: Typ. G. Carnesecchi, 1901-1932)
1905.
Pullé Francesco Lorenzo, “Illustrazione del mappamondo catalano della Biblioteca Estense de
Modena,” Atti del sesto Congresso geografico italiano (Venezia, 1908), Volume II, pp. 341-397.
Kretschmer, Konrad C. Heinrich, Die italienischen Portolane des Mittelalters . . . (Berlin: E.S. Mitler
und Sohn, 1909; reedition 1962), 140, no. 50.
La Roncière, Charles de, La découverte de l’Afrique au moyen-age. Cartographes et explorateurs, 3 vols.
(La Caire, 1925-1927), Volume I, p. 118.
Markham, C. R. (ed.), Knowlegde of all the kingdoms and lands... (London: Hakluyt Society), Vol. 29
(1912).
*Nansen, Fridtjof, In northern mists, 2 Volumes (London, 1911), Volume II, pp. 230-231.
Reparaz, G. de, “L’activité maritime et commerciale du royaume d’Aragon au XVIIIe siècle et son
influence sur le développment de l’école cartographique du Majorque,” Bulletin Hispanique 49
(1947), pp. 422-451.
Reparaz, G. de, “Les sciences géographiques et astronomiques du XIVe siècle dans le nord-est de la
péninsule Ibérique,” Archives internationales d’histoire des sciences 3 (1948).
Scafi, A., Mapping Paradise, pp. 226-228
*Schmieder, Felicitas, “Geographies of Salvation: How to Read Medieval Mappae Mundi”,
Peregrinations, Volume VI, Number 3 (Spring 2018), pp. 21- 42.
*Skelton, R.A., The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, pp. 113, 118-19, 127, 131, Plate X.
Taylor, Eva Germaine Remington, “Pactolus, river of gold,” Scottish Geographical Magazine,
Edinburgh, pp, 129-144.
Uzielli, Gustavo and Amat di Filippo, Pietro, Mappamondi, cartenautiche, portolani ed altre monumenti
cartografici specialmente italiani dei secoli XIII-XVII, 2nd ed. (Roma: Societa geografica italiana, 1882),
XLIV (1928), pp. 129-144, Volume II, 100, no. 123.
*Van Duzer, C., Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps, British Library, p. 45.
Unger, R.W., Ships on Maps, pp. 54-55.
Winter, Heinrich, “The changing face of Scandinavia and the Baltic in cartography up to 1522,”
Imago Mundi, XII (1955), p. 46.

13
Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

14
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Catalan-Estense: Asia, Indian Ocean

15
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Catalan-Estense: The Terrestrial Paradise

Located near the territory of Prester John between Nubia and the city of Arin [Civitasarim], the
latter prominently marked and centrally placed in the Horn of Africa, not far from the Indian
Ocean in which six islands of various sixes and colors are depicted. Paradise is guarded by five
high “Diamond Mountains” surmounted by flames. Within Paradise Adam and Eve are shown
standing on either side of the Tree of Life. The single river originates in the middle of the Garden
before flowing out of it into a lake, there after to separate into four streams. One legend, near Cape
Verde, explains the equal duration of night and day at the equator and, another, close to Paradise,
emphasizes that the delights of the Garden of Eden are incomparable with the features of any other
earthly region. Under the graphically depicted Paradise is the legend:

This region is the Terrestrial Paradise, an especially lovely place. Paradise is completely
surrounded by fire whose flames reach the sky. ... In Paradise lies a source divided in four rivers:
One is Euphrates, the second Tigris, the third Gyon, the fourth Phison.... Isidore speaks about this
place saying that Paradise is situated in the middle of the Equator

16
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Catalan-Estense: Europe
Britain is divided by a double line north of Scarborough. The islands north of Scotland are “Inssula
destillant” [Shetland] and “Insula darchana” [Orkney], “in which there are said to be six months
of and six of continuous day.” Northwest of these is a group labeled
“islandes” of which the southernmost is called “Islands” [Iceland].

The mythical islands of Mam and Brezill are shown southwest of Ireland

17
 Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Catalan-Estense: Northern Asia, India, showing the giant chasing the fox (upper left), the Polo-like
caravans, Caspian Sea and Sri Lanka, and in the upper left-center, east of the Armenian plateau
where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are shown originating, is Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark
perched on top.

18
Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

19
Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Mermaids

20
Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

Rulers in West Africa

21
Catalan-Estense World Map
#246

22