Arnold Heeren’s 1804 Prospectus for a “History of Geographical Maps”
/I recently encountered a rather detailed essay by the Göttingen professor of history, Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760–1842), in which he laid out a prospectus for a new field of study. This is, to my nerdish mind, a fascinating and revealing work, worth providing in translation here, because it is the first statement of what the study of map history should entail. Heeren initially delivered it, in Latin, on 28 July 1804 before Göttingen’s royal academy of sciences (published as Heeren 1808). Having translated it for my own use, I thought I’d share the essay with some small contextual information. My days of learning Latin are long past, so I have done the best that I can; this was accomplished rather quickly and parts remain stilted. I am sure that a much more fluent and improved translation can be provided. (The original text of Heeren's essay is available at Hathi Trust.)
Initially trained as a philologist, receiving the PhD from Göttingen University in 1784, Heeren went on to focus on cultural and social history, but he retained an interest in detailed textual criticism. In 1785–87, he travelled to Rome where he was patronized by Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731–1804), who was then amassing a huge collection of antiquities that he housed in his ancestral home in Velletri, just to the south east of Rome. (Velletri is well within the metropolis.) A cadet branch of the famed House of Borgia, the Velletri Borgias served as administrators and soldiers for the Papal States. In addition to governing Benevento and Rome itself, Stefano also served as secretary, later prefect, of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide. He was appointed a cardinal in 1789.
In Rome, Borgia granted Heeren access to his museum. For example, Heeren wrote an account of a remarkable fragment of marble engraved with portions of an epic Greek poem that Borgia had acquired just a few years earlier (Heeren 1786; see McLeod 1985). On his return to Göttingen, Heeren lectured and wrote on a wide range of topics in Classical, medieval, and modern history. He became professor of history in 1801. Overall, Heeren typified the new breed of historicist scholars who, broadly speaking, combined erudition and narrative writing.
In 1804, Borgia sent Heeren a facsimile of his recently acquired mappamundi engraved in copper with niello inlay. Heeren responded with his essay outlining a new field of history. I’m writing some commentary on Heeren’s ideas in Maps, so I’m not going to get into the weeds here.
It is worth comparing Heeren’s ideas with R. A. Skelton’s (1972) prescription for “the history of cartography” as the study of both map form and map content, a prescription that underpinned the growth of map historical studies in the 1970s and 1980s. Heeren’s ideas are remarkably similar! That is, Skelton’s work represented the low-hanging conceptual fruit that he could easily reach without much effort! Is it any wonder that scholars turned to cultural and social theories in the 1980s and 1990s?
Works Cited
Heeren, A. H. L. 1786. Expositio fragmenti tabulae marmoreae operibus caelatis inscriptionibus graecis ornatae Musei Borgiani Velitris. Rome. Translated as “Ueber ein Fragment einer alten Marmortafel im Museo des Cardinals Borgia zu Velletri, bei Rom,” in Heeren, Historische Werke (Göttingen: Johann Friedrich Röwer, 1821), 3: 150–70.
———. 1808. “Explicatio planiglobii, orbis terrarum faciem exhibentis, ante medium saeculum XV. summa arte confecti; Musei Borgiani Velitris; agitantur simul de historia mapparum geographicarum recte instituenda consilia.” In Commentationes societatis regiae scientiarum Gottingensis [vol. 16] ad a. MDCCCIV–VIII, commentationes historicae et philologicae, 250–84. Göttingen: Heinrich Dieterich.
McLeod, W. 1985. “The ‘Epic Canon’ of the Borgia Table: Hellenistic Lore or Roman Fraud?” Transactions of the American Philological Association 115: 153–65.
Skelton, R. A. 1972. Maps: A Historical Survey of Their Study and Collecting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Translation of Heeren (1808)
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¶ paragraph break in the original text (I’ve broken up the paragraphs to be more readable)
Footnotes are inserted after the relevant paragraph, on the correct page
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An account of a mappamundi, showing the face of the globe, executed with consummate skill before the middle of the fifteenth century, from the Borgia Museum, at Velletri.
By A. H. L. Heeren
Lecture delivered at the meeting of the society, 28 July 1804
¶ Since the study of geography, Colleagues, is almost non-existent without the aid of geographical maps, it could easily have been expected that, since the time when the shape, size and extent of the world and its parts began to be investigated, the route from both Indias having been discovered and long voyages undertaken with great success, new and constant care would also be devoted to the preparation of geographical maps. Their quantity has gradually increased, and has now grown to an immense extent, so that their very mass now presents a problem to geographers who wish to assess the credibility of each, both the more ancient ones and those recently published—which, although perhaps superior to the earlier ones in elegance of paper and writing, do not therefore excel in truth—and to assign a just value to each. This kind of criticism, if one wishes to engage in it properly, demands careful diligence, because it is hindered by so many and such great difficulties that it is far easier to pronounce on a book, such as there are many of today, than on the worth of a geographical map.
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For although in our age geographical studies are very popular, and the number of those who either devote serious effort to them, or at least delight in them, and who spend no small amount of effort and money on either comparing or collecting maps, is certainly not to be underestimated, we nevertheless see ourselves deprived of those resources that are essential to form a certain judgment on geographical maps. For we still want a complete history of geography, written with critical judgment, without which, however, we must be completely blind in judging maps, or at least waver and be uncertain.
We know that learned men have long planned to arrange [such a history], but somehow it has happened that they yet to have any result. For no one engaged in these studies is unaware that the histories published by Gottschling a), Hauber b), and Hübner c) arouse desire rather than satisfy it. Meanwhile, before I come to the matter for which I have invited you to this meeting, I would like to dwell a little longer on this subject and to explain what I have conceived about the history of geography. I do not undertake to prescribe rules for the learned men who may perhaps endeavor to establish this field, but rather to present my own suggestions of whatever kind. I leave it entirely to the judgment of those who are engaged in these studies as to how far [my ideas] can be put into practice.
a) Caspar Gottschling, Versuch von einer Historie der Land-Charten (Halle im Magdeburgischen: Kengerischen Buchhandl, 1711).
b) Eberhard David Hauber, Versuch einer umständlichen Historie der Land-Charten, sowohl von denen Land-Charten insgemein, derselben ersten Ursprung, ihrer Beschaffenheit, unterchiedliechen Gattungun, mannigfaltigen Nutzen, noch habenden Fehlern, und nöthingen Verbesserungen, mit denen dahin gehörigen Schrifften; als auch von denen Land-Charten eines jeden Landes insonderheit (Ulm: Verlegts Daniel Bartholomäi, 1724).
c) Johann Hübner, Museum Geographicum, das ist: ein Verzeichnis der Besten Land-Charten so in Deutschland, Franckreich, England und Holland (Hamburg: Theodor Christoph Felginer, 1726).
¶ Everyone will easily understand that the foundation of geographical history should be the geographical maps themselves, and that whosoever sets his mind to writing it must be equipped with a sufficiently large collection of them. For in judging maps, because not only learning and diligence but also art must be considered, no one but someone who has made his own assessments of them will be able to pass correct judgment on them and compose a history of them worthy of trust. Nor, however, do we require that such a collection contain an absolutely immense collection of maps, a most remarkable quantity; rather it should only exhibit specimens of the most remarkable maps, that originated in various workshops
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and that, as is commonly the case, have subsequently been often reproduced by others with either little or no change. For, since in writing such a history the author has as his first purpose that he should set forth the progress which the art of geography has made, he cannot possibly do without a selected collection of maps, not indeed an immense one, but one so arranged that it becomes clear from the maps themselves what efforts have brought the delineation of lands closer to the truth, and what were the form and appearance of the maps that have been issued at different times and from different workshops. Let therefore a history of the art of geography come forth from such a geographical museum, which should be organized along the lines laid out below, lest the expectations of its readers not be met.
¶ The learned men who have thought of such a history have had, as far as I have heard, as their proper purpose that they should present to students of geography a catalogue of maps, as complete and as critical as possible, for the benefit of those who wish either to establish a collection themselves or at least to prepare for themselves some kind of system suitable for use, in the process paving the way for more certain judgment on every geographical matter. However, although I myself desire such a catalog of geographical maps, and far be it for me to blame the authors for their efforts in compiling such works, I would nevertheless not limit their diligence solely to cataloging maps. Rather, so that [the catalogs] may serve as a foundation on which a true history of geographical art can be built, we should expect from [the authors] not only the literature of maps but also the narration of geographical art itself and the fates it has experienced. It seems to me that if this history would contain all that one rightly seeks, and that it correctly explains all that it contains, then it should be organized in approximately the following manner.
¶ Because the advance of geographical art depends on the exploration of the world itself, I believe that its history should also begin there. So it should be taught in general and presented to the eye as if in a view how the most important events, whether wars or journeys and voyages—undertaken either to increase trade, or to explore the seas and lands, or finally to promote the Christian religion—caused the world itself to become better known as people gradually took greater care in mapping it and, at the same time, how much
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those expeditions have contributed to increasing geographical collections. In explaining these [events], the epochs of geographical art will automatically be established, and it will become clear what time span each period encompasses and what parts of the world became more accessible and so were more accurately delineated. Now, if I am not mistaken, the history of all geography can be divided into six, or if not five, periods. [I have broken the rest of this long paragraph into a list for ease of reading]
The first covers the efforts of the Middle Ages, especially from the expeditions of the crusades until the Portuguese voyages, of which some monuments of that age remain, although rare, as I will show below by example.
The second period, which one may call Portuguese-Spanish, covers the sixteenth century, up to the Dutch voyages to India. There are very few geographical relics of this period because the Portuguese and Spanish, after their first efforts to map the lands and seas that they had explored, were either very negligent, or they envied public use of their maps, if they had made any, in order to prevent foreigners from accessing the lands they had discovered. Therefore, if any monuments from that earlier age remain, I will not object to including them under the common name of geographical antiquities. But towards the end of this period there lived Abraham Ortelius, of Antwerp, geographer to King Philip II of Spain, whose Thesaurus geographicus, Theatrum orbis terrarum, and other writings on geography were of such great merit that one may rightly call him the father of the art of geography.
But although [Ortelius] obtained such great praise for his works that he was called the Ptolemy of his time, the art of geography finally grew significantly in the third period, which we rightly call the Dutch [Batavian], embracing the first part of the seventeenth century. For the Dutch, who were then beginning to establish long-distance navigations and to carry on commerce through almost all seas and lands, also so cultivated the art of geography that it finally began to assume the character in which it still appears today. Gerhard Mercator, the most famous restorer of the Ptolemaic maps, flourished there in the sixteenth century. He published his geographical maps amidst the tumult of civil wars. They were compiled after his death into a collection published in 1606 under the title Atlas, which name such works still carry today.
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Then the workshops of Jansson, Vischer, and others arose, such as no other country in Europe had yet seen. And the maps they produced soon won such great praise outside their own country that other peoples, who also undertook distant voyages, used them and became satisfied with them.
However, the Dutch soon found their rivals among the French, when in the age of Louis XIV first the Sansons and after them the Delisles and others became famous; and at the same time, with the wars waged by the king, chorographical maps were made of the lands that formed the theatres of war. Therefore it is appropriate to calls this [fourth] period, embracing the second half of the seventeenth century, French.
Now that the greatest part of the world had been explored and at the same time described and delineated, map workshops sprang up, even among those landlocked nations that could neither establish navigation nor found distant colonies, comparing the reports and maps by others with each other, subjecting them to critical censure, and converting them to their own usage, though not without judgment. No one is unaware that the Germans took first place among these, after the most famous Homann workshop was established at Nuremberg at the beginning of the eighteenth century; for this reason we have designated the fifth period, which includes the first part of the last century, with the title of Germanic; not indeed in the sense that the Germans alone excelled in map making in this period, for the French and the Dutch had sufficiently distinguished geographers, but that they nevertheless snatched the palm from the rest.
There remains the last period, embracing the second half of the eighteenth century, which one can hardly call by one people without [incurring] envy. For although the British, among whom the art of geography had been strangely neglected until these times, have with the conquest of India, the exploration of Australia, Africa, and North America, and with their long and distant voyages undertaken with incredible fortune across all seas, increased geographical maps to their immortal merit, such that one can hardly deny them the first place, yet the efforts of other peoples have not in the least slackened. For, to say nothing of the French, for whom only d’Anville is the equal of all, and of our own people, who does not know how much geography owes to the efforts of the Russians and the Spanish in this age?
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Now, while the nations were thus engaged in a kind of competition in geographical studies, new wars came upon them, which, even if they did harm to the very lands across which they were fought, at least brought us the consolation that they would benefit the maps of the regions.
¶ Now that the historical part has been thus established, we must now proceed to the second, namely, the mathematical. Because a triple doctrine is needed to make maps—historical, mathematical, and technical—an account of the advances made in the art of geography will also be divided into as many parts. In the other part, therefore, the student of history must be taught when, with the aid of mathematical learning, the method of drawing maps has been ever so gradually developed and perfected. Because, even if we know the locations of places and the extent of the earth, difficulties arise in drawing maps mainly from the fact that either the entire hemisphere or part of it must be presented to the eye on a plane. The methods by which this is achieved, or the various modes of projection, as they are called, must be explained to such an extent that it will be clear who their authors were, which projections mapmakers used most, and what benefit geography has derived from them. We should not expect [in the historical account] a copious exposition of the theory of the art, to which the studies of great men, such as those of my most intimate colleague Mayer d), have already been excellently devoted.
d) Johann Tobias Mayer, Vollständige und gründliche Anweisung zur Verzeichnung der Land-, See- und Himmelscharten und der Netze zu Coniglobien und Kugeln, vol. 4 of Gründlicher und ausführlicher Unterricht zur praktischen Geometrie, 2nd ed. (Erlangen: Johann Jakob Palm, 1804).
¶ By contrast, the technical part will include everything that pertains to the workshop of the draftsman and engraver. It will therefore be necessary to explain what changes maps have undergone in their character and in the appearance with which they strike the eye; what their ornamentation, figures, and colors were; and how finally they have come, having rejected the vain and superfluous ornaments with which they once abounded, to exhibit only those things which we properly seek in them and have assumed altogether the appearance by which they commend themselves today.
¶ All of which, if correctly explained, will now serve as the foundation of a universal history of maps compiled according to the most distinguished workshops. We therefore expect here to be compiled a list of the workshops by whose monuments the art has grown the most, arranged in chronological order, in which the individual workshops, their founders, when and for how long they flourished, and the greatest advances in geography each has made,
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will be taught in general for the first time. Let a more accurate account be given, however, of the maps which the workshops have published, in which we do not at all demand a full enumeration but only brief descriptions of those monuments by which geographical knowledge has been remarkably increased, with the extent, location, and division of the lands that were more accurately delineated, in such a way that their greatest superiority over previous works shines forth.
¶ These are, if I see anything, almost what one can expect in the universal part of the history of geography. But the way will now be paved for the special part, which will now be organized according to the order of the countries. Here, therefore, there will be listed, in chronological order as far as possible (for no one is unaware that the greatest difficulties arise in this respect, because years are almost never marked on maps), maps of both the entire world and its individual parts, with a brief added judgment (for with a more extensive description the book would grow immensely) in which, either by using symbols or typesetting [lit. “the very forms of the letters”], it will be easy to distinguish those that are more excellent and worthy of critical praise from the rest. But lest we seem to be undertaking vain hopes, I do not wish to dwell on these any longer. For, although I am not one who believes himself equal to such a work as I have just described, my purpose is nevertheless to make some contributions to it. Nor do I think it is foreign to the purpose of our meetings [as this academy], unless perhaps greater and more useful matters to be explained present themselves, were I to occasionally seek material for my lectures from the history of the art of geography. Having already been contemplating this plan for some time, an unexpected opportunity recently presented itself to me, which has moved me to carry it out.
¶ An apograph of a geographical monument, engraved in bronze, was indeed sent to me from Italy by the Most Eminent Cardinal Stephano Borgia e), who was enrolled as an honorary member of our society, which he claims as one of the chief ornaments in his Museum
e) It is universally agreed that a man, unsurpassed in our age in his brilliance and skill in promoting belles lettres, has now been taken from mortal affairs, in November 1804 in Lyon, as he accompanied the Supreme Pontiff Pius VII on his journey to Paris. When he learned that we had undertaken the explanation of this geographical map at a meeting of the Society, he sent us, with the generosity that he had, some copies of the apograph, which he had taken care to have engraved at his own expense, which renewed his memory, not without a sense of bitter sorrow, when they finally reached us on the very days when the news of his death had already reached us.
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of Velletri, celebrated throughout Europe. It displays an image of the world, distinguished by short narratives and figures, no less remarkable for its art than for its antiquity, because, as will appear below, it must have been made not long after the beginning of the fifteenth century. Of those maps that have been known up to now, except for the Peutinger map, if it is not in fact the most ancient, it nevertheless belongs among the most ancient f). I will organize my explanation in such a way that I will first give a description of the monument as a whole, and then I will get down to the details.
f) In addition to the map of Marino Sanudo, which Bongers published in the second volume of Rebus gestis Dei per Francos, which excels in antiquity, there is also the map of Andrea Bianco, of the year 1436, which was published at the end of the commentary dell'arte nautica de' Veneziani by Formaleoni in Venice in 1788. However, how much ours excels both, will easily appear.
I. General description of the monument
¶ The monument itself, whose apograph I am explaining, is engraved on brass. It indeed exhibits an image of the world, but it can hardly be referred to as a geographical map, properly so called, because it is not drawn on paper or papyrus or parchment or inscribed with a pen or pencil. Rather it belongs to those works of art which excel both in hardness and elegance. For it is a round tablet, made of brass (yellow metal, Messing), two feet and one finger in diameter, on which the terrestrial planisphere is seen, finished in niello work, as it is called, distinguished with various colors (through colorful smelting). For the lines, cut with the utmost care in the brass, are enameled in a dark color (brown enamel), (except that the sails of the ships are shown white, but the flames are red) g). For our monument belongs entirely to the works which among the Italians are called Ageminiana (all’Agemina) in a broader sense, i.e. made of metals, and adorned either with niello work, or with gold and wrought silver. They were especially valued in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; indeed, it was not at all unusual for them to show the forms of the earth and its parts, as we have learned from a recent
g) We give these from the letters sent us by the most exalted cardinal.
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example h). It is noted in the inscription attached by the publisher to the apograph that the map was done in a German hand; I do not know whether this was made on any other authority than the fact that the names were written in German letters. However, some of the Latin inscriptions are so Germanic that they seem to betray a German author. Whoever the author of the work was, it was certainly made with the greatest skill, so that it presents an excellent example not only of geographical learning, but also of the art of that age.
h) Daniele Francesconi, Illustrazione di un’ urnetta lavorata d’ oro e di vari altri metalli all’ agemina (Venice: Stamperia Palese, 1800). Cf. Göttingischen Gelehrten Anzeigen (1805), 393.
It is self-evident that the authority of such a work should also be greater than that of maps drawn with pen or pencil. For it was made with the intention that, because it is by its nature less subject to the damage of time, it would be of long, I would say, everlasting use; therefore the artist should have taken greater care in making it, and it could not have been undertaken without exquisite learning, such as that age was capable of. Perhaps its authority would be greater if we knew both by whom and for whose use it was done, for it is more likely that this was a prince rather than a private individual. But the [current] owner knew absolutely nothing about the origin and previous fate of the monument. It is further noted that in such a monument, nothing could have been added by a more recent hand, as we know to have frequently been done on ancient maps, so that it should still be as it came from the hands of the artist i).
i) It seems that our tablet was used as a base for some vessel or machine, for here and there on the tablet appear the remains of nails or screws, by which it seems to have been attached; in some places it has happened that [the holes] have erased or completely obliterated the names of the cities.
¶ Our planisphere shows the whole world, as far as it was known at that time, as being encompassed by three parts of the world, Asia, Africa, and Europe, which are also distinguished by their names, and indeed in such a way that Europe is counted as the third part. Therefore, there is no trace on it of the name America or the Antilles, something I have already found with other maps preceding the discovery of America, although the author sufficiently knew the interior not only of Asia but also of northern Africa. Yet he places the whole circumference of the earth as enclosed by the ocean (although the name Ocean is nowhere added), by which is revealed the round form, similar to a disk, that he attributes to the earth.
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The map contains not only names but is also adorned with figures and images of various kinds, something which is also commonly seen in our older geographical maps, such as those of Ortelius and others. Thus is shown both the ocean itself, surrounding the earth, as well as its gulfs and the inland seas; the rivers are only indicated by lines. Here and there in the ocean are seen the figures of ships, both larger ones that are propelled by sails and smaller ones that are driven only by oars. The mountain ridges are not only indicated but also depicted. Furthermore, cities and towns are marked by gates, with towers superimposed on them, and forests by trees. In distant mythical lands, many images of animals are added. Moreover, figures of men and peoples are seen everywhere, so that both the most memorable deeds done by them and the kind of life they follow are expressed, by which our map especially commends itself. Thus, in Inner Asia, [we see] the herds, wagons, camps, and even the markets where they sell the children of the nomad Scythians; in Africa, rows of camels carrying merchandise; in Prussia, the battles of the Teutonic and Lithuanian cavalry are depicted in the figures themselves. Greek fables, such as those of the Amazons and others, are also sometimes recalled and at the same time presented to the eye, and many other memorable things, all of which I do not even dare explain.
Titles or inscriptions have been added to each [figure], in Germanic letters, in the form characteristic of the time, commonly called Mönchsschrift; reading is often hindered by the contractions of the letters. First of all, the names of countries, mountains, rivers, and cities are shown. Moreover, the [inscriptions] contain, in addition, an explanation of the memorable things that are presented to the eye by the figures themselves, such as peoples, animals, monsters, and also the most notable warlike things, of both ancient and modern times.
¶ It is already apparent from what has been said so far that our map cannot show the delineation of individual countries so as to make the boundaries of the regions distinct from each other; but with the added lines and titles, only the location of the regions is indicated, such as the author had conceived in his mind, having considered them in relation to each other. Therefore, the map is so far from having expressed the truth accurately in these matters; rather he has only presented to the eye a certain appearance of the truth. It is apparent that a division according to degrees of longitude and latitude
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could not have been established in such a map, since it shows the circumference of the earth in the form of a disk. However, the whole map is divided into twelve parts, which are indicated by numbers added in the margin.
¶ Now we come to the question that is easily the most serious of all: namely, in what age was our monument made? It is claimed, in the inscription added by the most eminent owner to an apograph, to date from the fifteenth century. Although [the claim] does not deviate from the truth, it is nevertheless necessary to investigate it more carefully, not only by what authority the map was dated, but especially also, in what part of the century it was composed (for no one will dare to define the year itself, nor easily the decade) k).
k) This question must be decided solely from the arguments drawn from the work itself, or internal ones. For nothing is absolutely certain about the artist, the origin, and the fates that the monument underwent, as I have already mentioned above, except that it migrated through several cities of Italy until it reached the Museum of Velletri.
¶ To begin with, two inscriptions prevent us from attribute too great an antiquity to our monument. The second inscription in Greece reads as follows: Graecia in qua Bazac debellauit Christianor, A. 1395 [Greece where Bazak defeated the Christians anno 1395]. Thus, the map mentions a notable defeat, inflicted by the Turkish emperor Bayezid I in that year on the Christians. But there is another inscription in Asia Minor, making it clear that the map was finally completed after the [start of the] fifteenth century: Savastra in qua Tanburlam deuicit Bazak [Savastra where Bazak defeated Tamerlane]; which we will learn below refers to Tamerlane’s victory at Ancyra in 1401. Therefore, since the very workmanship of the monument is such that nothing could have been done to it by a more recent hand, it is clear that it could not have been created before this year.
Nor, however, would I have thought that it was completed long after the beginning of the fifteenth century. For first, you can hardly doubt that the map must be dated to before Constantinople’s capture by the Turks, since no mention of the siege is added to the name of the city, as we read. For how could the author have passed over this disaster in silence, when nothing sadder, nothing more memorable happened in that age, when he nonetheless mentioned the battles of Bayezid I and Tamerlane, and many others of far less importance? Rather, if I am not mistaken, from the very mention of those battles a probable conjecture is drawn, that our map was made not long after them, i.e. after the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the author
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did not think any other events of that age more worthy of mention.
The same is suggested by an inscription, which exists in the borders of Prussia or Belarus, where a battle is shown between the Lithuanians and the knights of the Teutonic order, with the added title: “Hic sunt confinia Paganorum Christianorum, qui Prussia adinuicem continuo bellant” [Here are the borders of the Pagan Christians, who continually fight against Prussia]. For by the Christian knights here are to be understood the Teutonic knights, not only because of the period, but also as shown by the figures. For they are heavily armed knights, spears and breastplates, while the Lithuanians are armed with swords and maces. It is clear that wars between the two were never as intense as they were at the beginning of the fifteenth century, when in 1410 the strength of the Teutonic Order in Prussia was broken by the most serious defeat at Tannenberg. Furthermore, it appears from the inscription added that the Lithuanians were still either pagans, or at least that they were considered to be such. It is already clear that the Lithuanians crossed over to the Christian camp towards the end of the fourteenth century, perhaps not all, but still many, following their leader. However, it is not surprising that the common opinion considering them to be pagans could still prevail for a long time, especially since not all were converted at the same time.
Finally, our opinion, in which we place the age of our monument not far after the beginning of the fifteenth century, is supported by the description of Africa, such as it is shown in the map. For absolutely no trace appears there of the Portuguese voyages, which it is clear began not far after the start of the fifteenth century. For the whole coast of Africa near the Ocean exhibits nothing at all that is due to the traditions of the Lusitanians, but rather fabulous ones that were taken from Greek or Arabic writers, such as hairy women and about certain Saracen kings. Nor is it sufficiently certain that the name of Prester John, whose kingdom is here placed in western Africa, should have originated with the Lusitanians, since he had already become known throughout Europe through the traditions of Marco Polo. The river of gold is shown in its proper place.
¶ Is there any room left for the sources that the artist used in compiling his map? There are indeed many things in it, and I must leave the investigation of their sources to others. Yet I would venture to affirm for certain that its credibility does not depend at all on the authority of a single writer. There are in it, but very few passages that seem to have been taken from Ptolemy, names occurring in Asia that are also read in Marco Polo and
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in Africa that are read in Idrisi. But I have also come across other names that one will have searched for in vain, both in Marco and in Idrisi. It is sufficiently certain that there are many things in our map which are due to the accounts of merchants; nor yet will I contend that all things flowed from this source. Indeed, to say what I think, I think that the author did not at all seek praise in such learning, but rather followed other more ancient monuments, in the compilation of which it is clear that the Frankish peoples, after their arduous expeditions, put no little effort; whether he had one before his eyes or he composed his map from several. For who does not know that this is generally the case in such monuments, which are composed not only to increase learning, but also to adorn themselves?
II. The Special Part
< transcription of toponyms and annotations, by continent: 263–69/ Europe, 269–78/ Asia, 278–84/ Africa >
