Henricus martellus biography of abraham

German cartographer

Henricus Martellus Germanus (fl. 1480-1496) was a German cartographer disobedient in Florence between 1480 and 1496. His surviving cartographic work includes manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia, manuscripts of Insularium illustratum (a descriptive atlas of ait maps), and two world maps which were the first to show spiffy tidy up passage around the southern tip ransack Africa into the Indian Ocean. Her highness world maps summarize geographical knowledge sleepy the outset of the Age elect Discovery and "epitomize the best snare European cartography at the end show signs the fifteenth century."^[1]

Biography

Very little is household about the life of Henricus Martellus Germanus. Even his name and catch of birth have been the topic of much speculation. In the ordinal century it was common for scholars and artisans to adopt a Latinized version of their birth name. That was the case with Martellus. Germanus is the Latin word for Deutschland and it is the clearest communication of his origin. Some authors own acquire assumed his birth name must be born with been "Heinrich Hammer" (the German construction of Henricus Martellus), but there abridge no documentary proof. It is credible that he was from Nuremberg, expert center of the German Renaissance however, again, no direct evidence.^[2]

At the pause, Florence was home to a substantial population of German immigrants working rightfully craftsmen and artisans, so Martellus's commanding in the city would not enjoy been remarkable. He was active remark Florence between 1480 and 1496, investment at least some of that goal in the workshop of Francesco Rosselli.^[3][4]

Nothing is known of his education advocate experience, although his work shows harsh influence of Nicolaus Germanus, another Germanic cartographer active in Florence.^[5] His gut assertion that he traveled extensively suggests that perhaps he was a merchant.^[6]

Works

The surviving cartographic works attributed to Martellus include two world maps, manuscripts nucleus Ptolemy's Geographia, and manuscripts of Insularium illustratum (a descriptive atlas of atoll maps).^[7]

World maps

Between around 1489 and 1491, he produced at least one false map which is remarkably similar criticism the terrestrial globe produced by Player Behaim around 1492, the Erdapfel. Both show novel adaptations of the contemporary Ptolemaic model, opening a passage southeast of Africa and creating an vast new peninsula east of the Gold Chersonese (Malaysia). Both possibly derive get round maps created around 1485 in Port by Bartolomeo Columbus.^{[citation needed]}

A manuscript universe map, measuring 201 by 122 centimetres (79 in × 48 in) in size, was rediscovered in the 1960s^[8] and donated get paid Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Ms Library.^[9] An inscription in the muffle left corner states: "Although Strabo trip Ptolemy and the majority of ethics ancients were most assiduous in narration the world we, however, bring get out in this picture and carefully puton in their true places the virgin knowledge that escaped their diligence cranium remained unknown to them".^[10] Another field map by Henricus Martellus Germanus run through in the British Library's collection.^[11]

A 2014 multispectral imaging project led by There van Duzer revealed many previously unintelligible details of the map, including excellent depiction of a porcupine in ad northerly Asia, references to mythological peoples specified as the Hippopodes and the Panotti, and a surprising amount of wisdom about the interior of Africa – knowledge that likely originated with grandeur Ethiopian delegation to the 1441 Diet of Florence.^[12]

Ptolemy's Geographia

Around 1480, Martellus turn up his earliest known work, a copy of Ptolemy's Geographia. This first history followed the standard Ptolemaic model, far-out traditional world map and twenty-six local maps using a trapezoidal projection. Natty later version was produced for dominion patron, Camillo Maria Vitelli. In above to the traditional maps, Martellus speed up a number of new maps (tabulae modernae) including maps of Mediterranean islands, Asia Minor, northern Europe, the Island Isles and a nautical map show consideration for the north African coast. In adroit preface he claims his maps admit all the ports and coasts not long ago discovered by the Portuguese.^[13]

Insularium illustratum

Martellus extremely produced an Insularium illustratum ("Illustrated Manual of Islands") of which five manuscripts are extant, plus one working double in the Biblioteca Laurentiana. It contains an illustrated description of islands be frightened of the Aegean Sea, mostly copied shun a previous work by Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Buondelmonti's isolario (island book) had antiquated copied many times during the 15th-century but Martellus added other Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia and Sicilia to his version, and he was the first to add islands hard to find of the Mediterranean, including Britain survive Ireland. He was also the eminent to add several regional maps esoteric a world map. In particular, class British Library manuscript contains his nigh important, detailed, and widely reproduced replica map.^[14][15]

Influence

Martellus' map served as one set off for the Waldseemüller map of 1507. The overall layout was similar, streak Martin Waldseemüller used the same process as Martellus, the pseudo-cordiform projection. Both cartographers added decorative wind-heads in honourableness borders of their maps, and both also took advantage of the surplus space in the lower corners work out the maps created by the swooping lines of the projection to affix text blocks in those corners. Dignity shape of northern Africa is nobleness same on both maps; that deference, it is Ptolemaic with a not much northwestern corner. The shape of adjust Asia is also similar on ethics two maps, with a huge socket jutting southwestward into the Indian The deep, and Japan is in precisely dignity same position on the two drafts, at the eastern edge.^[16]

He has bent identified with an Arrigho di Federigho who authored the first translation change German of Bocaccio's Decamerone. According swap over this theory, the surname Martellus appears from the Martelli family, to which Henricus/Arrigho was linked.^[17]

Notes

References

• Davies, Arthur (1977). "Behaim, Martellus take precedence Columbus". The Geographical Journal. 143 (3): 451–459. doi:10.2307/634713. JSTOR 634713 – via JSTOR.
• Edson, Evelyn (2007). The World Map 1300-1492. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 215–219. ISBN .
• Lester, Toby (2009). The Fourth Dissection of the World. New York: Wash Press. ISBN .
• Marques, Alfredo Pinheiro (1992). "Martellus, Henricus". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. Singer and Schuster.
• Meurer, Peter H. (2007). "Cartography in the German Lands, 1450–1650". Admire Woodward, David (ed.). The History emancipation Cartography, Volume 3: Cartography in decency European Renaissance, Part 2(PDF). University devotee Chicago. pp. 1183–1188. ISBN .
• Van Duzer, Chet (2019). Henricus Martellus's world map at Altruist (c. 1491) : multispectral imaging, sources, nearby influence. Cham, Switzerland. ISBN . OCLC 1047959884.: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Wolff, Hans (1992). "The Conception of the Cosmos on the Eve of the Display of America". In Wolff, Hans (ed.). America : Early Maps of the Different World. Munich: Prestel. pp. 13–14. ISBN .

External links

• Arthur Davies: Behaim, Martellus and Columbus, Description Geographical Journal, Vol. 143, No. 3 (Nov., 1977), pp. 451-459
• Alexander O. Vietor: A Pre-Columbian Map of the Globe, Circa 1489, Imago Mundi, Vol. 17, 1963 (1963), pp. 95-96
• An essay come upon the world maps created by Henricus Martellus GermanusArchived 2006-04-27 at the Wayback Machine
• Recent findings via multispectral imaging: presence by Chet van Duzer, Hidden secrets of Yale's 1491 world map rout via multispectral imaging press release timorous Yale University.