A Malayali gave inputs to the first world map
I had been discussing a person called Joseph from Cranganore(See my post,The First Malayali Traveller from India).He went in 1490 to Europe;Vasco da Gama came only in 1498.You need a stamp on Gama the Unscrupulous?Why there is no demand for a stamp on Josephus who is even related to the first world map,Cantino Planisphere?I don't want to repeat what I have written in that post.He went abroad with Arab traders in 1490;He went with Bishop Thomas in 1492/1498.He sailed again with the Portuguese Captain of the second Armada ,Pedro Alvarez Cabral on January 10,1501,from Cranganore.
In the third journey he spent a lot of time,perhaps two years in Lisbon.He met the Pope Alexander VI in 1503.Meeting the Pope was no big deal-he was a scoundrel.In the beginning of the 16th century,Lisbon was a buzzing metropolis where people from different countries went in search of work,glory or fortune.There were also agents/spies looking for secrets brought by Portuguese voyages.
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| Cantino planisphere |
What was he doing in the meantime,before he met the Pope?
You have my story about the Monastery of Saint Awgin,where he was spending time with his colleague George, in the last post.Upon arrival in Lisbon,he spent a couple of years interviewed by the Portuguese Court and the Casa da India,the Indian Office or clearly,the Amazem da Guinea Indias(Repository of the Guinea and Indias).It was where the Portuguese nautical charts were kept.The Portuguese had a master map,Pedrao Real.It is believed that a Portuguese cartographer copied it,for Cantino Planisphere.It is also believed that the unknown cartographer had inputs from Joseph.It is considered a classic in cartography.
The map now is in the name of Alberto Cantino.He was an Italian spy in Lisbon at the end of the 15th century/beginning of 16th century.He was amazing in his job-he even became the private secretary to King Manuel I.
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| Manuel I |
Cantino was sent to Lisbon by the Duke of Ferrara,Hercule d' Este or Ercole de Este(1431-1505),to spy on the Portuguese discoveries.Ferrara is a place known to the rich or who know the controversy of Sachin Tendulkar importing a Ferrari.It is a city in Modena,North of Bologna in Italy,where the cars Ferrari and Maserati are produced.Cantino went from Ferrara in the guise to buy Portuguese horses to Lisbon(remember Manikka Vacagar who came to Kerala from Madurai to buy horses),bribed a cartographer with 12 golden Ducats,which was huge at that time.Ducat was the trading coin in gold and silver.This cartographer definitely knew the secrets of Pedrao Real.Or he was a cartographer there.
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| Lucretia by Bartalemoeo Veneta |
The map is 4x 8 feet.It is drawn on three pieces of Vellum ,six glued parchment sheets,which were glued on to a large piece of Cloth.Cantino sent it from Genoa to the Duke of Ferrara,as stated by him in a letter to the Duke on November 19,1502.Cantino had sent two letters earlier,on 17th and 18th of October,1501 where he described hearing Gaspar Corte-Real detailing his latest voyage to Newfoundland(Terra Nova),to King Manuel I.The Duke of Ferrara was one of the most significant art patrons of the Renaissance;poet Bojardo was his minister.The Duke reluctantly agreed to the marriage of his son,Alfonso to the daughter of the Pope Alexander VI(yes,he was married),Lucrezia Borgia(1480-1519).It brought notable territorial donations.Lucrezia was a sexual toy in the hands of her father the Pope and her brothers;a toy of the corruption of the Renaissance Papacy.They had arranged several marriages for her.She was married to Giovanni Sforza ,Lord of Pesano and Alfonso of Aragon before.Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples.He was killed by Lucrezia's brother,Cezare.Lucrezia was the daughter of one of the mistresses of the Pope(Rodrigo Borgia,Pope's real name),Vannozza de Cattenel.
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| Duke of Ferrara |
On the map ,on the left inferior corner,it is recorded:Owner Alberto Cantino,to Duke of Hercule(of Ferrara).There lies the catch.
The map was there for 90 years in the Duke's library until Pope Clement VIII decided to transfer it to another place in Modena.Due to riots in 1859,the map disappeared and was found nine years later at the entrance of a sausage shop as a folding screen.Meaning,it was hung in a butcher's shop as a screen,until it was informed and recovered in 1868 by Guiseppe Bonne,Director of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena.It is a masterpiece of Portuguese cartography.It is the first map which shows the largest area of the world showing Europe,North,Central and South Americas,all Africa and Asia to the Orient.
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| Duke of Ferrara's Coins |
There are several lies in the map-first is the line on Cantino sending it to the Duke.The line itself divulges that it is not a copy;but it maybe of a copy of the Pedrao Real.the biggest lie in the map is the region,Antilhas.The area shown is the Indies Islands.The real Antilles is the Newfoundland,Novascotia and the Prince Edward Island in Canada ,about 2000 miles to the North!The Line of the Tordesillas treaty of 1494,that divided the world between Portugal and Spain is shown in the map.This imaginary line was drawn 370 leagues West of the most Western Island of Cape Verde Archipelago as demanded by King John II of Portugal.Tordesillas is located in Spain between Valladolis and Salamanca.The Catholic Spanish Monarchs,King Don Fernando and Queen Isabella wanted the line of Tordesillas to be drawn only 100 leagues in accordance with the Pope Alexander VI,who was Spanish-but King John II imposed 370 and he won.On the map,Newfoundland and Brazil are included in the Oriental hemisphere that belonged to Portugal.John II thus fooled the Spaniards because they didn't know of the existence of Newfoundland,nor of Brazil.
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| Florida in the Cantino map |
It was the first mapping of America's East coast,from Florida to New york.It mapped Florida 11 years before Ponce de Leo'n got credit for discovering Florida in 1513!It was the earliest nautical chart where places are depicted according to their astronomically observed latitudes.
The map provided the Italians information on the Brazil coastline,much of Atlantic coast,South America and Indian Ocean.It became the primary source for the wall map prepared by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507,under the auspices of Rene,the Duke of Lorraine.
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| Nestorius |
It is a surmise in the West/Europe that a lot of information came from Josephus to the map on the East.The map obviously came after his travel with Cabral in 1501.Joseph had gone to Lisbon in 1490,eight years before the advent of Vasco da Gama.It would be intelligent to assume that Gama came to Calicut depending on the information provided by Josephus.So the first Malayali spy.No doubt,he was never made a Bishop.
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| Pope Alexander VI |
He could have been easily beatified and made a Saint by the Vatican or the Eastern Church.But there was a catch:Joseph was a Nestorian priest.
Nestorianism was a Christographical doctrine advanced by Nestorius,Patriarch of Constantinople(428-431).He studied under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch.His theory emphasized disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus.It brought him into conflict with Cyril of Alexandria,who criticized the rejection by Nestorius of the title,Theotokos(Bringer forth of God),for the Virgin Mary.He was declared a heretic at the First Council of Ephesus in AD431 and the Council of Chaldeon in 451,leading to Nestorian schism in which the Church supporting Nestorius broke with the rest of the Christian Church.Afterward,supporters of Nestorius relocated to Sassanid Persia,leading the Church of the East.
By the end of the 14th Century,Nestorian Church got uprooted.Isolated pockets survived only in India.The field left by the Nestorians were filled by Buddhism and Islam.
Joseph of Cranganore was a great man;but he is nowhere.A rediscovery is definitely needed.
THE FIRST MAP:
Though the first detailed map is Cantino Planisphere,it is not the first existing map-in that sense the first map is the Mappa Mundi of 1500,prepared by the Spanish Cartographer,Juan de la Cosa.He was also an explorer.He owned and was master of the flagship of Columbus' first voyage in 1492.The vessel shipwrecked on the night of December 24-25 at the Bay of the streets on the North Coast of present day Andover.On Columbus' second voyage,in 1493,la Cosa was mariner and cartographer on the ship,Colina.On Columbus' third voyage,in 1498,he was on ship,La Nina.On fourth,in 1499,la Cosa was first pilot on the expedition of Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci and with them was the first to set foot on the South American main land on the Gulf of Paria.He made several maps,only one survived.
Apart from Cantino and Mappa Mundi,there are two other notable earliest maps:one by Martin Waldseemuller (1507)and the other by the Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercater(1538).
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| Map of la Cosa |
Note:The portrait of Lucretia here is the Portrait of a Woman painted by Bartalomeo Veneto.Art historians assume the model was Lucretia.
Reference:
The Biggest Lie of the Cantino Map/Dr Manuel Luciano da Silva/2003
Blunders,Errors and Entanglements:Scrutinizing the Cantino Planisphere with a Cartometric Eye/Joaqim A Gasper in Imago Mundi,Vol 84,Part 2,2012.
See my post,THE FIRST MALAYALI TRAVELLER
