El mapa que llevó a Cristóbal Colón a América - Mappin

February 13, 2020 Silvana García

The map that brought Christopher Columbus to America

We know that Christopher Columbus arrived in America, that it was coincidence is something else. But knowing what map he used to achieve it is what we are going to tell you next.

Christopher Columbus

The map he used is the one made by Henricus Martellus , a German who carried out his task as a cartographer in the city of Florence.

The truth is that this map was forgotten for a long time hanging on a reading wall of the Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Yale University (USA).

Beinecke Library, Yale.

This map came to Yale in 1961 as a gift from an anonymous donor.

Martellus's map

As the map dates from the 15th century (1491 to be exact), a lot of information and references found on it had been lost . The "limits" of the map go from the Atlantic Ocean to the west and Japan as the limit to the east.

But thanks to new technologies, in 2015 it was possible to see what the contents of the map were through a multispectral image project.

Process of multispectral technologies.

The interesting thing about this map is that it had Latin descriptions of various regions and towns, and that this information would have been taken from African sources and not from European explorations. It can be recognized in the precision of African lakes and rivers are very precise for the time, which

It is believed that he may have used Marco Polo's manuscript instead of the commercial version of that time in Latin, to relate the Indochinese regions.

The Martellus map after the cleanup process

This type of description makes this map different from the rest of the world maps of the same period and makes it possible to ensure that it is this and not another map that Columbus used to reach America.

This can be seen in the travel log of his son, Hernando, who comments with precision similar to that of Martellus, the coasts of the island of Japan where Columbus and his crew were supposed to arrive in the first instance.

Manuscripts of Hernando Colón.

The Martellus map was an essential source for the creation of the world map by Martin Waldseemüller , who in 1507 made the Universalis Cosmographia, where America appears for the first time together with the notes created by Martellus.

Universalis Cosmographia is the first map in which America appears.

If you are interested in more routes throughout the world, we have this Vintage World Map from 1863, which shows us trade routes and ocean movements.