FIFTEENTH-CENTURY WORLD MAPS 53 



them navigation was difficult or impossible owing to contrary 

 winds. In the southern sea there is a note: '*In this sea, they 

 navigate by the southern pole (star), the northern having 

 disappeared." This also is taken straight from Conti. 



The main African interest lies in the fact that, as a departure 

 from Ptolemy's conception, the Indian Ocean is not land- 

 locked, and, significantly, the southern extremity of Africa 

 does not run away eastwards, as on the Este map. At first sight, 

 it is not clear that Africa is completely surrounded by the 

 ocean, but closer examination shows that the blue of the 

 ocean and the red on the land have faded, and that a definite 

 coastline had been originally drawn in. 



This map has recently attracted attention by the claim of 

 S. Crino that the famous chart which Toscanelli sent to the 

 King of Portugal in 1474, and later but less certainly to 

 Columbus, was a copy of it. Crino claimed that it is of Floren- 

 tine, not Genoese, origin; that the style of writing and certain 

 other features definitely indicate that it was drawn by Tos- 

 canelli ; and that it agrees closely with the letter sent to Portugal 

 with the copy, so closely in fact that the letter is merely a 

 commentar}^ upon it. All these arguments, and many more, 

 have been warmly, even acrimoniously, contested. Without an 

 expert and minute palaeographical investigation, it is impossible 

 either to accept or reject the attribution to Toscanelli, but 

 Crino presented a case which requires further examination. On 

 the question, of main interest here, as to the correspondence 

 between the letter of 1474 and the map of 1457, it is possible, 

 however, to form some opinion. The main objection to Crino's 

 thesis is that the letter definitely refers to a chart for navigation, 

 while the 1457 map is primarily a world map drawn by a cosmo- 

 grapher. Further, the Toscanelli chart presumably depicted the 

 ocean intervening between the west coast of Europe and the 

 'beginning of the East'. On the map of 1457, this ocean is split 

 into two, and falls on the eastern and western margins. Though 

 Crino raised many points of interest, he did not establish his 

 case beyond reasonable doubt. Biasutti argued that the horizon- 

 tal and vertical lines on the map are parallels and meridians 

 taken from the world map of Ptolemy, and that the longitudinal 

 extent of the old world approximately corresponds to his 



