82 MAPS AND THEIR MAKERS 



planispheres, of La Cosa, Cantino, and Canerio; the so-called 

 King-Hamy planisphere; and three regional charts, one of 

 which is certainly by Pedro Reinel. To these may be added 

 the crude sketch of the northern coast of Hispaniola attributed 

 to Columbus, and the diagrammatic representation of the world 

 incorporating the new discoveries by Bartholomeo Columbus. 

 As will be seen, the secondary material also is not large. The 

 time-lag in the appearance of maps of the new discoveries to 

 satisfy public interest is shown by the fact that no map of any 

 part of the New World or of the Portuguese discoveries in the 

 east appeared in a Ptolemy atlas until 1507. 



As it is known from contemporary records that many 

 charts were made during this period, the question arises as 

 to why so few have survived. The reason for this is partly 

 that in the early years charts were in high demand by navigators, 

 and would consequently be widely dispersed and rapidly worn 

 out or lost. As to Portuguese charts, a large number was 

 undoubtedly lost in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. As a wide- 

 spread interest in the discoveries only developed slowly, there 

 is also little secondary material. Vasco da Gama's opening of 

 the sea- route to India in 1498 and Vespucci's account of the 

 New World (popularized by Waldseemiiller's 'Introductio 

 Cosmographiae') were the events which really caught popular 

 attention. The first collection of voyages, which brought both 

 the East and West Indian voyages together, appeared only in 

 1506. Portuguese historians have argued that this was the 

 result of an official policy of secrecy. It is recorded for example 

 that King John II imposed a ban on the circulation of charts. 

 Since however pilots and cartographers passed from the: 

 service of one monarch to that of another, apparently without 

 incurring much odium, it must have been difficult to keepi 

 charts secret for long, and we shall see that, after 1500 at least, 

 a few copies of charts recording the discoveries were available s 

 in Italy. 



In keeping with the general paucity of cartographic material 

 relating to the earliest years of the discoveries, only two small 

 items have survived which can with any certainty be ascribed 

 either to Christopher Columbus or to his brother Bartolomeo, 

 a chart maker by profession. In the archives of the Duke of 



