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Including First Map of Sumatra and Maps From Marco Polo's Travels
This early 16th Century sheet features two woodcut maps from Benedetto Bordone's Isolario, showcasing Southeast Asian islands with significant historical and geographical implications.
The first map, situated at the top, represents Iava minore, identified as Sumatra, with an orientation from west to east. This map is particularly notable as the first printed separate map of Sumatra, illustrating its distinctive irregular coastline, mountain ranges, and sparse settlements depicted through schematic representations.
The second map, positioned below, delineates five fabled islands—Locaz, Necumera, Patera, Mangama, and Botegon. Locaz, or Lochac, is thought to represent Thailand, imagined as an island, reflecting the limited European understanding of the region's geography during the early 16th century. The inclusion of these mythical islands, which were often based on travelers' tales and speculative cartography, illustrates the blending of myth and reality in early exploration narratives. The maps are oriented with a similar compass rose, maintaining a uniform cartographic style that emphasizes the era's navigational challenges and the speculative nature of knowledge about these distant lands.
Locaz (or Lochac) has a notable connection to Marco Polo's accounts. In his famous travel narrative, The Travels of Marco Polo, Lochac is described as a great and rich kingdom, often believed to refer to a region in Southeast Asia, potentially modern-day Thailand or, in some interpretations, a part of Sumatra or the Malay Peninsula. Polo’s descriptions of Lochac were rooted in reports of wealth and a powerful king, which contributed to the perception of this place as a land of immense riches, though he never explicitly labeled it as an island.
While there is no clear connection, Patera is a name associated with the islands of Wanzai, Small Hengqin and Great Hengqin, near Macao, which the Portuguese called Lapa, Dom João and Montanha. According to historical records, the Portuguese presence on the island of Lapa dates back to 1645, when a mandarin from Canton (Guangzhou) authorised the burial of the Jesuit priest João Rodrigues in recognition of his service. Augustinian and Dominican missionaries also settled on this island, which appears in some ancient maps under the name of Patera Island, whose etymology is "Island of the priests".
Benedetto Bordone (1460-1531) was a polymath who was born in Padua and worked in Venice. He was an illuminator, engraver, miniaturist, editor, and geographer. It is possible he made the first globe in Italy. His most famous work is the Isolario, or Book of Islands, which included many of the earliest printed maps of islands in the New World.
Bordone, a prominent Venetian manuscript editor, miniaturist, and cartographer, was born in Padua, a city that was then part of the Republic of Venice. Although his exact date of birth remains unknown, historical records indicate that his parents married in Padua in 1442, and he himself was married in 1480. Bordone's contributions to the field of cartography, particularly through his seminal work, Isolario, have cemented his legacy as a pivotal figure in the Renaissance cartographic tradition.
Bordone's most renowned work, Isolario (The Book of Islands), printed in Venice in 1528, is a comprehensive compilation that describes all the known islands of the world. The book offers detailed accounts of each island's folklore, myths, cultures, climates, geographical situations, and historical narratives. It stands as a testament to the popularity of the isolario genre in 15th and 16th century Italy and serves as an illustrated guide for sailors, incorporating the era's latest transatlantic discoveries.
One of the notable features of Isolario is an oval depiction of the world, a map type invented by Bordone. This innovation was later formalized into the equal-area elliptical Mollweide projection three centuries afterward. Bordone's map portrays a distorted view of the New World, showing only the northern regions of South America and depicting North America as a large island labeled Terra del Laboratore (Land of the Worker), a likely reference to the region's active slave trade during that period, which also influenced the name Labrador.
The book also contains the earliest known printed account of Francisco Pizarro's conquest of Peru, making it a significant historical document. Among the numerous woodcut maps included in Isolario, twelve are dedicated to the Americas. These maps feature a plan of "Temistitan" (Tenochtitlan, modern Mexico City) before its destruction by Hernán Cortés, and a map of Ciampagu, the earliest known European-printed map of Japan depicted as an island.
Benedetto Bordone's familial connections are also of interest; he is reputed to have been the father of Julius Caesar Scaliger, a noted classical scholar, and the grandfather of Joseph Justus Scaliger, who is recognized as the founder of the science of historical chronology. The original maps from Bordone's Isolario are highly valued today for their historical significance and intricate craftsmanship. Through his work, Bordone has left an indelible mark on the history of cartography, providing invaluable insights into the geographical knowledge and cultural perceptions of his time.
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