|
Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
HM 25View all images for this manuscript BATTISTA AGNESE, PORTOLAN ATLAS
World atlas containing 10 nautical charts, table of declinations, etc.:
1. f. 1v: Table of declinations
2. ff. 2v-3: Zodiac (incomplete)
3. ff. 3v-4: Pacific Ocean with portions of North America, South America, Asia, and East Indies
4. ff. 4v-5: Atlantic Ocean with portions of North America, South America, Europe, and Africa
5. ff. 5v-6: Indian Ocean, Africa, and southern Asia
6. ff. 6v-7: British Isles and central Europe
7. ff. 7v-8: Iberian peninsula and northwest Africa
8. ff. 8v-9: Western Mediterranean
9. ff. 9v-10: Central Mediterranean and Italy
10. ff. 10v-11: Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Sea
11. ff. 11v-12: Black Sea
12. ff. 12v-13: Oval map of the world (showing 3 routes: Northwest Passage, route from Spain to Peru, and around the world via the Moluccas)
Parchment, ff. i + 13 (12 sheets folded in center and pasted back to back) + iii; 223 × 160 mm. (map size, 193 × 293 mm. on double page openings). Bifolia attached sequentially.
Single ruled black borders. Modern pencilled foliation.
Black and red ink for nomenclature in a minuscule script with square capitals for display script; land masses outlined in blue ink with islands painted gold, green, or red; each chart has one simple compass rose with the
usual 32 rhumb line network in black, red, and green ink for the principal directions; latitude and longitude are marked by
numbers on charts on ff. 3v-4, 4v-5, and partially on ff. 12v-13 with longitude only on ff. 5v-6, otherwise omitted; distance
is indicated by series of dots, or dots and circles, placed diagonally in one corner of each chart. No decoration except on
charts ff. 4v-5 and 12v-13 with mountain and river systems and 12 wind-heads on ff. 12v-13.
Bound, s. XVI, in Italian red morocco over wooden boards, stamped in gold with fleurets and ornamental designs on front and back (the same
as HM 26); remains of 4 clasps.
Charts in the characteristic style of Battista Agnese, probably made in Venice, since Venetian linguistic forms appear in map notations; they can be dated about 1539-40, based on geographical features.
Arms of first owner (?) on f. 1, partly erased or painted out: or an indistinct object sable (?) on a chief gules a cross argent. Owner’s markings “676” and “H VIII n.3” pencilled on front pastedown along with “436 Guilford” indicating the sale of Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (1766-1827), London, 8 December 1830, n. 436 to Thomas Thorpe. “Th 1833” and “Heber” in Phillipps’ hand on pastedown refer to sale by Thorpe in 1833 (n. 676 in his catalogue) to Richard Heber (1733-1833); his sale, Evans, 1836, pt. XI, n. 1233 to Sir Thomas Phillipps, whose mark “Phillipps MS 8275” is also on pastedown.
Obtained privately through A. S. W. Rosenbach by Henry E. Huntington in 1924.
Bibliography: Wagner, “Manuscript Atlases of Battista Agnese,” 61. De Ricci, 40. Wagner, Cartography, 2:275, n. 23. Wagner, Portolan Atlases, 4. Wagner, “Additions to the Manuscript Atlases of Battista Agnese,” Imago Mundi 4 (1947) 28. PAC, 71, n. 196.Italy, ca. 1540 Abbreviations
C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Copyright 1989.
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California. Electronic version encoded by Sharon K, Goetz, 2003. All rights to the cataloguing and images in Digital Scriptorium reside with the contributing institutions. |