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Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
HM 29 “Vallard Atlas”View all images for this manuscript PORTOLAN ATLAS, anonymous
World atlas containing 15 nautical charts, tables of declinations, etc.:
ff. 1-4v: Enssuyt le Regime et Gouvernement du Solleil: preliminary sheets of nautical information and tables of declinations.
ff. 5v-34: Portolan charts of:
1. “Terra Java” (east coast of Australia?)
2. “La Jave” (north coast of Australia?), East Indies, part of Asia
3. “Terra Java” (west coast of Australia?)
4. Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf
5. Southern Africa and southwest Indian Ocean
6. Atlantic Ocean with coast of Africa and Brazil
7. Northwest Africa
8. Europe and northern Africa
9. North America, east coast
10. West Indies, Mexico, Central America, northern South America
11. Northeastern South America
12. Southeastern South America, Straits of Magellan
13. Western Europe and northwestern Africa
14. Adriatic Sea (by a different cartographer)
15. Aegean Sea (same cartographer as chart 14)
Parchment, ff. iv (early modern parchment and paper) + 34 (17 sheets folded in center, back sides of nautical charts are blank) + iv
(early modern parchment and paper); 390 × 280 mm. (map size, 370 × 480 mm. on double page openings, with many variants). 1-182 with each bifolium reinforced by parchment strips around the fold,
signatures of quires in letters in lower right hand margin, some partly or wholly trimmed away. Outside borders are single ruled lines overtraced with color on top and bottom with latitude scales forming lateral borders;
in addition, charts 1-5 and 11 have wide illustrated borders. Three numbering systems in early hands: 1) ink foliation in arabic numerals at top center of each folio; 2) a complete chart
numbering system (1 to 15) pencilled in upper left corner of blank sides preceding each chart; 3) an incomplete chart numbering
system, numbers 2 to 10 only, pencilled in upper right corners of preceding blank sides interspersed irregularly through the
volume.
Black and red ink for nomenclature in a minuscule script, with gold for area names; land masses outlined in color with islands painted blue, red or gold; numerous compass
roses on each chart with the usual 32 rhumb line network in black, red and green ink for the principal directions; numbered
latitude scale on left margin of chart 1, left and right margins of charts 2 to 13 (with chart 9 having double latitude numbering
marked 28°-71° on the left scale and 24°-68° on the right), unnumbered latitude scales on charts 14 and 15, no longitude;
each chart has 1 or 2 unnumbered scales of distance (except 11, 14, and 15 where there are none); lavishly illustrated with
varying scenes, ships, sea-beasts, sovereigns, etc. Oriented with south at the top.
Bound, ca. 1805, in French straight grain red morocco, gilt; rebacked, original spine laid down.
Probably made in Dieppe, France either by a Portuguese cartographer or based on a Portuguese prototype, judging from the Portuguese influence on the geographical
names. Charts 14 and 15 seem to be made by a second person since they differ in cartographic technique and artistic style.
On title page, f. 1, under an armillary sphere is written “Nicolas Vallard de Dieppe, 1547.” Vallard was probably not the cartographer, but the first owner, whose coat of arms may be those in the
center of the border illustrations on chart 11: argent on a saltire sable (or gules?) five besants, in chief a mullet sable pierced of the field. Owned by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince de Bénévent (1754-1838). His sale, London, 8 May 1816, n. 3464 to Robert Triphook. His sale, Evans, 29 March 1833, n. 445 to Henry Bohn. David Steward Ker sale, London, 7 May 1849, pt. IV, n. 791 to Sir Thomas Phillipps. “Phillipps MS 13199” inscribed on flyleaves ii and iii and his Middle Hill bookplate on front pastedown along with date “1850” and note describing
the manuscript.
Obtained privately by Henry E. Huntington through A. S. W. Rosenbach in 1924.
Bibliography: J. D. Barbié du Bocage, “Extrait de la notice d’un manuscrit géographique de la bibliothèque de Mgr. le prince de Bénévent,
en un séance publique de l’Institut de France” in Gazette nationale ou Le Moniteur universal, No. 195, 14 July 1807, 671. R. H. Major, Introduction to “Early Voyages to Terra Australis, now called Australia,” Hakluyt Society, Works, vol. 25 (1859), xxvii-xxviii, xxxiv-lxii. T. F. Fenwick, The Middle Hill Press, A short Catalogue of Some of Sir Thomas Phillipps’ Privately Printed Works (London 1886), n. 66, “The first Map of Australia from Nicholas Vallard’s Atlas, 1547,” published privately by Phillipps in 1856 (copy held by the
Huntington Library, RB 477992). Harrisse, Découverte, 227-31. Anthiaume, 1:93-96. De Ricci, 41. Wagner, Portolan Atlases, 7-8. PAC 98, n. 306. PMC, 5:136-39 with reproductions of charts 2, 5, 7-11, and 14 on pls. 621-24. Ganong, 234-35, 337-41, with reproduction of chart 9 on p. 338. S. E. Morison, The European Discovery of America (New York 1971) 1:448-49 and 461 with reproduction of chart 9 on pp. 452-53. Wallis, 19, 38-41, 48, 53-54, 58-60, 64, 66. R. Hervé, Découverte fortuite de l’Australie et de la Nouvelle-Zélande par des navigateurs portugais et espagnols entre 1521 et 1528 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale 1982) 11, 17.Dieppe, 1547 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. |