A Story To Tell: Seeing Through the Minds of Two Admirals
- Eda Ozyesilpinar -
Anonymous Genoese Chart
This anonymous Genoese chart, or the Columbian world map in the Bibliotheque Nationale, was found by Charles de la Ronciere in 1924. This chart was created in 1490 and it is a mappamundi. Ronciere studied this anonymous chart with a focus on the visual elements and the notes on it and presented his findings in his work The Map of Christopher Columbus. In this study, de la Ronciere explores the similarities and connections in Columbus’s study to Ptolemy and Columbus’s notes revealing his plans in Pierre d’Ailly’s Imago Mundi. Considering all the elements in this chart, de la Ronciere claimed that this map belonged to Columbus because this chart included Columbus’s ideas about the islands of the Indies (including the imaginary island Antilia which was marked by Ptolemy in his works) and the existence of a shorter route to Asia.
Figure 10. Anonymous Genoese chart
Charles de la Ronciere (1924) indicates that “the map of the Bibliotheque Nationale bears the stamp of this double idea” which is a belief in the existence of the imaginary Island Antilia on the Indies and a shorter way to Asia (p. 40). On one hand, de la Ronciere presents some strong evidence that this chart is the work of Columbus, but on the other hand it cannot be said that this chart is absolutely drawn by Columbus because there is no direct evidence to prove this. However, considering the connections de la Ronciere explored, this chart is used in this study as a visual depicting Columbus’s vision of the world and what he hoped to find on his voyages.