: The Leardo Map of the World 1452 or 1453 In the Collections of the American Geographical Society by Wright John Kirtland Hoen Albert Berthold Contributor - Early maps; Leardo Giovanni Maps and Cartography

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THE LEARDO MAP OF THE WORLD 1452 OR 1453

The notes will be found on pp. 21-28.

The Calendar and the Inscription Beneath It

The calendars encircling Leardo's three maps constitute exceptional additions. Of these calendars, the one on the Society's map is the most interesting. The inscription in the panel below the circles, in part an explanation of the calendar, is somewhat awkwardly phrased in the Venetian dialect of the fifteenth century, but, although it lacks the beginning of each line, the meaning is fairly clear, especially when certain of the missing lines are reconstructed from the corresponding inscription on the map in Vicenza.

This passage is followed by a statement that the map shows how the land and islands stand in relation to the seas and how the many provinces and mountains and principal rivers are distributed on the land. Then, on the asserted authority of Macrobius, "a very excellent astrologer and geometrician," figures are given for the dimensions of the earth and of various heavenly bodies. These are quite fanciful, bearing little relation to the corresponding figures actually cited by Macrobius.

The second circle shows the names of the months, beginning with March, which was officially reckoned the first month of the year in the Republic of Venice until as late as 1797; it also tells the day, hour, and minute when the sun enters each of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

The seventh circle gives the dominical, or "Sunday," letters; these are indicated opposite the days of the month on which Sunday falls in the years designated by the seven first letters of the alphabet. If we know the dominical letter for any particular year, we may thus determine the days of the week. Leardo, however, does not specify the years to which the dominical letters in his calendar refer.

The eighth and ninth circles give the lengths of the days in hours and minutes. From this we see that the vernal equinox fell on March 11, inasmuch as the calendar was constructed before the Gregorian reform. Finally, in the tenth circle saints' days and other religious festivals are shown.

The Map Disk

It should be noted first that east is at the top of the map and Jerusalem at the center; hence the long axis of the Mediterranean runs vertically up the southern half of the disk.

Vignettes of castles, walled towns, and churches stand for cities, kingdoms, and regions. In most cases the names have been written upon the vignettes themselves; since the latter are also colored pink or green, the letters are frequently obscured and quite illegible. Many towns and districts are shown by red dots beside which the names are written in ink, once black but now faded with age. These names were inserted after the vignettes were drawn, for in many instances they are tilted or compressed to fit the available space. The draftsman did not venture to write any name to the left of the dot to which it belongs; as he could not write on the blue of the seas, he was obliged to invert the map in the case of places on south-facing coasts. Names of islands and seas, which had to be written on water surfaces, are inclosed in small yellow panels. The names of the continents, the two inscriptions relating to the polar and equatorial deserts, and the words "Terrestrial Paradise" are in red capitals; but all other names are in minuscule, usually without an initial capital. Besides place names there are a few longer legends.

Winds blowing from the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the compass are shown by eight faces around the edge of the disk. Those to the north, northwest, and northeast are blue, suggesting cold blasts from these quarters; the other faces are ruddy.

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