{{short description|German cartographer (fl. 1480–1496)}} [[File:World map by Martellus - Account of the Islands of the Mediterranean (1489), ff.68v-69 - BL Add MS 15760.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Map of the world by Henricus Martellus Germanus, preserved in the British Library]] [[File:Martellus-Yale.jpg |thumb|right|400px|Map of the world by Henricus Martellus Germanus, preserved at Yale University]] '''Henricus Martellus Germanus''' ([[floruit|fl. 1480–1496]]) was a German [[cartographer]] active in Florence between 1480 and 1496. His surviving cartographic work includes manuscripts of Ptolemy's ''Geographia'', manuscripts of ''Insularium illustratum'' (a descriptive atlas of island maps), and two world maps which were the first to show a passage around the southern tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean. His world maps summarize geographical knowledge at the outset of the [[Age of Discovery]] and "epitomize the best of European cartography at the end of the fifteenth century."<ref>Edson 2007, p. 219</ref>
==Biography== Very little is known about the life of Henricus Martellus Germanus. Even his name and place of birth have been the subject of much speculation. In the 15th century, it was common for scholars and artisans to adopt a Latinized version of their birth name. This was the case with Martellus. ''Germanus'' is the Latin word for Germany and it is the clearest indication of his origin. Some authors have assumed his birth name must have been "Heinrich Hammer" (the German translation of Henricus Martellus), but there is no documentary proof. It is possible that he was from [[Nuremberg]], a center of the German Renaissance but, again, no direct evidence.<ref>Van Duzer 2019, p. 3</ref>
At the time, Florence was home to a significant population of German immigrants working as craftsmen and artisans, so Martellus's presence in the city would not have been remarkable. He was active in Florence between 1480 and 1496, spending at least some of that time in the workshop of [[Francesco Rosselli]].<ref>Van Duzer 2019, p. 3</ref><ref>Edson 2007, pp. 215–220</ref>
Nothing is known of his education or experience, although his work shows some influence of [[Nicolaus Germanus]], another German cartographer active in Florence.<ref>Van Duzer 2019, p. 3</ref> His own assertion that he traveled extensively suggests that perhaps he was a merchant.<ref>Edson 2007, pp. 215–220</ref>
==Works== The surviving cartographic works attributed to Martellus include two world maps, manuscripts of Ptolemy's ''Geographia'', and manuscripts of ''Insularium illustratum'' (a descriptive atlas of island maps).<ref>Van Duzer 2019, p. 4</ref>
===World maps=== Between around 1489 and 1491, he produced at least one [[world map]] which is remarkably similar to the terrestrial [[globe]] produced by [[Martin Behaim]] around 1492, the ''[[Erdapfel]]''. Both show novel adaptations of the existing [[Ptolemy's Geography|Ptolemaic]] model, opening a passage south of Africa and creating [[Dragon's Tail (peninsula)|an enormous new peninsula]] east of the [[Golden Chersonese]] ([[Malay Peninsula|Malaysia]]). Both possibly derive from maps created around 1485 in Lisbon by [[Bartolomeo Columbus]].{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}
A manuscript world map, measuring {{convert|201|x|122|cm|in}} in size, was rediscovered in the 1960s<ref name="urbanus">{{cite journal|last1=Urbanus|first1=Jason|title=Reading the Invisible Ink|journal=Archaeology|date=Jan–Feb 2016|volume=69|issue=1|pages=9–10|url=https://archaeology.org/issues/online/collection/trenches-martellus-map/|access-date=11 January 2021|issn=0003-8113}}</ref> and donated to [[Yale University|Yale]]'s [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]].<ref name="hammer">{{cite web|last1=Hammer|first1=Heinrich|title=Map of the world of Christopher Columbus|url=http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3435243?image_id=1040214|website=Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library|publisher=Yale University|accessdate=31 August 2017}}; Chet Van Duzer, ''Henricus Martellus's World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging, Sources, and Influence,'' Berlin, Springer International Publishing, 2018.</ref> An inscription in the lower left corner states: "Although [[Strabo]] and Ptolemy and the majority of the ancients were most assiduous in describing the world we, however, bring together in this picture and carefully show in their true places the new knowledge that escaped their diligence and remained unknown to them".<ref>ETSI STRABO AC PTOLEMEUS ET PLERIQUE VETERUM DESCRIBENDI ORBIS FUERE STUDIOSISSIMI NOVORUM TAMEN DILIGENTIA QUEDAM AB EIS TANQUAM INCOGNITA PRETERMISSA ADINVENIT QUE NOS HOC PICTURE AD VERAM LOCORUM SCIENTIAM EXPRIMENDAM STUDIOSE IUNXIMUS</ref> Another world map by Henricus Martellus Germanus is in the [[British Library]]'s collection.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/world-map-by-henricus-martellus?_ga=2.218456729.1242551523.1616779513-1183496230.1616779513 |title=British Library |access-date=2021-03-26 |archive-date=2022-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201191227/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/world-map-by-henricus-martellus?_ga=2.218456729.1242551523.1616779513-1183496230.1616779513 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
A 2014 [[multispectral imaging]] project led by [[Chet van Duzer]] revealed many previously illegible details of the map, including a depiction of a [[porcupine]] in northern Asia, references to mythological peoples such as the [[Hippopodes]] and the [[Panotti]], and a surprising amount of information about the interior of Africa – knowledge that likely originated with the [[Council of Florence#Copts and Ethiopians|Ethiopian delegation]] to the 1441 [[Council of Florence]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Greg |title=A 500-year-old map used by Columbus reveals its secrets |date=8 October 2018 |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2018/10/columbus-map-discovery-secrets-new-world/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026103319/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2018/10/columbus%2Dmap%2Ddiscovery%2Dsecrets%2Dnew%2Dworld/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 26, 2018 |publisher=National Geographic |accessdate=26 August 2019}}</ref>
===Ptolemy's ''Geographia''=== Around 1480, Martellus produced his earliest known work, a manuscript of Ptolemy's ''Geographia''. This first version followed the standard Ptolemaic model, a traditional world map and twenty-six regional maps using a trapezoidal projection. A later version was produced for his patron, Camillo Maria Vitelli. In addition to the traditional maps, Martellus added a number of new maps (''tabulae modernae'') including maps of Mediterranean islands, Asia Minor, northern Europe, the British Isles and a nautical map of the north African coast. In a preface he claims his maps contain all the ports and coasts newly discovered by the Portuguese.<ref>Edson 2007, pp. 215–220</ref>
===''Insularium illustratum''=== Martellus also produced an ''Insularium illustratum'' ("Illustrated Book of Islands") of which five manuscripts are extant, plus one working copy in the [[Biblioteca Laurentiana]]. It contains an illustrated description of islands of the [[Aegean Sea]], mostly copied from a previous work by [[Cristoforo Buondelmonti]]. Buondelmonti's ''isolario'' (island book) had been copied many times during the 15th-century but Martellus added other Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily to his version, and he was the first to add islands outside of the Mediterranean, including Britain and Ireland. He was also the first to add several regional maps and a world map. In particular, the British Library manuscript contains his most important, detailed, and widely reproduced world map.<ref>Van Duzer 2019, pp. 9–18</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bouloux|first1=Nathalie|title=L'Insularium Illustratum d'Henricus Martellus|journal=The Historical Review / La Revue Historique|date=2012|volume=IX|pages=77–94|url=http://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/historicalReview/article/view/4071/3857|accessdate=30 September 2016}}</ref>
==Influence== Martellus' map served as one source for the [[Waldseemüller map]] of 1507. The overall layout was similar, and [[Martin Waldseemüller]] used the same projection as Martellus, the pseudo-cordiform [[Map projection|projection]]. Both cartographers added decorative wind-heads in the borders of their maps, and both also took advantage of the extra space in the lower corners of the maps created by the swooping lines of the projection to add text blocks in those corners. The shape of northern Africa is the same on both maps; that is, it is Ptolemaic with a sharp northwestern corner. The shape of eastern Asia is also similar on the two maps, with a huge peninsula jutting southwestward into the Indian Ocean, and Japan is in precisely the same position on the two maps, at the eastern edge.<ref>Chet Van Duzer, "Waldseemüller's World Maps of 1507 and 1516: Sources and Development", ''The Portolan,'' No. 1, Winter 2012, p. 12.</ref>
He has been identified with an Arrigho di Federigho who authored the first translation into [[German (language)|German]] of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Bocaccio]]'s ''[[Decamerone]]''. According to this theory, the surname Martellus comes from the Martelli family, to which Henricus/Arrigho was linked.<ref>[http://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-8568 Rezension von L. Böninger: Die deutsche Einwanderung nach Florenz] (2006)</ref>
[[File:Martellus 1491 inscription.tif|thumb|Henricus Martellus, explanatory inscription on his world map of 1491]]
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== *{{Cite journal|last=Davies|first=Arthur|date=1977|title=Behaim, Martellus and Columbus|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/634713|journal=The Geographical Journal|volume=143|issue=3|pages=451–459|doi=10.2307/634713|jstor=634713|url-access=subscription}} *{{Cite book|last=Edson|first=Evelyn|title=The World Map 1300–1492|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|year=2007|isbn=978-0801885891|location=Baltimore|pages=215–219}} *{{cite book | last = Lester | first = Toby | title = The Fourth Part of the World | publisher = Free Press | location = New York | year = 2009 | isbn = 9781416535317 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/fourthpartofworl00free }} *{{cite encyclopedia| last=Marques |first=Alfredo Pinheiro |editor-last = Bedini| editor-first = Silvio A.| encyclopedia = The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia| title = Martellus, Henricus| year = 1992| publisher = Simon and Schuster |volume=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/christophercolum00bedi/page/452/mode/2up}} *{{cite book |last1=Meurer |first1=Peter H. |editor1-last=Woodward |editor1-first=David |title=The History of Cartography|volume= 3: Cartography in the European Renaissance, Part 2 |date=2007 |publisher=University of Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-90734-5 |pages=1183–1188 |url=https://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V3_Pt2/HOC_VOLUME3_Part2_chapter42.pdf |chapter=Cartography in the German Lands, 1450–1650}} *{{Cite book|last=Van Duzer|first=Chet|title=Henricus Martellus's world map at Yale (c. 1491) : multispectral imaging, sources, and influence|date=2019|isbn=978-3-319-76840-3|location=Cham, Switzerland|oclc=1047959884}} *{{cite book |last1=Wolff |first1=Hans |editor1-last=Wolff |editor1-first=Hans |title=America : Early Maps of the New World |date=1992 |publisher=Prestel |location=Munich |isbn=3791312324 |pages=13–14 |language=en |chapter=The Conception of the World on the Eve of the Discovery of America}}
== External links == {{commonscat}} * [https://www.jstor.org/stable/634713 Arthur Davies: "Behaim, Martellus and Columbus", ''The Geographical Journal'', Vol. 143, No. 3 (Nov., 1977), pp. 451–459] {{JSTOR|634713}} * [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1150356 Alexander O. Vietor: ''A Pre-Columbian Map of the World, Circa 1489''], Imago Mundi, Vol. 17, 1963 (1963), pp. 95–96] {{JSTOR|1150356}} * [http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/LMwebpages/256mono.html An essay on the world maps created by Henricus Martellus Germanus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427030737/http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/LMwebpages/256mono.html |date=2006-04-27 }} * Recent findings via multispectral imaging: [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304080131/http://opencast.rit.edu:8080/engage/ui/watch.html?id=e384e325-92a9-4c5a-9f2b-c1d3cb569753 presentation by Chet van Duzer], [http://news.yale.edu/2015/06/11/hidden-secrets-yale-s-1491-world-map-revealed-multispectral-imaging Hidden secrets of Yale's 1491 world map revealed via multispectral imaging press release by Yale University].
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Martellus Germanus, Henricus}} [[Category:German cartographers]] [[Category:15th-century Italian cartographers]] [[Category:15th-century German scientists]] [[Category:15th-century people from the Republic of Florence]] [[Category:15th-century geographers]]