Planisfera Cantino is a precious monument of the era of the Great geographical discoveries , depicting the state of geographical knowledge of the Portuguese at the turn of the XV and XVI centuries.
Fearing competition from the Spaniards and other nations, the Portuguese kept their geographical discoveries secret. Maps of newfound land were kept under lock and key at an in Lisbon . The Duke of Ferrara, Ercole I d'Este, became very curious and sent his agent Alberto Cantino under the guise of a horse trader to Lisbon. Without stinting on bribes, Cantino gained access to the Indian House and acquired there a copy of the planisphere depicting the latest Portuguese discoveries, including the coast of Brazil , discovered in 1500 by Cabral .
In 1502, Cantino secretly took out three glued sheets of parchment , on which the planisphere was applied, to Renaissance Italy. The document gained great fame and formed the basis of the popular map of Kaveri (1505). Cantino's planisphere is currently in the in Modena . During the riisorgimento unrest, she was lost, but later found herself in the shop of a local butcher and returned to her traditional place in the library.
Literature
- Harvey, Miles The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime . ISBN 0-7679-0826-0 .