The Piri Reis Map of 1513 is Important Because....

Full text

Gregory C. McIntosh, “The Piri Reis Map of 1513 is Important
Because …,” in Uluslararası Piri Reis ve Türk Denizcilik Tarihi
Sempozyumu: 500 yılın ardından Piri Reis ve eserleri bildiriler,
26-29 Eylül 2013, ed. Osman Gü müşçü, 6 vols. (Ankara: Türk
Tarih Kurumu, 2014), 1:133-144, 333-337.
ISBN-10: 9751 629101; ISBN-13: 978-9751629104

The Piri Reis Map of 1513 is Important Because ….
Gregory C. McIntosh
Piri Reis University, Istanbul
The Piri Reis map of 1513 is one of the most beautiful, most
interesting, most important, and most mysterious maps to have
survived from one of the most significant periods of maritime
discovery, geographical exploration, and mapmaking. We
celebrate this importa nt map, five-hundred years after it was first
drawn, for many reasons; I will give five.
The first r eason is because it is made by the famous Ottoman
admiral known as Piri Reis (c. 1467 – 1554). Although a great
name in Turkish naval history, Piri Reis is perhaps best known for
his two world maps of 1513 and 1528, and his Kitab-ı Bahriye
(Book of the Sea, or Manual of Navigation). Throughout his long
career, Piri collected charts, made notes, and sketched maps. In
1521 he assembled this information into a book. In 1526 he
presented to Sultan Suleyman the La wgiver (1494 – 1566) a
revised version of the Kitab-ı Bahriye, perhaps the greatest book of
sailing directions, maps, and maritime lore of the ti me. In the
person of Piri Reis we find an individual of unusual qualities.
Though undoubtedly literate, he was a mariner all of his life, and
presumably not formally educated, but well-educated in
seamanship. Yet it was this Turkish sea captain at this crossroads
of history in the early sixteenth century who blended geography,
ancient and medieval legends, and renaissance nautical science to
create the world map of 1513, an enduring symbol of the
integration of the two great civilizations of the Ottoman Turks and
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the Franks (Piri’s name for the Latin cultural ar eas of the
Mediterranean and Europe).1
The second reason the map is important is because it is one of
the few world maps drawn on par chment surviving from this
significant period. Of the unknown number of maps produced in
the first three decades a fter the discovery of America, only a dozen
are large wall-mounted world maps on parchment. Eleven were
made by Western Europeans (one Spanish, three Portuguese, seven
Italians), and one by a Turk, our Ott oman admiral. These few
manuscript world maps made before 1520 are often our only
cartographic r ecord of the voyages and explorat ions by Europeans.
It is fortunate that the surviving map portion is of the newly
discovered r egions in the W estern Hemisphere, not only because it
contains a copy of Columbus's map, but also because it documents
some of the era's evolving ideas about the geography of the New
World.
The third rea son is the map provides insights into how a world
map was compiled in the sixteenth century from multiple sources,
and what these sources tell us about the world Piri Reis l ived in.
Piri writes in his Kitab-ı Bahriye that on his map of 1513 he
showed twice as many things a s other maps.2 From the quantity of
images on the existing remnant, we can estimate that the complete
map had close to one-hundred inscriptions (an astonishing
quantity!), some brief, some l engthy, describing different parts of
the world, with an emphasis upon the exotic peoples, animals,
curiosities, mineral wealth (especiall y gold), and the recent
maritime activities of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. He
incorporated information from a variety of cartographic,
geographical, artistic, a nd literary sources from both Frankish and
Islamic traditions.
In one of these map inscriptions he tells us he u sed
mappaemundi.3 Mappaemundi were the stylized medieval world
maps that included depictions and descriptions of fabled lands,
peoples, and animals. The word mappaemundi al so means «world
map», and he sur ely used other world maps in making his. Piri says
he used eight maps from the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy ( c.
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90 CE – c. 168 CE), mathematician, astronomer, cosmographer,
geographer, and astrologer of ancient Alexandria.4 The
Geographia, which included world maps and regional maps, and
the names and locations of thousands of places of the known world
at the time of the Roman Empire, is the most important
geographical work ever written, and influenced Islamic and
Frankish mapmaking for centuries.
Piri also alludes on the map to the portolan charts used by
Mediterranean sailors, and he writes about portolan charts in his
Kitab-ı Bahriye.5 Portolan charts were navigational charts
delineating the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, that is,
the coasts of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. They fir st
appeared in Italy in the thirteenth century. On a Catalan portolan
chart made by Mecia de Viladestes in 1413,6 exactly one-hundred
years before Piri’s map, is depicted the fabled encounter of St.
Brendan of Ir eland with the whale from the legendary story of his
life. I n the North Atlantic on Piri’s map is a large illustration and
inscription (no. 14) of the same legendary event. The legend of the
encounter of St. Brendan and the whale wa s also often depicted on
mappaemundi.7
Besides the maps Piri tells us about that we can identify, he
also mentions in an inscription (no. 6) that he used another twenty
maps but we do not know what they were. Piri must have used
two- or three-dozen maps in all in compiling his first world map.8
The map inscription specifies four Portuguese maps of I ndia and
China were used. His depictions and placenames in Africa and
Brazil confirm Portuguese maps were an important source. O nly a
few early Portuguese maps survive but the Cantino world map of
1502,9 the earliest surviving Portuguese world map, and the Jorge
Reinel chart of t he Indian Ocean of 1510,1 0 give some idea of his
cartographic sources. Other sources indicated on Piri’s map are the
many books of geography and natural history available to him and
written by al-Qazwini, al-Kashgari, al-Mustawfi, ibn Mājid, and
others. Presumably, Piri was familiar with maps made by his
fellow Turks, such as the famous world map by al-Kashgari, and
those by Arab and Persian cartographers. One of the more
intriguing sources named by Piri in his map inscription is what he
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calls an Arab map of India. This may have been a navigational
chart used for crossing the Indian Ocean to the trading ports of
India. In two of his ma p inscriptions Piri mentions the Seven Seas.
In his Kitab-ı Bahriye he identifies t hese Seven Seas, which gives
us a n excellent idea of what he might have drawn on the missing
portion of his world map: Sea of Maghreb (Atlantic Ocean; the
surviving portion), Sea of Rum (Mediterranean Sea), Sea of
Kulzum (Caspian Sea), Persian Sea (Persian Gulf), Sea of Zanj
(Mozambique Channel), Indian Sea (Indian Ocean), and Chinese
Sea (Western Pacific Ocean).
In South America on Piri’s map ar e some of the fantastic
creatures described in a ncient legends and medieval literature, and
often depicted on medieval mappaemundi. These tales from the
Arabs, Turks, and Franks are ultimately derived from Pliny,
Solinus, and other a ncient Greek and Roman writers. There is a
dog-headed man, seen dancing with what appears to be a monkey;
a monoceros, a one-horned ox-like creature; the blemmyae, with
their faces on their chest; and the legendary yale, a beast like an
antelope but with tusks and horns that could rotate from front to
back as needed. In West Africa on the remaining part of the map
are shown an elephant and an ostrich. A similar mixture of real and
legendary animals and peoples would have been shown in other
parts of the world on the lost part of the map. The complete Piri
Reis map would ha ve been a renaissance cart ographic
encyclopedia.
The fourth reason the map of 1513 is important is because of
the depiction of the Southern Continent. The hypothetical Southern
Continent was believed in by geographers since the time of the
ancient Greek s. It was believed that there must be a large Southern
Continent to symmetrically balance with the landmasses in the
northern hemisphere. The prevailing belief of geographers for two-
thousand years is typified by Gerard Mercator, who believed this
continent “was unknown and still awaiting discovery, but whose
existence [could be proved] by solid reasoning and argument. It
could not be less in its geometric proportions, size, weight, and
gravity than the other two [the Old World and the New World],
otherwise the world would be unable to remain on its axis. Writers
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call this the Southern Continent”.11 A more explicit declaration of
its hypothetical origin could not be made.
Mapmakers from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries
often depicted the great Unknown Southern Continent (Terra
Australis Incognita) on their maps.12 Usually, the Southern
Continent is shown surrounded by water, a s on the Italian
Francesco Rosselli copperplate engraved oval world map (c. 1507-
08).13 Sometimes the Southern Continent is connected to S outheast
Asia, as on the world maps of Ptolemy, a nd sometimes to Africa,
also shown on the maps of Ptolemy.14 Sometimes the Southern
Continent is nearly connected to Southeast Asia, as on maps of the
Dieppe school of car tography in the sixteenth century.15
Sometimes the Southern Continent is connected to Sout h America,
as on the Portu guese L opo Homem manuscript world map of
1519,16 and on the Spanish Juan Vespucci printed world map of
1523-24.17 On the Piri Reis map also the Southern Continent is
connected to South Ameri ca. Piri was not the first or the la st
mapmaker to show this Southern Continent.
Several popular writers, such as Char les Hapgood (1904–
1982),18 Erich von Däniken,19 Graham Hancock,20 and Gavin
Menzies,21 have claimed that the southern coastline drawn on the
Piri Reis ma p i s an accurate depiction of Antarctica under the ice,
but t here appears to be little basis for such assertions, beyond the
fact that the Piri Reis map illustrates a land l ocated south of the
Atlantic Ocea n, and Antarctica also is located south of the Atlantic
Ocean. Their claim that the coastline drawn on the Piri Reis map is
an accurate depiction of Antarctica is mistaken. It is a pseudo-
mystery. T he coastline drawn on the Piri Reis map is not an
accurate depiction of Antarctica. There is no mystery to explain.
But, because they assume it is an accurate depiction of Antarctica,
these writer s try to explain the supposedly «accurate» depiction by
postulating t hat maps far more ancient than previously known
survived from t ens of thou sands of year s ago to be used as a source
by Piri. The supposed great age of these hypothetical prehistoric
maps with the hypothetical accurately drawn coastlines is used as
evidence for a hypothetical ancient advanced civilization. There
are just too many hypotheticals in their arguments. It is quite a feat
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of scholarship to build an entire complex civilization lasting for
thousands of years with millions of people — out of a line drawn
in a corner of old map.
Though the Piri Reis map does not, of course, depict
Antarctica, with or without an i ce covering, the pseudo-historian
and the pseudo-scientist will continue, long after we are gone, t o
cite the «enigmatic» Piri Reis map as evidence for advanced
ancient technology, pre-Columbian voyages, Atlantis, or ancient
astronauts. None of these claims have merit because they are based
on the fal se premise that the drawing is accurate. T hough the
drawing of t his coastline may not be an accurate depiction of a real
coastline, the Piri Reis map is a great map in its own right. Being
well-known in popular literature, however, has added to the
prominence and the enduring legend of the Piri Reis map and,
therefore, must be acknowledged.
A final reason the Piri Reis map of 1513 is important is its
connection to Christopher Columbus. The longest inscription on
the Piri R eis map tells the story of C hristopher Columbus and his
discovery of new lands to the west.2 2 In another inscription he says
he used a map made by Columbus for part of the depiction of the
western regions.23 T his is what most excited scholars and the world
press when the map was first discovered in 1929.24 Piri writes
about Columbus’s discoveri es and his map again in the Kitab-ı
Bahriye.25 An a nalysis of the configurations and placenames
indicates that a copy of a map made by Columbus in 1495 or 1496
is preserved within the Piri Rei s map.
When we look at the Piri Reis map of 1513 we can recognize
Europe, Africa, South America , the Lesser Antilles, and Puerto
Rico. But what are the rectangular island and mainland cape in the
northwest? A close examination of the fifteen placenames and
inscriptions written on these islands reveals that all these
placenames are from Columbus's first two voyages to Cuba and
Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republi c) between 1492 and
1495. The peculiar configurations of Cuba and Hispaniola and the
distinctive island placenames could only have come from a map
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made by Christopher Columbus in 1495 or 1496 at the end of his
second voyage.
Hispaniola, for instance, does not, at first glance, appear to
resemble the true shape and orientation of Hispaniola. T he
rectangular shape and north-south alignment i s, however,
strikingly similar to the depiction of the island of Cipango on maps
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Cipango was Marco Polo's
name for Japan and it was one of the stated goals sought by
Columbus on his first voyage. Columbus and his contemporaries
believed that Cipango was rectangular , with its main axis oriented
north to south. Many maps of the early sixteenth century show
Cipango with this shape and orientation. Columbus wrote that
when he discovered the island of H ispaniola on his first voyage, he
believed it was Ci pango. Some early sixteenth century maps also
assert that Hispaniola was Cipango, such as t he Johannes Ruysch
map of 1508.
Hispaniola, Cuba, and other islands of the Caribbean can be
firmly identified, however, by the placenames written upon them,
some in Spanish, some in Turkish, some in the native Arawakan
Taíno langua ge, but all written in Arabic script. All of the
placenames on the extreme northwest on Piri Reis map, everything
north and west of Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles, are names
recorded during Columbus’s first and second voyages in the
Bahamas, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba between October 1492
and August 1495.
The island on the Piri Reis map with Cipango's traditional
north-south orientation i s labeled as Aljazeera Izle despanya. This
is a mixture of the Arabic Aljazeera (The Island) a nd the Spanish
Isla de España (Island of Spain). Columbus gave the name La I sla
Española (The Spanish Island) to the island we know as Hispaniola
(Haiti/Dominican Republic) when he discovered it on the fir st
voyage in 1492. Española became a common name on early maps.
Soon, however, the Spanish name given by Columbus was
shortened by Bartolomé de Las Casas t o Española and Latinized to
Hispaniola by Peter Martyr.26 It appears the whole island is turned
ninety degrees clockwise such that what appears to be the east
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coast on Aljazeera Izle despanya on the map is the north coast of
Hispaniola.2 7 Likewise, the true south coast of Hi spaniola is shown
as the west coast of Aljazeera Izle despanya on the map.
The other placename on this island is Paksin vidad. This is a
mixture of Spanish and Turkish. It includes the name of Navidad,
the name of the first settlement founded by Columbu s in December
1492 on the north shore of Hispaniola. Pak is the Turkish “pure”
and “clean” and may have been used in the sense of “holy”.28
Perhaps it reflects a Spanish placename with San or Santa (Sp.
saint) on the source map. The town of Navidad was destroyed by
the native people by the autumn of 1493. The placena me appears
on only a few of the earliest extant maps, such as the earliest
surviving world map showing the New World, the Juan de la Cosa
map (1500-02), which has Navida,29 and the Freducci map (c.
1520-25), which ha s nauidat.30 To this very short list of maps with
the placename of Navidad we can add the Piri Reis map.31
Istonasia32 appears to be the Spanish “Esta en Asia,” that is,
“This i s in Asia”.33 It would not be surprising to find these words
on a map made by Columbus. Porta ghande34 is Puerto Grande,
Columbus's name for modern Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.35 He gave
it this name in April 1494 during his second voya ge. The Piri Reis
map is the only map that has this pla cename associated with
Columbus’s second voyage.
Sandani may be San Diego or Santiago (Sp., St. James),36 the
name Columbus gave to Jamaica. He visited Jamaica during his
second voyage between his stops at Puerto Grande and Isla de
Santa Maria. Santa marya is an island on the map ju st off the coast
of Cu ba.37 This is likely the island off the south coast of Cuba so
named by Columbus during his second voyage.38 The island named
Santa Maria by Columbus might be the modern Cayo Caballones,39
Cay Largo,40 or one of the cays of the Gol fo de Ana Maria.41
Kav Punta Orofay42 is such an unusual placename that it draws
our attention. Ornofay or Hornofay was the region on the south
coast of Cuba, so-called by the natives Columbus found there, that
he visited on his second voyage.43 This name, Orofay (Ornofay), as
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with Porta ghande ( Puerto Grande), is a placename directly linked
to Columbus and the Piri Reis map is the only map to have these
names.
Kav may represent the name “Cuba”. Spelling changes occur
in transliterati ng from a Native American language (Arawakan
Taíno) to Spanish to O ttoman-Turkish and back into a European
language (English). Piri (or his calligrapher) may have run together
(as mapmakers are known to do sometimes) the names of Cuba
and Punta Ornofay from the source map to produce Kav Punta
Orofay.
Orofay on the Piri R eis map is a placename closely connected
to Columbus’s voyage along the south coast of Cuba in the
summer of 1494. Ornofay was the name of the region near the
present city of Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus Province, Cuba. It may
have been at the mouth of the Rio Agabama within Ca silda Bay or
at the R io Guaurabo. The Punta Orofay of the Piri Reis map may
be the present day Ancón Peninsula or another further east.
Columbus wrote about the Province of Hornofay in his letter of 26
February 1495 to the Spanish monarchs. Columbus and his small
fleet of three ships spent a day or two in May among the hospitable
Taíno people of the Province of Hornofay.44 Passing this way again
on their return in July, they stopped again, held a religiou s
ceremony, and built the first church in Cuba.45 This na me,
Hornofay (Orofay), as with Puerto Grande (Porta ghande), is
attributed to Columbus, and the Piri Reis map is the only map to
have them. It could not have been copied from any known map,
lost or extant, except a map by Columbus.
Ile Tarsomani4 6 is at the end of Cuba on the Piri Reis map. It
may be E l Teroneso47 or Cheroneço,48 alternate spellings for t he
Chersonese (Greek, peninsula). In his letter to the Sovereigns
Columbus wrote that he gave the name of the Chersonesus to the
last place furthest on of his voyage before turning around.49 The
Chersonesus Aurea (Gr., Golden Peninsula) was the ancient and
medieval geographer’s name for the Malay Peninsula, a legendary
source of gold and other treasures sought by Columbus and other
early explorers.
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Birbinish,50 the name of an island off the sout h coast of
Hispaniola (that is, the west coast of Aljazeera Izle despanya, the
rotated Hispaniola/Cipango) on the Piri Reis map, is bir biniş,
Turkish for “long cloak”. Piri Reis must have translated this from
the placename, Alto Velo, Spanish for “high sail,” “high veil,” or
“high cloak”. Alto Velo was a small island off the southern tip of
Hispaniola discovered by Columbus on the return from Cuba to
Hispaniola during the second voyage and na med by him because of
its resemblance to a ship’s sail.51 This island is still known today as
Alta Vela.
The island of Barbura is shown to the north of Hispaniola ( east
to the rotated Aljazeera Izle despanya) on the map. This was the
native Arawakan Taíno name for the islands and cays of the Turks
Bank immediately north of Hispaniola.5 2 Also known as Ba bura,53
Barbua,54 Barbulca,55 Bubulca,56 Barbura, Baburca,57 Baburcas,58
Bavurca,59 and Bavueca, the name, usually as Babueca or Babeque,
continued to be used by the Spanish and others for t hese islands
and shoals for another three-hu ndred years. The Turks Islands were
visited during Columbus's first voyage by Martín Alonso Pinzón
(c. 1441-1493), his second-in-comma nd, in the Pinta in December
of 1492.60 This is how Colu mbus came t o know of these islands
that he himself never visited.
From the configurations of the lands a nd islands, and from the
positions of the placenames, we can see that the point of land
projecting from the mainland towar d Aljazeera I zle despanya
(Hispaniola) is the modern Cape Maisí at the eastern end of Cuba.
Cuba is depicted as a mainland with a cape on the map copied by
Piri Rei s. What we see is what would be expected on a map made
by Christopher C olumbus in the autumn of 1495, at the end of his
second voyage, or shortly thereafter.
As certain as we are of the identity of the twelve previous
placenames, we are as uncertain of the last three names in the
Bahamas or Lucayan Islands north of Hispaniola:
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Ile Verde,61 an island to the northeast of Aljazeera Izle
despanya (northwest of Hispaniola), is the Spanish El Verde (The
Green) or Isla Verde (Green Island). C olumbus, or any other
earlier voyager, might have applied this descriptive name to almost
any of the islands he saw on his voyages in the West Indies. The
name Verde was given by Columbu s to a cape on an island he
visited on 24 October 1492 in the Bahamas to the north of
Hispaniola during his first voyage.62 Trispoze,63 also in the
Bahamas, is the Spanish Tres Pozos (Three Wells) and may
indicate a fresh water feature, perhaps noted by Columbus on his
map. Tri s Matos64 is the name next to three islands north of
Hispaniola. This may be Tres Matas, Spanish for Three Mastic
Trees.65 The mastic tree, famed for the medicinal properties of its
resin,66 was known to Columbus from his voyage to Chios (Xios,
Sakız Adası) twenty years earlier. On 5 November 1492, and
several times thereafter, Columbus mistakenly identified mastic
trees during his first voyage.6 7
Piri's placenames on the mainland and on the islands
offshore—Esta en Asia, Puerto Grande, Santa Maria, Kav,
Ornofay, and Tarsomani—all result from C olumbus's second
voyage and clearly identify the land as Cuba. Colu mbus identified
Cuba as Mangi, a province on the Asian mainland, and the Taíno
people of Cuba told him the name of the land was the similar
sounding Magón. Columbus wrote that the north coast extended
northward, and the south coast of Cuba stretched first westward
from a great cape, and then southward. C olumbus's
contemporaries, Paolo Toscanelli, Henricus Martellus, Francesco
Rosselli, and Martin Behaim, depicted the same view of the Asian
mainland and Japan/Cipango on their maps made between 1474
and 1492. Though some features on the Piri Reis map might fir st
appear unusual, such as the orientation of Hi spaniola, the depiction
of Cuba as continental, and the connection of the Southern
Continent to South America, these and other features are not
unexpected on a map of the early sixteenth century.
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Many of the map's unique features support statements by Piri
that he copied a map made by Columbus. What appears to be a
confused jumble in the northwest section of the map conforms to
Columbus's geographical i deas about the Indies. The image of
Hispaniola and Cuba as Cipango (Japan) and Mangi (China) was
their earliest geographical conception. It was Columbus’s
geographical conception. The Piri Reis map displays the earliest,
most primitive, and most rudimentary cartography of these islands,
a primitiveness that indicates that the earliest of all cartographic
records of the discoveries in the New World—a map made by
Christopher Columbus, or made under his supervision, around
1495 or 1496 — is preserved in the Piri Reis map of 1513.
More tha n merely a map, Piri Reis’s manuscript is a beautiful
work of art and cultural icon built upon the latest geographical and
cartographic information from the T urks, Portuguese, Spanish,
Italians, and Arabs. The Piri Reis map is an i mportant historical
artifact, and one of the world’s notable multicultural and
intercultural unions of art and science. Piri R eis himself stands as
an exceptional individual straddling the geographical and cultural
borderlands between East and West, the Medieval and the
Renaissance, and the Old and t he New.
144

1 Pirî Reis, Kitab-ı Bahriye, ed. Ertuğrul Zekâi Ökte, 4 vols.
(Istanbul: The Historical Research Foundation, 1988), 1:83.
2 Pirî Reis, Kitab-ı Bahriye, 1:43.
3 Gregory C. McIntosh, The Piri Reis Map of 1513 (Athens;
London: The University of Georgia Press, 2000), pp. 15-17.
4 McIntosh, Piri Reis, pp. 15-18; Pirî Reis, Kitab-ı Bahriye, 1:195-
199.
5 Pirî Reis, Kitab-ı Bahriye, 1:85, 87.
6 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cartes et Plans, Rés. Ge. AA 566.
OCLC no. 764288451.
7 On the medieval legend of St. Brendan and the whale (Navigatio
Sancti Brendani Abbatis, ch. 21), see Fr idtjof Nansen, In Northern
Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, trans. Arthur G. Chater,
2 vols. (London: William Heinemann, 1911), 2:234 n. 1.
8 Because of an appar ent ambiguity, the inscription has been
variously interpreted to mean there were 20, 30, or 34 maps used
as sources by Piri; see A. Afetinan, Life and Works of Piri Reis,
trans. Leman Yola ç and Engin Uzmen (Ankara: Turkish Historical
Association, 1975), pp. 27-28; Esin Atil, The Age of Sultan
Süleyman the Magnificent (New York: Harry N . Abrams, Inc.,
1987), p. 78; Paul Kahle, “ A Lost Map of Columbus”,
Geographical Review 23/4 (1933), p. 624; Sevim Tekeli, “The
Map of America by Piri Reis”, Erdem, 1/3 (1985), p. 677.
9 Modene, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, C. G . A. 2.
10 Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. Aug. fol.
98 (K4).
11 A. S. Osley, Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps,
etc., in the 16th Century Netherlands, With a Facsimile and
Translation of his Treatise on the I talic Hand and a Translation of
Ghim’s Vita Mercatoris, foreword by R. A. Skelton (L ondon:
Faber and Faber, [1969]), p. 190.
12 Robert Clancy, The Mapping of Terra Australis (Macquarie
Park, N.S.W., Au stralia: Universal Press, 1995.
13 Rodney W. Shirley, The Mapping of the World: Early Printed
World Maps (1472-1700), 2nd rev. ed. (London, Holland Press,
1987), no. 28.
333

14 For example, Shirley, Mapping, nos. 3, 4, 5, 10, and 14.
15 For example, Pierluigi Portinaro and Franco Knirsch, The
Cartography of North America, 1500-1800 (New York: Facts On
File, Inc., 1987), nos. 39, 42, and 47.
16 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Rés. Ge DD 683 & AA 640.
17 Shirley, Mapping, no. 54.
18 Charles H. Hapgood, Maps of the Ancient Sea-Kings: Evidence
of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age (New York: Chilton
Company, 1966), pp. 5-38.
19 Erich von Dänik en, Chariots of the Gods?, trans. Michael Heron
(New York: Bantam Books, 1971), pp. 14-16; Erich von Däniken,
In Search of Ancient Gods: My Pictorial Evidence of the
Impossible, trans. Michael Heron (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons,
1973), pp. 133 -37.
20 Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods (New York: Crown
Publishers, Inc., 1995), pp. 3-25.
21 Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World
(London; New York: Bantam, 2002), pp. 114-128; also published
as 1421: The Year China Discovered the America (New York: W.
Morrow, 2003).
22 McIntosh, Piri Reis, pp. 69-75.
23 McIntosh, Piri Reis, pp. 15-17.
24 For example, “A Columbus Controversy: America and Two
Atlantic Charts”, The Illustrated London News 180/1 (27 February
1932), p. 307; “Turkish Interest in America in 1513: Piri Reis's
Chart of the Atlantic”, The Illustrated London News 181/1 (23 July
1932), pp. 142-43; Paul Kahle, “Die verschollene Columbus-Karte
von Amerika vom Jahre 1498 in einer türkischen Weltkarte von
1513”, Forschungen und Fortschritten 8/19 (1932), pp. 248-49.
25 Pirî Reis, Kitab-ı Bahriye, 1:197.
26 In his letter of 20 October 1494.
27 Josiah Marvel, “Lu caiarum Tabula Onomastica: A Toponymy of
the Lucayan Archipelago”, typescript (Providenciales, Turks and
Caicos Islands, British West Indies, 1988), p. 25; McIntosh, Piri
Reis, pp. 88-96.
28 Paul Kahle, Die Verschollene Columbus-Karte von 1498 in einer
Türkischen Weltkarte von 1513 (Berlin; Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter
& Co., 1933), pp. 24, 52; Kahle, “Lost Map”, p. 630; Paul Kahle,

“Piri Re'is: The T urkish Sailor and Cartographer”, Journal of the
Pakistan Historical Society 4/2 (1956), p. 107 and map opp. p.
100.
29 Madrid, Museo Naval, cat. no. 257.
30 Florence, Archivio di Stato.
31 Some ha ve suggested the Alba sketch-map of the north coast of
Hispaniola, which has Nativida, was drawn by Columbus in 1493,
but it is of questionable authenticity.
32 Lunde, Paul, “Piri Reis and the Columbus Map”, Aramco World
43/3 (1992), p. 24. İbrahim Hakkı Konyalı, Topkapı Sarayında
deri üzerine yapılmış eski haritalar (İstanbul, Zaman Kitaphanesi,
1936), p. 111, identifies the island as the present Cat Island in the
Bahamas.
33 Josiah Marvel, personal communication, 7 July 1990.
34 Kahle, “Lost Map”, p. 631; Kahle, Columbus-Karte von 1498,
pp. 29, 52. Yu suf Akçura, Piri Reis Haritasi (Istanbul, Devlet
basimevi, 1935), foldout map, has Portafande.
35 Cecil Jane, Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voyages of
Columbus, 2 vols. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1930-1933), 1:120
and n.; Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of
America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616 (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 124.
36 Christopher Columbus, Accounts and Letters of the Second,
Third, and Fourth Voyages, ed. Paolo Emilio Taviani, et al., tra ns.
Luciano F. Farina and Marc A. Beckwith, vol. 6 of Nuova
Raccolta Colombiana, 2 pts. (Rome, Istituto poligrafico e Zecca
dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, 1994 [i.e. 1997]), vol. 6, pt. 2, pp.
302-03, 308-09, 311-313, 319-320.
37 Roberto Almagià, “Il Mappamondo di Piri Reis e la Carta di
Colombo del 1498”, Bolletino della R. Società Geografica Italiana
17/6-7 (1934), p. 446; Kahle, “Ma pa de América”, p. 171.
38 Las Ca sas gives the name a s Santa Maria, per Jane, Four
Voyages, 1:135 n. 3, 137 n. 3, 143 n. 2.
39 Samuel Eliot Morison, Journals and Other Documents on the
Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (New York: The
Heritage Press, 1963), p. 404.
40 Roberto Almagià, “Piri R e'is' World Ma p and Columbus' Chart
of 1498”, The Hydrographic Review 11/2 (1934), p. 196 n. 4; J. M.

Cohen, ed. and trans., The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus
(New Y ork: Pengui n B ooks, 1969), map opp. p. 169; Jane, Select
Documents, 1: map following pp. 114, 135 n. 3.
41 Morison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2 vols.
(Boston: Little, Br own and Company, 1942), 2:134.
42 Akçura, Piri Reis Haritasi, fold-out map; Kahle, Columbus-
Karte von 1498, p. 29; Kahle, “Lost Map”, p. 631.
43 Jane, Select Documents, 1:138, pp. 156-57, 184; Kahle, “Lost
Map”, p. 631; Morison, Admiral, 2:132-134.
44 Columbus, Accounts and Letters, vol. 6, pt. 1, pp. 292-293.
45 Columbus, Accounts and Letters, vol. 6, pt. 1, pp. 303-309; see
also Andrés Bernáldez, Historia de los reyes católicos D.
Fernando y Da. Isabel: Crónica Inédita del Siglo XV, 2 vols.
(Granada: José Maria Zamora, 1856), 1:317-326.
46 Ile Tarsumanye (Akçura, Piri Reis Haritasi, fold-out map);
Iletarsumani (Almagià, “ Mappamondo,” 197n.); Ile Tarsomania
(Kahle, Columbus-Karte von 1498, Table 2).
47 Bernáldez, Historia, 1:322; Columbus, Accounts, 1:300-302. As
a comparison of Columbus Letter no. 4 with Bernáldez
demonstrates, El Teroneso is from Chersonese, not from terranazo
(Sp., dirt clod), as I previously speculated (McIntosh, Piri Reis, p.
106 n. 30).
48 Transcription of Columbus’s Letter no. 4, that is, possibly his
spelling (Columbus, Accounts, 1:300).
49 Bernáldez, Historia, 1:322; Columbus, Accounts, 1:300-301;
Paolo Emilio Taviani, “Notes”, vol. 2 of Colu mbus, Accounts,
2:111-116.
50 Akçura, Piri Reis Haritasi, foldout map; Kahle, “Turkish
Sailor”, foldout map opp. p. 100.
51 Fernando Colombo, Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo, nelle
quali s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de fatti
dell'ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, trans. Alfonso de Ulloa
(Venice: Francesco de Francesci Sanese, 1571), ch. lix [i.e., lx].
52 Granberry, Julian, “Lucayan T oponyms”, Journal of the
Bahamas Historical Society 13/1 (1991), p. 10.
53 Martin Fernández de Navarrete, Colección de los viages y
descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines
del siglo xv, 5 vols. (Ma drid: Imprensa Real [Imprenta Nacional],

1825-37), 3:21, 548, 576.
54 According to Dr. Eugene Lyon in Miami Herald, “I s Shipwreck
Columbus' Pinta?” 12 October 1980, pp. A1, A34.
55 According to Dr. Eugene Lyon in Finger Lakes Times (Geneva,
N.Y.), “Found in October, it mu st be the Pinta,” 13 October 1980,
p. 1.
56 Navarrete, Colección de los viages, 3:571; Antonio Muro
Orejón, ed., Pleitos colombinos, 4 vols. ( Seville: Escuela de
Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1964-89), 1:139; Emilio Blanchet,
“Colón en Cuba”, Revista contemporánea 85 (January-March,
1892), p. 566.
57 Real Academia de la Historia, Colección de documentos ineditos
relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las
antiguas posesiones españolas de ultramar, 2nd ser., 25 vols.
(Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, 1885-1932), 8:128, 165.
58 Ibid., 8:220.
59 Ibid., 8:195.
60 Gregory C. McIntosh, “Martín Alonso Pinzón's Discovery of
Babueca and the Identity of Guanahani”, Terrae Incognitae 24
(1992), pp. 79-100.
61 Almagià, “Mappamondo”, p. 446. Marvel, “Lucaiarum”, p. 25,
transliterates it as Isla Verde.
62 Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr., The Diario of Christopher
Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492-1493 (Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989), p. 113. Konyalı,
Topkapı Sarayında, p. 111, identifies Ile verde as Fernandina,
perhaps for the same reason.
63 Kahle, “Lost Map”, p. 637, has Tersiosa. Kahle, Columbus-
Karte von 1498, pp. 40, 52, has Tersioza. Konyalı, Topkapı
Sarayında, p. 111, identifies this island as the modern San
Salvador (formerly Watling Island).
64 Almagià, “World Map”, p. 196; Kahle, “Lost Map”, p. 636-37.
65 Ralph S. Boggs, Lloyd Kasten, Hayward Keniston, and H. B.
Richardson, comps., Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2
vols. ( Chapel Hill, N.C., 1946), s. v., “ mata”; Arturo Cuyá s,
Appleton's New Spanish-English and English-Spanish Dictionary
(New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1903), s. v. “mata”; Victor R. B.
Oelschläger, A Medieval Spanish Word-List (Madison: University

of Wisconsin Pr ess, 1940), s. v., “mata”.
66 Eugene Lyon, “Sear ch for C olumbus”, National Geographic
Magazine 181/1 (1992), p. 20.
67 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, pp. 89, 135, 145, 155, 215, 217, 225,
307, 309, 315, 34