The Cornaro Atlas is an extensive Venetian collection of nautical charts and tracts, currently held by the British Library.
Background
The Cornaro Atlas is an 80-page Venetian manuscript volume, estimated to date c. 1489. It is named after the Cornaro family, one of the leading patrician families of the Republic of Venice, who once owned the volume, and whose coat of arms adorns its frontispiece. The Cornaro Atlas was brought to England in 1832, and is currently held by the British Library in London, UK. The first half of the volume contains a large collection of nautical charts, faithful copies of portolan charts composed earlier in the 15th century. The second half of the volume is dedicated to a myriad of written tracts on matters of nautical interest
Contents of the Atlas
The Cornaro atlas has around 80 pages, each page at 53 x 41 cm.
Calendars
Three of the pages are calendars:
– a perpetual astronomical calendar of lunar revolutions
– a calendar of moveable feasts from 1489 to 1600
– a calendar of Dominical letters.
Nautical charts
Following the opening calendars, there are 38 nautical charts depicted in 35 pages. All the maps seem to have been copied around the same time and by the same hand. Several pages can be grouped together to form a single portolan chart covering the "normal portolan" range. Most cartographers are named, some of them notables, such as Grazioso Benincasa of Ancona and Petrus Rosell of Majorca, others are lesser known. The last few charts are anonymous. Notable in this collection are the final charts on West Africa by an anonymous cartographer, which seem to be based on a Portuguese nautical chart. It is one of the few indicators of the existence of Portuguese portolans from before the earliest extant specimens.
* p. 11 – West Mediterranean and Atlantic Coast. Notable here is the "ixolla del Brazil" west of Ireland, followed by "ixolla damam", then the usual list of Azores names
* p. 14 – West Mediterranean and Atlantic coast. Notable here is a rare mythical island "Mons Orins" west of Ireland, as well as the usual mythical del brazil to the southwest. It also gives the customary Azores list
* p. 26 – west Mediterranean until the Balearic islands.
* p. 27 – west Mediterranean and south Atlantic coast
* p. 28 – north Atlantic coast, from Lisbon to Texel.
map of Atlantic coast, from northwest Africa to British isles, by an anonymous cartographer.
– South Atlantic chart by Cristoforo Soligo, Portugal down to Cape Verde, and including the Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores and mythical Antillia. Notable for including both the "traditional" 14th-century names and the new Portuguese 15th-century names for the Azores islands, specifically:
* y de luovo and y de santa maria
* y caprara and y de san michiel
* y del brazil and y de jhs xpo
* y de san zorzi and y de san piero
* y de colonbi and y de san dinis
* y de la venture and y de salvis
* no traditional name and y gracioxa
* y deli Conilgi and y de san tomas
* y di corbi marini and ya de santa ana.
– Map of west African coast by an anonymous cartographer
The remaining forty pages of the Cornaro Atlas are various tracts, lists and notes on various subjects, written in the Venetian language.
are dedicated to astrology and astronomy. Discusses matters such as the relation of the stars to parts of the human body, instructions on the course of the sun and moon, eclipses, timing of Easter and feast days, etc.
is a chapter entitled la raxon del martologio relating the rule of marteloio.
, there is the replica of a 1428 document Venetian captain-general Andrea Mocenigo listing the captains of the Venetian galleys, followed, by an ordered list of armed galleys of the government of Venice, and a list of the captains of the Flanders galleys.
beginning of a new treatise on astronomy, apparently dated 1388, tracing the movement of the twelve zodiac constellations, the seven planets, the moon, etc.
an explanation of how to measure the height of buildings.
is a detailed portolan handbook detailing the sailing directions and distances of the various ports of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts, albeit apparently left incomplete.
