The Larry Sills Collection of Maps

La Collection de Cartes Larry Sills

“From whence comes this love of maps,” asked the stranger of the cartographer;

The cartographer answered : “As a child I would gaze up at the skies and wish I could

fly from star to star; but with increasing age, I ‘settled’ for the reasonable – to serve the explorers willing to risk their lives traveling the globe;  I need not mention names; we all learned them when young;

       Then I met my wife – a linguist; she introduced me to the cartographers that have existed in all ages: we began to visit libraries: Estense Modena (italy): Bibliotheque Nationale de France: British Library,the Vatican,Basel University Library , German National Library,etc. Our first discovery were the portolan  – these charts existed in the 13^th century; in essence, they detailed sailing directions; “

     I told the stranger: “ we read extensively to determine the genesis of the portolan charts; was it in Catalan or Sicilian in origin?   The prolific historian – mystic, Ramon Llull, a  precursor of Leibniz in computation theory, from the Kingdom of Majorica put forth portolan creation as being from Catalan; (John R. Welch);”

     But Ah, I said to my wife, the linguist,  “you’ve become enchanted with these portolan; but for me the fascination of maps is ignited by  Eratosthenses of Cyrene;  indeed, if I wish I could have been so fortunate to know this person: he read, I’m sure, every book in the Library of Alexandra!! His accomplishments are too numerous to mention; thus in the category of mappa mundi, he knew of meridans and parallels and global projections: naturally, his accomplishment consisted of mapping the world , as he thought it existed: using the meridans (longitudes) and parallels (latitudes) he was able to map every place in the world!! He calculated the circumference of the Earth!!  “

      Then I said to my wife: “Darling, I know what you’re going to say: what was the name of your former lover- that failed mathematician-: you are probably the only individual to have learned something from him:  his mind was somewhat simply, for a mathematician;”

“You see,

I too know of the sieve of Eratosthenes employed to discover prime numbers:  if you could be so generous as to introduce me to your former friend, I would like to consult him on the topics that Eratosthenes and Archimedes discussed; was this a synergetic relation or were these two giants, isolated and singular?   My darling wife, if you ever wish to give me a gift, I must tell you that I would greatly prize books which contain Eratosthenes’ books containing engraved and woodcut maps;  Once a collector, always a collector.”

     Claudius Ptolemy, as Eratosthenes, lived in the city of Alexandria:    “My Dear, can you imagine Ptolemy and Eratosthenes getting their coffee each morning at the same Starbucks? I guess not; in my calculation Eratosthenes lived approximately 400 years before Ptolemy (255BCE – 170CE);   I must admit that Eratosthenes birth year – 255BCE , truly rings a bell: That is the year, despite many 3^rd century victories (over Gauls, Samnites, Umbirnas) was the year that the Romans were defeated in Africa; some 400 years later, 2^nd century CE, when Ptolemy lived , Marcus Aurelius came into play: despite battles, this emperor, perhaps due to his Stoicism , has been described as Plato’s philosopher-king; there was relative peace in the Roman Empire;  What can I tell you about the city of Alexandria: very little, I’m sorry to say, I’m not a history scholar; all I know is that Alexandria during Eratosthenes time was at its birth; and that it grew to be the largest city of the Hellenistic world; only Rome was larger; obviously, there are many modern maps of Alexander’s conquests- certainly worthy of study from an

historical point of view; but no woodcuts or engravings!!  Naturally, I’m sure you are wondering what was Ptolemy’s contribution to the field of cartography; let me tell you that it was quite significant: he produced an eight volume text called Geographia (150CE).  Such works were also called Cosmographia); (this was the geography of the Roman Empire,2^nd century – the century which saw the birth of Cicero, Caesar, and Pompey;  (I once saw a portrait of Pompey on a denarius (Unicode U + 10196);”

     “Aside from our ‘classical history’ detour, let me briefly mention a tidbit of gossip which has significance for the modern world; “

 “Eratosthenes criticized Homer as to his concept of geography; in contrast,  Ptolemy ‘s reputation as a geographer, was unscathed well into the Middle Ages; however, Homer was not as incorrect as Eratosthenes thought; Ptolemy’s calculations on circumferences were incorrect but were utilized by Christopher Columbus; it has been postulated, if navigators did not utilize

Ptolemy’ calculations he might not have undertaken his journey – the New World would not have been discovered!!  And, as expected, Columbus’ voyage did provoke map mapping, i.e. Juan de la Cosa based his map on Columbus’ second voyage;  this gentleman owned the Santa Maria, Columbus’ largest ship used on his first  journey;  de la Cosa, as owner, was second – in-command on Columbus’s journeys; he made mappa mundi , which for the first time, showed the New World; it was based upon his travels; it was Alexander von Humboldt, a friend of Goethe and Schiller, and a very prolific scientific writer, recognized the significance of de la Rosa’s map; he lived approximately 300 years after the creator of this mundi mappa;  “

     “I see,” I said to the linguist wife,” you are puzzling why de la Rosa’s map of 1500 required a German scientific writer to be discovered after the many years that had passed from its inception; especially since

Gutenberg ‘s moveable type was already in existence; the reason is that: such maps were considered a ‘trade secret’ paid for by the commissioning nation; in this case, Spain; “

    “ Juan de la Rosa had several contemporaries – all significant for different reasons: for instance, consider Martin Waldseemuller and    Matthias Ringmann    who named the New World, America , honoring Amerigo Vespucci; but for me, of great significance was Francesco  Rosselli who must have been influenced by Albrecht Durer; Francesco Rosselli made a copper engraving of a mappa mundi ( designed by Giovanni Contarini); this duo: Contarini-Rosselli were obviously influenced by two giants: Gutenberg and Durer; the copper engraving was the first printed map!!   It is not difficult to image that Rosselli was acquainted with Durer’s godfather, Anton Koberger, the goldsmith who became a printer and publisher coincidentally in Durer’s birth  year 1471; “

   “  Ah my dear, I think I’m coming to the 16^th century; thus I think it’s necessary for me to tell you a little about Gerardus Mercator; true, I find maps and coins quite fascinating, of course as a collector; but the Mercator I truly wish to know more about is Nicholas; did you ever hear of the Mercator series; it is a series to represent the natural logarithm or the Taylor series of the logarithm; it is said that Richard Feynman the great physicist that left our presence all too soon, would reel off logs; he seemed to have some sort of ‘colour affliction ‘– in that he once commented , referring to the Bessel functions, ‘I always wonder in what colour these equations appear to students;’  But Nicholas Mercator came after Gerardus Mercator;”      “Geradus Mercator was a multi-faced, far-reaching scholar; both he and Abraham Ortellus, another map-maker, began the recasting of Ptolemy’s Geographia;  As Durer’s godfather,

Mercator too was an engraver; he belonged to the Netherlands school of map makers;  Ortellus another Flemish cartographer, also  began his career as an engraver but then confided his activities to publishing; most outstandingly, Ortellus put forth the idea that all the continents were once joined; and then, due to a continental drift, separated;  “

     “Permit me to conclude this diatribe with only one more comment: As there existed the Flemish school of cartography, in Spain, from the 13^th to 15^th century there existed the Majorcan school; however, the latter term was predominantly used to describe Jewish cartographers;  they flourished until the Jews were expelled from Spain (Spanish Inquisition)  under the Catholic rulers, Isabella and Ferdinand; these were the same monarchs which financed Chistopher Columbus’ expeditions;

     Muslim geographers existed from the 8^th century to the 16^th century;  Most significantly, engraver, 16^th century etcher, Augustin Hirschvogel was also a cartographer;”

     “Now let’s look at some maps;”