Battista Agnese, of Genoese origin, was working in Venice when he created an atlas of portolan style nautical charts/maps that have become one of the great sixteenth-century findings. His maps are know for their precision, detail and artistic value and Agnese, in a period of two years, (1543-1544) produced maps of the whole of the known world that contain many remarkable accuracies.

This map shows the mapping from the British Isles, all around the Mediterranean and then all around Africa to Arabia. Going west, they mapped the entire Eastern coast of North and South America. It is one of the nine high quality colored navigation charts he produced in this period together with illuminated representations of a celestial sphere, signs of the zodiac, and the world with the twelve winds.

A portolan map used in a nautical atlas refers to an early modern European style of drawing, usually on vellum, in which complete coasts, ports and waterways were depicted together with characteristic direction lines from the thirty-two points of the compass and were divided by wind directions. They were hand-drawn, practical navigation aids prior to the days of accurate surveying and map engraving techniques. Their aim was a faithful rendering of the coastlines, while the inland areas were usually documented only superficially.

Most of his maps of America are based on Spanish models now lost and they are therefore significant for tracing the evolution of the Spanish discoveries in America. In the Agnese portolan's the coastlines of islands are given in green, while those of the mainland are rendered in blue. The atlas form was considered state of the art and they were designed following the latest cartographic rules of the day. They included the latest explorations and discoveries and the ocean maps could be overlapped for comparison and to produce an accurate map of the world.

He was not an original cartographer as his maps might suggest, but rather a copyist with a reputation for his diligent attention to keeping his many maps up to date. Agnese"s charts, including those in this atlas, are beautifully executed on vellum and illuminated in clear colors as well as with silver and gold. Their exquisite beauty is in keeping with the fact that they were frequently made for Venetian merchant princes and ranking officials.

In the fifty years following Columbus' historic discoveries, a great deal of nautical information had been developed that increasingly allowed for yet still new voyages that gathered new, and sometimes remarkably accurate information. The European vision of the world was changing at a rapid rate as fresh observations of "new worlds" were continually being brought back and converted into protolans and other style maps for the next explorer. Like today, whoever had the largest pool of accurate information became a focal point and in the case of Agnese and his artistic approach, a profitable focal point.

Medium : Reproduced from the original atlas, in color

Created/Published : c1544

Creator : Battista Agnese, 16th century

Housed in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in 1 week

Product #: Agneseca00005