Figure 5.2. The Portuguese Padrões on Three Maps

Figure 5.2

Details from Carta del Cantino, 1502, Estensi Digital Library, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Modena, with permission pending from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Italy  (left); Caverio, Planisphère nautique, 1506, Bibliothèque Nacionale de France, Paris (center); and Waldseemüller, Universalis Cosmographia, 1507, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (right).


Chartmakers and mapmakers copied from each other. This figure shows how copying could change the symbols entered onto a chart. The Portuguese erected stone markers (padrões) along the coast of Africa, and these padrões also appeared on charts. On site, a mariner could use the astrolabe to take a reading of the sun at noon and calculate latitude. When the chartmaker had this information, the markers could be placed with correct readings of latitude on charts. On Carta del Cantino, the chartmaker distinguishes between padrões–the gold colored posts topped with a cross–and the red and blue Portuguese flag (above left). Caverio, who copied Carta del Cantino, combined the two symbols into one by inserting the Portuguese red and blue crest into the stone markers (above center).  Waldseemüller, copying from Caverio, adopted this design, as can be seen above, right.