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Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491)

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Taken from: Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging ...

By Chet Van Duzer

https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3435243?image_id=1040211

This Yale map of his is deeply influenced by Marco Polo and has Madagascar on the east-coast of Africa but strangely no Zanzibar. (He made several world maps)

Maps like this without Zanzibar but with Madagascar on the east coast of Africa show how the island of Madagascar got its name.

On the Yale map of Martellus (1) the island of Madagascar sits astride the Tropic of Capricorn. The name of the island, which is just north of the Tropic is spelled: Madargaschar insula.

North of the Tropic two texts are given about the island (difficult to read).

These people are Mahomedans; they have many lions, elephants, camels and other animals.

The circumference of the whole island is 4000 paces (2). (should be 4000 miles – this all comes from Marco Polo)

The texts in the southern part of the island are also very difficult to read.

This island has……it is 1000 miles distant from the island of Socotra to the south. (from Marco Polo)

On the southwestern coast: forest of sandalwood.

In the ocean on the north eastern side of Madagascar  is written: Here is born the sea-shell called the murex, which, when it is cut with iron, sheds red tears from which is made the purple dye called ostrum.

In the ocean in the complete south of Africa is the inscription:

To this point, to the column and the Isle of the Fountain (3), came the fleet of John the Second.

(1) Martellus: Henricus Martellus Germanus (fl. 1480-1496) was a German cartographer active in Florence. Two of his world maps were the first to show a passage around the southern tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean.

(2) Paces: A pace is a unit of length consisting either of one normal walking step (approximately 0.75 metres).

(3) Isle of the Fountain: East of Cape Town.