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Benedetto Bordone (died 1531) was a Venetian
manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
editor, miniaturist and
cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...
. He was born in
Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...
, then part of the
Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...
. His date of birth is unknown but his parents were married in Padua in 1442 and he was married there in 1480. His most famous work is the ''Isolario'' (''The Book of Islands'', "where we discuss all islands of the world, with their ancient and modern names, histories, tales and way of living..."), in which he describes all the islands of the known world, detailing their
folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
,
myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
s,
culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
s,
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...
s, situations, and
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
. Printed in
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
in 1528, the work is an example of a cartographic genre popular in
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
during the 15th and 16th centuries. It is intended as an illustrated guide for
sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...
s and attempts to include all the new
transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...
discoveries. ''Isolario'' contains an oval depiction of the world, a type of map invented by Bordone Columbia University photo of Bordone's map
/ref> and formalized into the equal-area elliptical
Mollweide projection 400px, Mollweide projection of the world 400px, The Mollweide projection with Tissot's indicatrix of deformation The Mollweide projection is an equal-area, pseudocylindrical map projection generally used for maps of the world or celestial sp ...
three centuries later. Bordone's map shows a very distorted ''Mondo Novo'' (
New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
), displaying only the northern regions of
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
.
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, depicted as a large island, is labelled ''Terra del Laboratore'' ("Land of the worker"), almost certainly a reference to the
slave trading The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and Slavery and religion, religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, a ...
in the area in those days and from which comes the name
Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...
. The book also contains a record of
Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Born in Trujillo, Cáceres, Trujillo, Spain, to a poor fam ...
's conquest of
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
, the earliest known printed account of this event. Of particular interest in this work are numerous
woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
maps, twelve of which relate to America. One map displays a plan of "Temistitan" (
Tenochtitlan , also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear, but the date 13 March 1325 was chosen in 1925 to celebrate the 600th annivers ...
, modern
Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...
) before its destruction by Cortez. Also of interest is a map of ''Ciampagu'', the earliest known
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an-printed map of
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
as an island. Bordone is reputed to have been the father of
Julius Caesar Scaliger Julius Caesar Scaliger (; 23 April or August 1484 – 21 October 1558), or Giulio Cesare della Scala, was an Italian scholar and physician, who spent a major part of his career in France. He employed the techniques and discoveries of Renaissance ...
, a classical scholar, and grandfather of
Joseph Justus Scaliger Joseph Justus Scaliger (; 5 August 1540 – 21 January 1609) was a Franco-Italian Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Je ...
, founder of the science of historical chronology. Original maps from Bordone's ''Isolario'' are prized for their historical value.


References


External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20190324111406/http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/Ren/Ren1/343.html


Bibliography

*''Isolario'' (1528) *
Google Books
*
Archive.org
* Lilian Armstrong: ''Benedetto Bordon and the Illumination of Venetian Choirbooks around 1500: Patronage, Production, Competition.'' In: Wege zum illuminierten Buch. Herstellungsbedingungen für Buchmalerei in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Wien 2014, S. 148-176, , Online: https://e-book.fwf.ac.at/detail_object/o:521 * Anastasia Stouraiti
'Talk, Script and Print: The Making of Island Books in Early Modern Venice', Historical Research vol. 86, no. 232 (2013), 207-229.
*Ludovica Radif, «Benedictus Bordo» in Compendium Auctorum Latinorum Medii Aevi II/2, 2005, p. 204. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bordone, Benedetto Year of birth missing 1531 deaths 16th-century Italian cartographers Artists from Padua 15th-century Venetian people 16th-century Venetian people Italian manuscript illuminators