Lopo Homem
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Lopo Homem (c. 1497 - c. 1572) was a 16th-century Portuguese cartographer and cosmographer based in Lisbon and best known for his work on the Miller Atlas.


Biography

Homem is estimated to have been born c. 1497, possibly into a noble family. He is known to have spent time in Azamor between 1520 and 1522 and in Lisbon in 1565. Beginning in 1517, he served as the crown's official cartographer and was given exclusive rights to "constructing and correcting... nautical compasses." If anyone else attempted to calibrate a ship, they were required to pay Homem, the Master of Nautical Instruments, 20 cruzados. These rights and titles were renewed in 1524 by King João III of Portugal. In 1524, Homem was involved in preliminary negotiations on behalf of the Portuguese crown as an expert witness at the Conferences of Badajoz-Elvas, which aimed to settle a dispute with Castile for the Molucca Islands. For this, he was given a pension of 1200 reais. A letter written by Lopo Homem alluding to the board quarrels over the claims of the two kings on exploration rights remains in the
Torre do Tombo The National Archive of Torre do Tombo ( pt, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, ) is the Portuguese national archive located in the civil parish of Alvalade, in the municipality of central-northern Lisbon. Established in 1378, it was renamed t ...
. Homem's earliest known work is a world map, which was discovered in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1930. His best-known work is the Miller Atlas, dated 1519, which is thought to be a joint work with Pedro Reinel, Reinel's son Jorge, and
António de Holanda Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
. There is, however, some disagreement in the academic community, with others arguing that Homem and de Holanda were the only two who worked on it. The Miller Atlas consists of eight maps over six sheets painted on both sides. It was created using information both from Homem's imagination and from known land masses dating back to
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of import ...
. Because of its "luxurious" work and detail, it is thought that King
Manuel I of Portugal Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was list of Portuguese monarchs, King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Duke of Viseu, Viseu prior to su ...
commissioned it as a state gift for
Francis I of France Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin onc ...
. Homem and the Reineles were the only known cartographers in Lisbon at this time, allowing them to entirely corner the market. In the mid-16th century, Homem criticized inaccurate maps, both for "damag ngthe geopolitical interests of the Crown... hichcould cause significant territorial losses" and for increasing the probability of shipwrecks and sailor deaths. In 1531, Lopo Homem was given a lifetime pension of 20,000 reais.


Works

Homem's known works, dated between 1557 and 1578, include 11 or 12 charts and 12 atlases; 7 of the atlases were of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea and 5 were of the world. These include: * Unnamed map (1519), a map featuring data from recent voyages combined with existing beliefs dating back to Claudius Ptolemy. Some geographic features of the map include a land mass stretching from the southern Atlantic to the southern Indian Oceans and connecting Brazil to the Malacca Peninsula, and Ptolemy's '' Sinus Magnus'' (Great Gulf). Homem's map shows the ''Mundus Novus Brasil'' in the West joined to the ''Mundus Novus Terra Incognita'' in the South and ''Malaca'' in the East, all enclosing the ''Oceanus Meridionalis'' and ''Indicum Mare'' (Atlantic and Indian Oceans). This is apparently an adaptation of Ptolemy’s enclosed Indian Ocean, enlarged following the discovery of a sea route south of Africa by
Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the o ...
(1488) and Vasco da Gama (1497). This revised concept was explained by Duarte Pacheco Pereira in ''Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis'' (1508) and expressed on Homem’s map. Pereira said: "the Ocean does not surround the earth as the philosophers have declared, but rather the earth surrounds the sea, and it lies in its hollow and centre. And from this I conclude that the Ocean is nothing other than an enormous lake in the hollow of the earth and that the earth and the sea together make up a single roundness". A similar concept is shown in the world map in the c.1553 manuscript of al-Qazwini (see Kujata). * Miller Atlas (1519), later named after Emmanuel Miller, who purchased it in 1855. The atlas has been in the possession of the National Library of France since 1897. Others who worked on this atlas include Pedro and Jorge Reinel and António de Holanda. ** "Terra Brasilis" - Southwestern Atlantic Ocean with Brazil. It describes
Indigenous Brazilians Indigenous peoples in Brazil ( pt, povos indígenas no Brasil) or Indigenous Brazilians ( pt, indígenas brasileiros, links=no) once comprised an estimated 2000 tribes and nations inhabiting what is now the country of Brazil, before European ...
as "savage and very brutal." This is the first map showing Portuguese trade and has detailed Latin nomenclature, featuring 146 names. The map shows the Brazilian coast from Maranhão to the Rio da Prata and shows Indigenous Brazilians engaging in the export of Brazilwood. Coats of arms over present-day Guyana and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
show areas of Portuguese and Spanish colonization. ** China Sea with the Moluccas. One side shows the Magnus Sinus (the
Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in l ...
and the
South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
) and the other shows the China Sea with the
Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
and also features rhumb lines. ** Northern Indian Ocean with Insulindia on the Left, and Madagascar on the Right. One side shows the
Northern Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
with
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
, the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
, the
Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Chan ...
, the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...
, the Ganges Delta, and the Nicobar Islands, as well as the equator. The other shows the Southern Indian Ocean with
Insulindia The Malay Archipelago ( Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the "Malay world," "Nusantara", " East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Arc ...
and
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
. ** Circular World Map of the Portuguese Hemisphere and Title Page. The cover page includes
Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...
's coat of arms and Latin text, which in English translates to: "This is the map of the entire world known up to this day, which I myself, Lopo Homem the cartographer, drew with great skill and careful work in the very famous city of Lisbon in the year of our Lord 1519 under the rule of the honored Emanuel King of Lusitania, having collated many other maps both ancient and recent." Gilded four winds are in the corners of the map; and Africa is divided into Libia, Guine, and
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
and is connected to the Arabian Peninsula by a much greater land mass than what exists. ** The Mediterranean Sea. This map shows European coasts spanning from
Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
to the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
and includes Frisia and the southern coasts of England and Ireland. The farthest west point is Cape Bojador (Ansulim); the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...
and northern parts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf are included. Biblically based features included on the map are the Cross of Golgotha in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, the
Tables of the Law According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tablets of the Law (also Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, or Tablets of Testimony; Biblical Hebrew: לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית ''lûḥōt habbǝrît'' "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן ...
on
Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...
, and the Tower of Babel between the
Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
and Euphrates Rivers. ** Central Atlantic Ocean with the Azores. One side of the map includes northern Europe, including the
British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles (O ...
,
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
,
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
, the northeastern
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
, Orléans, France, Lyon, France, and Worms, Germany. The other side features the Atlantic Ocean,
Azores ) , motto= ( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem=( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
, and
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...
("Insula Viridis"). ** North Atlantic Ocean. This map shows European coasts from
Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
to Málaga; African coasts from Melila to Cape Palmas (now southeast
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...
); and Azores, the British Isles,
Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...
, and Cape Verde Islands. The American coast spans from
Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...
to Acadia (now southeast
Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...
);
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...
to the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...
("Terra Bimenes"); and
Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...
and
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
to the South American
New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
. * Unnamed nautical chart (1550). Currently at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. It belonged to King Carlos I of Portugal. * Unnamed world map (1554). The first map in history to show Argentina. This map built on the ideas of cartographer Sebastian Cabot. It is current at the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy.


Family

He had at least 4 sons: Diogo and André, both cartographers; Thomas; and António.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Homem, Lopo Portuguese cartographers 16th-century Portuguese people 15th-century Portuguese people 16th-century cartographers Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Year of birth uncertain