1556 / 1565 Giovanni Battista Ramusio Map of Hispaniola

Most beautiful early woodcut of Hispaniola.

This scarce 1565 woodcut map of Hispaniola, published in Giovanni Battista Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi, is the most attractive of the early depictions of the island. As with the 1556 first block of the map, it is geographically based on the 1534 Peter Martyr map of the island. But whereas the 1556 edition was a rote copy of the unadorned 1534 map, this 1565 second block is a beautiful example of the art of the woodcut, embellishing the waters around the island with waves, ships, and sea monsters, while the land is evocatively rendered with mountains and pictorial cities far beyond those presented in the earlier edition.

A Closer Look

The woodcut - probably the work of Matteo Pagano - presents the island as if at the center of a compass rose, with the cardinal directions noted. Specific regions of the island are named. The city of Santo Domingo is marked and named, as is the old northern port of Puerto Real, now the Haitian town of Limonade. The ocean around the island is depicted with vigorous waves, three sailing ships, and four sea monsters.

Publication History and Census

This woodcut was first cut, probably by Matteo Pagano, for inclusion in the 1556 third volume of Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi. The woodblock for that map, and indeed all the maps of the 1556 edition, burned in a 1557 warehouse fire. It appears in only one known state. The blocks were all re-engraved, probably again by Pagano, for the 1565 edition of the Navigationi et Viaggi. The second block (the present example) is geographically identical to the first, but none of the decorative elements here are present on the first edition, making this a far more desirable map. This second block was used again in 1606. That edition is easily identifiable by the small worm-shaped blank areas (woodworm appears to have similarly infested all blocks of the 1606 edition.) The 1556 edition of the third volume of Navigationi et Viaggi is rare. Seven examples of the 1565 are listed in OCLC, while perhaps twenty of the 1606 edition appear in institutional collections. We see only one example of the separate map in OCLC, in the collection of the University of Florida.

Cartographers

Giovanni Battista Ramusio (July 20, 1485 - July 10, 1557) was an Italian civil servant, humanist, scholar, historian, and geographer active in the middle part of the 16th century. Ramusio spent most of his life in the service of the Republic of Venice, first as part of that state's embassy to France, and later as a reporter on voyages and discoveries. He was born to an illustrious family in Treviso and moved to Vencie as a young man, where his father was a magistrate. He studied at the University of Padua but may not have received a full degree. He entered the civil service shortly after leaving the university and was immediately assigned to diplomatic service for his facility with languages, particularly French. His most significant contribution to cartography is his publication of Navigationi et Viaggi a collection of travel narratives he collected in his service to the state. The narratives include those of Marco Polo, Niccolò Da Conti, Magellan, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Giosafat Barbaro, and Tomé Pires, among others. Some of the voyages appearing in the Navigationi et Viaggi are otherwise unknown, marking it as an exceptionally important volume. Ramusio died in Venice in 1557.   Further Details...

Matteo Pagano (1515-1588) was a Venetian woodcut artist and illustrator. While nothing is known about his early training, he was prolific and apparently successful. Among his more famous works is a 1556 eight-sheet woodcut of the procession of the Doge, in Venice. He produced a number of maps for various works, most notably the visually distinctive area maps appearing in Ramusio's Navigazioni et Viaggi. He is particularly noted for having published books of lace, needlework and embroidery designs, promoting needlework as an acceptable activity for virtuous women.   Further Details...

Source

Ramusio, G. B., Delle Navigationi et Viaggi Raccolte da M. Gio. Battista Ramusio, (Venice: Appresso i Giunti) 1565.    

Condition

Excellent. Some text show through visible.

References

OCLC 58551100.