YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 560
Agnese, Battista. Portolan Atlas. Latin and Italian manuscript. Venice,
1559. Vellum. 26 ff. (250 x 185 mm. ) 23 maps in various colors, with many
representations of people, ships, and landmarks. Humanistic script. Shield in
yellow and blue with "Cosmo-Grra-Phia" in red. Bound in modern red morocco,
gilt, by Riviere and Son.
Comments: On map 4, there is an inscription "Baptista agnese fecit venenetijs
anno domini 1559 die 8 augusti." The shield on the title-page has had the arms
removed and replaced by a misspelled title. When the volume was rebound Map 1
of the Pacific Ocean was apparently lost and it was replaced by what should
have been No. 8.
Map 1: Black Sea with 8 headwinds, with inscriptions in Italian, Latin and
High Dutch.
Map 2: Atlantic Ocean, with the New World and Africa.
Map 3: Indian Ocean, with 8 windheads.
Map 4: Europe, with figures of rulers.
Map 5: Spain and North Africa.
Map 6: Western Mediterranean.
Map 7: Eastern Mediterranean.
Map 8: Corsica.
Map 9: Malta.
Map 10: Sicily.
Map 11: Crete.
Map 12: Euboea.
Map 13: Lesbos.
Map 14: Chios and Asia Minor.
Map 15: Rhodes.
Map 16: Cyprus.
Map 17: Scandinavia.
Map 18: Russia and Tartary.
Map 19: Holy Land.
Map 20: Africa.
Map 21: Egypt and Syria.
Map 22: Eastern Hemisphere.
Map 23: Oval world map.
Two pages of computation of distances.
Santiago Perez Junquera of Madrid; Karl W. Hiersemann of Leipzig; Quarich
Ltd.; Collection of Henry C. Taylor, no. 5. Bequest of Henry C. Taylor, in
1971.
Bibliography: H.R. Wagner, The Manuscript Atlases of Battista Agnese (New
York 1931) pp. 95-96, number LVIII; J.S. Kebabian, The Henry C. Taylor
Collection, (New Haven 1971) p. 2, no. 5.
Albert Derolez