Date:

1505

Title:

The Caverio World Chart

Cartographer:

Caverio, Nicolo di

Summary:

Nicolo di Caverio (sometimes called Canerio) was a Genoese mapmaker who had access to Portuguese information or access to the Cantino Panisphere or some other unknown chart because the information on the Cantino and Caverio charts are similar. The style of the Caverio chart is more like the Portolan charts of the thirteen and early fourteen-hundreds showing many compass roses and rhumb lines or loxodromes. Most land configurations are similar to those of Cantino but some placenames are new based on later voyages by Amerigo Vespucci and Ferdinando de Noronha (1503-4) along the South American coast. "In North America he presents a new delineation of the Gulf of Mexico, with the peninsulas representing Yucatan and Florida".* Yucatan is here depicted as islands and this was copied for many years afterward. The relation of Cuba (Isabella) to the Florida peninsula is not accurate but was also copied by other mapmakers including Waldseemüller. The presence of placenames along the coast of the peninsula indicates that someone explored it.

The chart is a manuscript on vellum leaves and measures 46 x 90 inches. The only copy is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.


Note:

Image from: Burden, Philip D. The Mapping of North America. A list of printed maps 1511-1670. England: Raleigh Publications, 1996.

*Reference: Nebenzahl (1990).

Coverage Time:

1500s