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Dear all:
This one is (or was...) not easy... and, in fact, it needed a lot more of
thinking...
I had already promised that, due to other important things to do, my
intervention in this interesting discussion had ended... But then I couldn't
resist the temptation to give it a little more thinking... (after all, it was
History of Cartography...). A little more thinking, enriched by all the
contributions colectively made until this point (namely this last one, by
Joaquim Alves Gaspar, stressing what is indeed a fact: the more usual presence
of Portuguese portolan-charts, not Ptolemaic mapamundi, at that place and time,
Goa, 1554, among the Portuguese...).
But how was that possible, a big chart unfolded and framed, under (inside) a
relatively small 16th century "vidro" (glass)...? And neither absolutely
exposed nor absolutelly protected (and therefore acumulating even more humidity
on the face touching the glass...), travelling from the Indian Ocean to Japan,
in tropical seas and lands...
Then another COMPLETELLY DIFFERENT explanation occurred to me -- but an
explanation also consistent with the possible meaning of "vidro" (glass) in the
Portuguese language at that time...! Now I think that this is the one that can
give to us all a more plausible solution for this "mystery" (or at last,
intriguing case...) of the "globe" that could never have existed, and therefore
turned into a sheet, but a sheet that is to big to be framed under a 16th
century regular glass... The explanation is as follows.
This has nothing to do with surfaces and sheets and panes...!
This was not a display... It was only a transportation...!
It was indeed a Portuguese portolan-chart type world map, made of parchment, as
usual (in Portuguese, a "mapamundo"), with its usual dimensions, but it was
rolled up, for transportation (as usual...), and introduced (and isolated from
humidity, with bees wax, or other similar method of the time) inside a "VIDRO"
(in another Portuguese possible meaning of the word "vidro", which can also
mean "CONTAINER"...!).
"Vidro", here, can have the meaning of a glass container (a kind of more or
less long tubular or round container, of the type then called "boceta" which
was already more easily produced at that time, eventually with many kind of
shapes, blown), a container which was used to transport (when its mouth was
absolutely sealed and isolated), protected from humidity, the kind of things
that may deteriorate with the weather conditions and moisture, such as precious
items made of parchment (such as a portolan-chart, decorated, for geopolitical
information and diplomacy... what I usually call "Cartas para Príncipes"...).
This is the best explanation that occurs to me, to solve this little (?)
mystery. I think that this is the process though which the Japanese daimyo of
Bungo (Oita) received his map dry (more or less...).
I think that we came to it together, step by step (in a true example of what
free and productive and motivating discussion can be...).
Now I will have to do other things, but it was a pleasure having this
discussion (for nowadays I have to dedicate much of my time to many other
interesting and important things, very far from the History of Cartography, but
it is true that this fascinating discipline is a kind of "disease"... one never
forgets... and it is always a pleasure to return...)
With all best wishes to everybody (including Mr. "Clouseau" in Canada...)
Alfred "Poirot" Marques (not my name)
****************************************
Alfredo Pinheiro Marques
* * * * * *
Centro de Estudos do Mar - CEMAR
************* * * *
Rua Mestre Augusto Fragata, 8 - Buarcos
************* * * *
3080-900 - FIGUEIRA DA FOZ - PORTUGAL ************* ****
e-mail: a...@cemar.pt - tel.: (351) 969070009
****************** * *** * *
fax./tel.: (351) 233434450; tel.: (351) 913288274 * ** **
****************************** ** ** * *
*****************************************************************************************
アルフレッド・ピニェイロ・マルケシュ ( センター所長 ) 海洋学センター
*****************************************************************************************
DÉSIR
*****************************************************************************************
Visite a Bibliografia dos Descobrimentos -- Visit the Bibliography of the
Discoveries -- Visite la Bibliografia de los Descubrimientos:
http://www.uc.pt/bd.apm --- BD - International Bibliography of the Discoveries
and Overseas Encounters (ed. Alfredo P. Marques)
*****************************************************************************************
(será que esta base de dados bibliográfica ainda lá está, no endereço
http://www.uc.pt/bd.apm da Universidade de Coimbra...?)
(is it still there, at the University of Coimbra, at http://www.uc.pt/bd.apm,
this international bibliographical database...?)
(¿adonde está esta base de datos bibliográfica que estava en
http://www.uc.pt/bd.apm, en la Universidad de Coimbra...?)
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