Biblioteca Estense

The Biblioteca Estense contains the world famous Cantino world map. It is the most important manuscript map surviving from the early Age of Discovery. The Cantino planisphere or Cantino World Map is the earliest surviving map showing Portuguese Discoveries in the east and west. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for the Duke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portugal to Italy in 1502. The map incorporates extensive new geographical information based on four series of voyages: Columbus to the Caribbean, Pedro Álvarez Cabral to Brazil, Vasco de Gama followed by Cabral to eastern Africa and India, and the brothers Corte-Real to Greenland and Newfoundland. Except for Columbus, all had sailed under the Portuguese flag.

Dromos