Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

The Henricus Martellus map was created by the German cartographer Henricus Martellus and was one of the milestones in the mapping history. It is stored here in the Beinecke rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Henricus Martellus created the map in Florence around 1490. He added all the latest discoveries of the the rounding of Africa (Cape the Good Hope) by the Portuguese. In the east, you can see a large southern peninsula, known as the Dragon's Tail. Obviously, this was based on speculations and vague stories. Henricus Martellus based his work on Portuguese marine charts, the book of Marco Polo and Ptolemy's Geography. The Dragon's Tail was already put on the Ptolemy map of the world. Martellus got a lot of his distances wrong. Africa was reaching 45° south vs 35°. This made the tour around Africa longer than it actually is. He was also wrong in the extension of Europe and Asia. He made it 230° wide, while it is only 130° wide. Obviously, this was leading to the speculation that it was possible to reach Asia from the west, approaching from the other side.

Dromos