Gabriel de Vallseca
Encyclopedia
Gabriel de Vallseca, also referred to as Gabriel de Valseca and Gabriel de Valsequa (Barcelona
, before 1408 - Palma, after 1467) was a Catalan
cartographer of Jewish descent connected to the Majorcan cartographic school
. His most notable map is the portolan of 1439, containing the first depiction of the recently-discovered Azores
islands.
, to a family of Jewish converso
s. He is sometimes said to be the son of Haym ibn Risch (of the Cresques family), who, upon conversion, took the name Juan de Vallsecha. Alternatively, he had Majorcan relatives through his mother or his wife.
By 1433, Valseca had left Barcelona and was living in Palma, Majorca, where he soon made a name for himself as a master cartographer, instrument-maker and merchant. He lived in the parish of Santa Creu, in the marine and commercial district of the city. He married Floreta Miró and had two sons, Francesc and Joan, both of which would later have run-ins with the Spanish Inquisition
for "judaizing", which suggests their father Gabriel may also have been a crypto-Jew
. Valseca wrote out his last will in the city of Majorca in 1467 and died shortly after.
There are also two anonymous maps attributed to him:
Although his style conforms to the traditional Majorcan cartographic school
, Vallseca incorporated some more contemporary innovations in cartography from Italy, Portugal and elsewhere, most notably from Francesco Beccario (e.g. the homogenization of the scale between the Mediterranean and Atlantic). He maps retain some signature Majorcan decorative motifs, such as the wind rose
, miniature humans,animals and plants, the Atlas Mountains
shaped as a palm, the Alps
as a chicken's foot, Bohemia
as a horseshoe, the Danube
as a chain, the Tagus
as a shepherd's crook, the Red Sea
colored red, and scattered notes and labels in the Catalan language
.
down to the Rio de Oro
and including the Atlantic islands of the Azores
, Madeira
and Canaries
, as well as the imaginary islands of Thule
, Brazil
and Mam.
The most notable is the depiction of the islands of the Azores (officially discovered in 1431 by Henry's captain Gonçalo Velho Cabral
), which although incorrectly spaced, are accurately depicted for the first time as strung out from southeast to northwest.
According to a marginal note, the 1439 map was once owned by Amerigo Vespucci
, who paid 80 gold ducat
s for it. (Questa ampia pella di geographia fue pagata da Amerigo Vespucci - LXXX ducati di oro di marco). It is conjectured Vespucci might have acquired it in Florence
in the late 15th C. and taken it to the New World
with him. At some point it came into the hands of the Majorcan Counts of Montenegro. The map suffered an accident in 1869, when the Count of Montenegro was in the process of showing it to his visitors, Frédéric Chopin
and George Sand
. A carelessly-placed inkwell tipped onto the map, causing irreparable blots and marring the legibility of some of the labels, most crucially that pertaining to the discovery of the Azores
. The current note reads as follows:
The surname and part of the date are smudged. The earliest reading we have of this portion of the map is by a Majorcan named Pasqual in 1789 who jotted the surname down as "Guullen". It has since been read as Diego de Senill ('the Old' - a reference in the direction of Gonçalo Velho) and de Sevill or de Sunis, Survis, Sinus, Simis, Sines. The date has been alternatively interpreted
MCCCCXXVII (1427) or MCCCCXXXII (1432) or MCCCCXXXVII (1437). In 1943, historian Damião Peres proposed Diogo de Silves
and the date as 1427, which is now commonly cited in Portuguese sources.
Valseca names eight or nine islands of the Azores, which have been hard to read because of the ink accident. One 1841 reading (by the Visconde de Santarem) identifies the names of the eight islands as Ylla de Osels (Ucello, Santa Maria
), Ylla de Frydols (São Miguel
), Ylla de l'Inferno (Terceira
), Guatrilla (São Jorge), de Sperta (Pico
), Ylla de ....? (erased, Faial
?) and (although not yet officially discovered) the more westerly Ylla de Corp-Marinos (Corvo
) and Conigi (Flores) (these last two would only be officially discovered by Diogo de Teive
in 1452; Valseca apparently lifted these last two from the Catalan Atlas
of 1375). Other readings decipher "deserta" (rather than de Sperta), "jlla bela" (instead of Guatrilla), illa aucells or jlha aurolls (instead of Osels/Uccello), faucols (instead of Frydols) and raio marnos or vegis marins (instead of Corp-Marinos).
In 1910, the Count of Montenegro put the 1439 map up for sale. It was bought by the Catalan Pere Bosc i Oliver, who proceeded to sell it to the Institute of Catalan Studies, which deposited it at the National Library of Catalonia
in Barcelona in 1917. It was transferred in 1960 to the Museu Marítim de Barcelona, where it is currently on display.
There is one reproduction of the map, made in 1892 for an exhibition on the 4th centenary of Columbus in Spain, that is currently in the possession of the Naval Museum of Madrid.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, before 1408 - Palma, after 1467) was a Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
cartographer of Jewish descent connected to the Majorcan cartographic school
Majorcan cartographic school
The Majorcan cartographic school is the term coined by historians to refer to the collection of cartographers, cosmographers and navigational instrument-makers that flourished in Majorca in the 14th and 15th Centuries. The label is usually inclusive of those who worked in mainland Catalonia...
. His most notable map is the portolan of 1439, containing the first depiction of the recently-discovered Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
islands.
Life
Gabriel de Valseca was born in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, to a family of Jewish converso
Converso
A converso and its feminine form conversa was a Jew or Muslim—or a descendant of Jews or Muslims—who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. Mass conversions once took place under significant government pressure...
s. He is sometimes said to be the son of Haym ibn Risch (of the Cresques family), who, upon conversion, took the name Juan de Vallsecha. Alternatively, he had Majorcan relatives through his mother or his wife.
By 1433, Valseca had left Barcelona and was living in Palma, Majorca, where he soon made a name for himself as a master cartographer, instrument-maker and merchant. He lived in the parish of Santa Creu, in the marine and commercial district of the city. He married Floreta Miró and had two sons, Francesc and Joan, both of which would later have run-ins with the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
for "judaizing", which suggests their father Gabriel may also have been a crypto-Jew
Crypto-Judaism
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews"...
. Valseca wrote out his last will in the city of Majorca in 1467 and died shortly after.
Works
There are three existing maps signed by Gabriel Vallseca- Map of 1439, at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona (inv. 3236) - partial mappa mundi
- Map of 1447, at the Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
(Rés. Ge. C4607) - Mediterranean region - Mep of 1449 at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze (CN 22) - Mediterranean region
There are also two anonymous maps attributed to him:
- Undated map (approx.1440) at Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di FirenzeNational Central Library (Florence)The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze is a public national library in Florence, the largest in Italy and one of most important in Europe, one of the two central libraries of Italy, along with the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Rome.-History:...
(portolà 16) - partial mappa mundi - Undated map (apprx. 1447) at Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
(Rés. Ge. D 3005) - fragments of the eastern Mediterranean
Although his style conforms to the traditional Majorcan cartographic school
Majorcan cartographic school
The Majorcan cartographic school is the term coined by historians to refer to the collection of cartographers, cosmographers and navigational instrument-makers that flourished in Majorca in the 14th and 15th Centuries. The label is usually inclusive of those who worked in mainland Catalonia...
, Vallseca incorporated some more contemporary innovations in cartography from Italy, Portugal and elsewhere, most notably from Francesco Beccario (e.g. the homogenization of the scale between the Mediterranean and Atlantic). He maps retain some signature Majorcan decorative motifs, such as the wind rose
Wind rose
A wind rose is a graphic tool used by meteorologists to give a succinct view of how wind speed and direction are typically distributed at a particular location. Historically, wind roses were predecessors of the compass rose , as there was no differentiation between a cardinal direction and the wind...
, miniature humans,animals and plants, the Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...
shaped as a palm, the Alps
The Alps
The Alps is a 2007 American documentary film about the climbing of the north face of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps by John Harlin III, son of John Harlin who died on the same ascent 40 years earlier...
as a chicken's foot, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
as a horseshoe, the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
as a chain, the Tagus
Tagus
The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...
as a shepherd's crook, the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
colored red, and scattered notes and labels in the Catalan language
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
.
1439 Map
Valseca's most famous map is the portolan of 1439, particularly for incorporating the very recent discoveries of the captains of the Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator. Its depiction of the Atlantic Ocean stretches from ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
down to the Rio de Oro
Río de Oro
Río de Oro , is, with Saguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969; it was originally taken as a Spanish colonial possession in the late 19th century...
and including the Atlantic islands of the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Canaries
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, as well as the imaginary islands of Thule
Thule
Thule Greek: Θούλη, Thoulē), also spelled Thula, Thila, or Thyïlea, is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway. Other interpretations...
, Brazil
Brazil (mythical island)
Brasil, also known as Hy-Brasil or several other variants, is a phantom island which was said to lie in the Atlantic ocean west of Ireland. In Irish myths it was said to be cloaked in mist, except for one day each seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached...
and Mam.
The most notable is the depiction of the islands of the Azores (officially discovered in 1431 by Henry's captain Gonçalo Velho Cabral
Gonçalo Velho
Gonçalo Velho Cabral was a Portuguese monk and Commander in the Order of Christ, explorer and hereditary landowner responsible for administering Crown lands on the same islands, during the Portuguese Age of Discovery.-Biography:He was son of...
), which although incorrectly spaced, are accurately depicted for the first time as strung out from southeast to northwest.
According to a marginal note, the 1439 map was once owned by Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
, who paid 80 gold ducat
Ducat
The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade coin throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.4909 grams of .986 gold, which is 0.1107 troy ounce, actual gold weight...
s for it. (Questa ampia pella di geographia fue pagata da Amerigo Vespucci - LXXX ducati di oro di marco). It is conjectured Vespucci might have acquired it in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in the late 15th C. and taken it to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
with him. At some point it came into the hands of the Majorcan Counts of Montenegro. The map suffered an accident in 1869, when the Count of Montenegro was in the process of showing it to his visitors, Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
and George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
. A carelessly-placed inkwell tipped onto the map, causing irreparable blots and marring the legibility of some of the labels, most crucially that pertaining to the discovery of the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
. The current note reads as follows:
The surname and part of the date are smudged. The earliest reading we have of this portion of the map is by a Majorcan named Pasqual in 1789 who jotted the surname down as "Guullen". It has since been read as Diego de Senill ('the Old' - a reference in the direction of Gonçalo Velho) and de Sevill or de Sunis, Survis, Sinus, Simis, Sines. The date has been alternatively interpreted
MCCCCXXVII (1427) or MCCCCXXXII (1432) or MCCCCXXXVII (1437). In 1943, historian Damião Peres proposed Diogo de Silves
Diogo de Silves
Diogo de Silves, is the presumed name of an obscure Portuguese explorer of the Atlantic who allegedly discovered of the Azores islands in 1427....
and the date as 1427, which is now commonly cited in Portuguese sources.
Valseca names eight or nine islands of the Azores, which have been hard to read because of the ink accident. One 1841 reading (by the Visconde de Santarem) identifies the names of the eight islands as Ylla de Osels (Ucello, Santa Maria
Santa Maria Island
Santa Maria , Portuguese for Saint Mary, is an island located in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago and the southernmost island in the Azores...
), Ylla de Frydols (São Miguel
São Miguel Island
São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...
), Ylla de l'Inferno (Terceira
Terceira Island
Referred to as the “Ilha Lilás” , Terceira is an island in the Azores archipelago, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the larger islands of the archipelago, with a population of 56,000 inhabitants in an area of approximately 396.75 km²...
), Guatrilla (São Jorge), de Sperta (Pico
Pico Island
Pico Island , is an island in the Central Group of the Portuguese Azores noted for its eponymous volcano, Ponta do Pico, which is the highest mountain in Portugal, the Azores, and the highest elevation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge...
), Ylla de ....? (erased, Faial
Faial Island
Faial Island , also known in English as Fayal, is a Portuguese island of the Central Group of the Azores....
?) and (although not yet officially discovered) the more westerly Ylla de Corp-Marinos (Corvo
Corvo Island
Corvo Island , literally the Island of the Crow, is the smallest and the northernmost island of the Azores archipelago and the northernmost in Macaronesia, with a population of approximately 468 inhabitants constituting the smallest single municipality in Azores and in Portugal.-History:A small...
) and Conigi (Flores) (these last two would only be officially discovered by Diogo de Teive
Diogo de Teive
Diogo de Teive was a captain and squire to the House of Infante D. Henrique during the Portuguese period of discovery.On January 1, 1451 he disembarked on the island of Terceira in the Azores from which he made his base. He realized two voyages of exploration to the West of the archipelago...
in 1452; Valseca apparently lifted these last two from the Catalan Atlas
Catalan Atlas
The Catalan Atlas is the most important Catalan map of the medieval period. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham , a Jewish book illuminator who was self-described as being a master of the maps of the world as well as compasses...
of 1375). Other readings decipher "deserta" (rather than de Sperta), "jlla bela" (instead of Guatrilla), illa aucells or jlha aurolls (instead of Osels/Uccello), faucols (instead of Frydols) and raio marnos or vegis marins (instead of Corp-Marinos).
In 1910, the Count of Montenegro put the 1439 map up for sale. It was bought by the Catalan Pere Bosc i Oliver, who proceeded to sell it to the Institute of Catalan Studies, which deposited it at the National Library of Catalonia
National Library of Catalonia
The National Library of Catalonia is a Spanish National Library located in Barcelona. The mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalonian bibliographic production and that related to the Catalonian linguistic area, to look after its conservation, and to spread...
in Barcelona in 1917. It was transferred in 1960 to the Museu Marítim de Barcelona, where it is currently on display.
There is one reproduction of the map, made in 1892 for an exhibition on the 4th centenary of Columbus in Spain, that is currently in the possession of the Naval Museum of Madrid.
Sources
- C.R. Beazley and E. Prestage, editors (1896–99) The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, London: Hakluyt, v.1, v.2
- Cortesão, Armando (1954) A Carta Nautica de 1424, as reprinted in 1975, Esparsos, Coimbra. vol. 3
- D'Avezac, M.A.P. Marquis (1845) Notice des découvertes faites au môyen-age dans l'Océan Atlantique, antérieurement aux grandes explorations portugaises du quinzième siècle, Paris: Fain et Thunot online
- Jordão de Freitas (1937) "As ilhas do arquipélago dos Açores na história da expansão portuguesa", in A. Baião, H. Cidade and M. Múrias, edtors, História da Expansão Portuguesa no Mundo, 3 vols.; Lisbon, 1937, vol. 1, pp. 291ff.
- Ginard Bujosa, Antoni (2002) La cartografia mallorquina a Mallorca. Barcelona: JJ. De Olañeta Editor. ISBN 84-9716-145-9.
- Mees, Jules (1901) Histoire de la découverte des îles Açores, et de l'origine de leur dénomination d'îles flamandes. Ghent: Vuylsteke. online
- Novinsky, A.W. (1990) "Papel dos Judeus nos Grandes Descobrimentos", in Revista Brasileira de História. São Paulo, vol. 11 (21), Sep, pp. 65–76.
- Visconde de Santarem (1841) Chronica do Descobrimento e Conquista da Guiné.... pelo Chronista Gomes Eannes de Azurara
- "Vallseca, Gabriel de" in Miquel Dolç, editor, Gran Enciclopèdia de Mallorca, vol. 18, Palma: Promomallorca. ISBN 84-8661717-2.