The Historica Cartographica Brasilis in Biblioteca Nacional Exhibition presentes to the visitors, in summary, an historical review of cartography in Brazil.
To reach this objective, we have decided to show the evolution of cartography in the West, in general. The Exhibition begins with Classical Antiquity, the Geography of Strabo, the Greek historian and geographer; extending to the Middle Ages, with a T-O Map, the most common type, whose example here is part of the Etymologies by Saint Isidore of Seville; then arriving at the Renaissance, a period in which Cartographic Science really expanded due to the invention of printing, the overseas discoveries and the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s Geography (a mapmaking manual with Geographical Coordinates). In this context, the world maps of Geography and the Nuremberg Chronicle, published soon before the arrival of Europeans in Brazil, are highlighted.
From the 16th century on, there begins, then, the historic cartography of Brazil with the first depiction of part of the world maps or maps of the Amercias in the Ptolemy’s Geography editions or publications by travelers. These representations of Brazil have illustrations of indigenous people, fauna and vegetation scenes whose information is given by Amerigo Vespucci, who accompanied the first Portuguese expeditions in the territory of Brazil, and later by travelers and navigators. The cartography of this period also registers the first names of the country: Terra de Santa Cruz (Land of Santa Cruz), Terra Incognita (Unknown Land), Cannibals, Terra dos Papagaios (Land of Parrots), and Brazil. There are maps made by cartographers such as Ruschy, Walsdeemüller, Ortelius, Ruscelli, Forlani, Gastaldi and Hulsius. In the 16th century, the Portuguese began to defend themselves from French invasions on Brazil’s coast. The pictures of these episodes are found on the Gastaldi’s map, depicting the trade between French navigators and Brazilian Indians and the books of the Franciscan friar and cosmographer Andre Thevet, who followed Villegagnon at the time he was in Rio de Janeiro, when the French colony Antarctic France was founded.
From 1580 to 1640, Portugal was part of the Iberian Union under the Philippine Dynasty. All of the Portuguese colonies also belonged to the Spanish crown, which favors the French, British and Dutch invasions on the northern and northeastern Brazilian coast. To defend the Iberian domains in America, the Philippine crown allowed the Luso-Brazilians to advance as far as the Amazon Delta. This conquest is registered in the Portuguese cartography of the 17th century, by the notable astronomer Cochado and Albernaz I, which shows the Portuguese fortifications and the cities founded, besides pointing out the British and French fortifications in ruins.
Still referring to the 17th century, the Portuguese manuscript cartography is displayed with maps by Antônio Vicente Cochado, Antônio Sanches, João Teixeira Albernaz and his grandson Albernaz II. All of these cartographic documents detail richly the toponyms of Brazil’s coast, from Belém to the Rio de la Plata Estuary. However, special consideration is to be given to the map of Brazil by Albernaz II (1666), besides others having a great quantity of the toponyms of the Brazilian coastline, and highlights the city of São Paulo and in the South, the Jesuit Missions.
The Exhibition could not leave out the beautiful Dutch cartography of the Brazilian Northeast between 1624-1654. The map Perfect Caerte der Gelegen theyt van Olinda de Pharnambuco Mauritsstadt ende t’Reciffo by Cornelis Golijath is chosen from these collection, which is considered the best catographic production under the Dutch dominion in the Northeast of Brazil.
In the 18th century there is a draft on the incursions into the interior of Brazil by the Luso-Brazilians pioneers, which belonged to “Cartas Sertanistas” (Hinterland Maps) set. These existing drafts in the National Library indicate the Jesuit Missions destroyed by the explorers and the routes to the regions of the mineral wealth in the interior of Brazil.
Still in the 18th century, the French cartography is also shown which became dominate in this period with the foundation of the Royal Academy of Science by Colbert and with the construction of the astronomic observatory in Paris. Within the chosen cartographers(1) are Guillaume de L’Isle and Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, the author of one of the best maps of the eighteenth-century depicting South America. The notoriety of Guillaume de L’Isle is due the fact of his observing the mistakes by the Portuguese in the calculation of the longitudes of Brazil. He was a member of the French Royal Academy of Science. Guillaume de L’Isle, in 1720, noticed that the Portuguese calculation exceeded their dominions in South America according to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). As is known, the Iberian crowns looked for a solution for the boundary disputes in their dominions in South America. The result of this negotiation was the Treaty of Madrid, signed in January 1750. Part of the Exhibition shows one of the original copies of the Mapa das Cortes (Map of the Courts), a cartographic document used as a basis for the Treaty. Then, a mixed commission for the survey and demarcation of boundaries of the North and South regions in South America was formed. Portugal and Spain contracted specialists (cosmographers, astronomers, military personnel and other categories) from the several European nations to carry out these tasks. From these works, a significant number of cartographical documents (maps, views, reports, diaries) was produced. The Exhibition shows part of this collection drawn up by the participants of this mixed commission from the Portuguese side.
The 19th century begins two sheets of the manuscript atlas “Guia dos Caminhantes” (The walkers guide). The first sheet, title page, has geographic data and the view of Salvador. The second is the map of Brazil with the north to the right. This atlas shows the mapping of Brazil and is at the same time didactic. In this period, cartographic production grew significantly. There are maps of provinces and the national territory, topographic plans, hydrographic surveys of rivers of the Amazon and La Plata River Basins and maps with boundaries. The exhibition shows these maps of Brazil produced and/or organized by important military and civil engineers for the History of cartography.
From the 20th century, the national territory already established after solving various frontier disputes throughout four centuries, the itinerary finished with “Carta geographica do Brasil” on the scale 1:7,500,000, published by the Clube de Engenharia, in 1922, on the celebration of the centenary of the Brazil’s independence. This map is a reduced version of Carta do Brasil na Carta Internacional do Mundo ao Milionésimo (The Map of Brazil in the International Map of the World of the Millenium), produced in accordance with international standards established by the International Congress of Geography, in Paris, in 1913.
Maria Dulce de Faria
Fundação Biblioteca Nacional
1 Cartography is the word created by Viscount of Santarém, when he sent a letter to the Francisco Adolfo Varnhagen, in 1839. So it is named cartographer, to call in general to the cosmographers and geographers.