Atlas of Lázaro Luis

One of the most important works of 16th century cartography and a codex of extraordinary beauty: the 1563 Atlas of Lazaro Luis. In it, the author shows himself to be a man of his time: well-educated, curious, meticulous, and endowed with a broad understanding of culture. Luis signed the last page of the manuscript, which features a full-page portrait of the Madonna and Child, with his name and an inscription in Portuguese. Due to the detail with which he depicted the coasts of South Asia, it has been theorized that he was born in India. Regardless of where he was born, the nautical charts, drawings and phrases all point to a highly cultured and erudite personality.

A Large and Lavish Atlas

The atlas consists of ten sheets of parchment measuring 61.3 x 43.2 cm and 19 of the 20 pages in the manuscript are lavishly furnished with colorful drawings and generously applied gold leaf making every turn of the page a new feast for the eyes. It is organized thusly: sheets 1 and 2 are concerned with cosmographic content like using the stars for navigation and nautical rules, sheets 3r-9r consist of maps, 9v contains texts and numerical tables referring to the movable feasts during the year including the “golden ratio”, and 10v contains a large drawing with a legend at the bottom containing the date it was designed. The meticulous illustrations bringing the maps to life include a caravan crossing the Sahara and resting in an oasis, the vegetation of the Amazon jungle, indigenous villages in the Americas, fortresses, large cities such as Alexandria, holy places including Jerusalem and Mecca, and heraldic elements like flags and crowns that appear over their respective territories.