Nautical Atlas of Battista Agnese
One of the most exciting epochs in world history becomes impressively tangible in this cartographic work of art: the Age of Discovery of the 15th and 16th centuries, during which the image of the world was fundamentally changed. The famous Venetian cartographer Battista Agnese, who worked among others for Emperor Charles V, created with his Nautical Atlas one of the most expressive cartographic representations of the Cinquecento. Particularly outstanding is the oval world map, which shows both the route of the first world circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan and the route through the Isthmus of Panama.
Nautical Atlas of Battista Agnese
Cartographic documents were valuable and expensive possessions, for their precious contents on the one hand, and because of the extraordinary art of their making on the other. Often exuberantly adorned, their exterior already testified to their luxury. This cartographic work of art, the Nautical Atlas of Battista Agnese, is an outstanding example of this acclaimand is associated with the wealthy Florentine family of Da Sommaia.
A Cartographer for the Emperor and Nobles
The Nautical Atlas of Battista Agnese is a luxurious atlas from the famous collection of Antonio Magliabechi, which, together with the holdings of the famous Biblioteca Palatina, forms the foundation of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. The Da Sommaia family’s coat-of-arms adorns a few pages of the precious manuscript and thus probably indicates the patron. Battista Agnese (ca. 1500–1564), the famous cartographer from Genoa with a workshop in Venice, worked for the highest social circles. As a result, he was employed by Emperor Charles V inter alia, who commissioned Agnese with an atlas for his son Philipp II. Agnese was famous for the outstanding quality of his work. He integrated the most recent discoveries into his geographic works.
Masterpiece of Cartography
The Nautical Atlas, which is stored today in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, is a masterpiece of cartography and a grandiose attestation to this work by Battista Agnese. The atlas is designed with impressive aesthetics and is naturally also extremely innovative cartographically. The famous atlas is characterized by gorgeous pictorial adornment, e.g. the astronomical depiction of the Earth in the middle of the universe. The most recent historical developments were also taken into account: the 10th map, an oval Mappa Mundi, shows inter alia the route of the world circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano in the years 1519–22 and the important route through the Isthmus of Panama. Thus, the atlas eventually becomes an artistic testimony to the European expansion and the geographical and cartographic knowledge of the 16th century.
Codicology
- Alternative Titles
- Weltkarte des Battista Agnese
Atlante Nautico di Battista Agnese - Type
- Map on parchment
- Size / Format
- 32 pages (10 maps) / 25.3 × 18.4 cm
- Origin
- Italy
- Date
- 1536–1564
- Epochs
- Style
- Genre
- Language
- Illustrations
- 10 maps and other illustrations
- Content
- Nautical Atlas
- Patron
- Da Sommaia family (?)
- Artist / School
- Battista Agnese
- Previous Owners
- Da Sommaia family
Antonio Magliabechi
Nautical Atlas of Battista Agnese
West Atlantic and Caribbean
Although the Spaniards ruthlessly sought gold throughout the New World, they and other Europeans came to realized that its true wealth lay in sugar, so-called white gold. In addition to other cash crops like tobacco and salt that could be produced in the Caribbean, sugar plantations fed Europe’s sweet tooth as well as the Atlantic slave trade. The Caribbean was thus thoroughly surveyed in the early 16th century as were its more than 700 islands, each a potential “gold mine”.

Nautical Atlas of Battista Agnese
World Map
This famous chart is a gorgeously designed world map that depicts the route taken by Magellan during the first successful circumnavigation of the globe in the years 1519–21. While this route is drawn in black, another is drawn with gold ink because it connects Spain to the goldmines of Peru. In the Pacific Ocean, Baja California is correctly presented as a peninsula unlike 60 years later when cartographers began to depict it as an island.
The map is rendered in an oval projection resembling a modern map, but this fine watercolor was intended for display in the homes of the wealthy and educated rather than see use as a practical tool for sailors at sea. The Anemoi, ancient Greek wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came, frame the map with their curly blonde hair blowing in the wind.

#1 Atlante Nautico di Battista Agnese
Language: Italian
- Treatises / Secular Books
- Apocalypses / Beatus
- Astronomy / Astrology
- Bestiaries
- Bibles / Gospels
- Chronicles / History / Law
- Geography / Maps
- Saints' Lives
- Islam / Oriental
- Judaism / Hebrew
- Single Leaf Collections
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Literature / Poetry
- Liturgical Manuscripts
- Medicine / Botany / Alchemy
- Music
- Mythology / Prophecies
- Psalters
- Other Religious Books
- Games / Hunting
- Private Devotion Books
- Other Genres
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Colombia
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- France
- Germany
- Hungary
- India
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Serbia
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uzbekistan
- Aboca Museum
- Akademie Verlag
- Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt (ADEVA)
- Aldo Ausilio Editore - Bottega d’Erasmo
- Alecto Historical Editions
- Alkuin Verlag
- Almqvist & Wiksell
- ARS
- Ars Magna
- ArtCodex
- AyN Ediciones
- Azimuth Editions
- Bärenreiter-Verlag
- Belser Verlag
- Belser Verlag / WK Wertkontor
- Bernardinum Wydawnictwo
- BiblioGemma
- Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Vaticanstadt, Vaticanstadt)
- Bibliotheca Palatina Faksimile Verlag
- Bibliotheca Rara
- Boydell & Brewer
- Brepols Publishers
- British Library
- C. Weckesser
- Caixa Catalunya
- Canesi
- CAPSA, Ars Scriptoria
- Caratzas Brothers, Publishers
- Circulo Cientifico
- Club Bibliófilo Versol
- CM Editores
- Collegium Graphicum
- Collezione Apocrifa Da Vinci
- Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses
- Coron Verlag
- CTHS
- D. S. Brewer
- De Agostini/UTET
- De Schutter
- Deuschle & Stemmle
- Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft
- DIAMM
- Droz
- E. Schreiber Graphische Kunstanstalten
- Ediciones Boreal
- Ediciones Grial
- Edilan
- Editalia
- Edition Leipzig
- Edition Libri Illustri
- Editiones Reales Sitios S. L.
- Éditions de l'Oiseau Lyre
- Editions Medicina Rara
- Editorial Casariego
- Editorial Mintzoa
- Editrice Antenore
- Edizioni Edison
- Egeria, S.L.
- Eikon Editores
- Electa
- Eos-Verlag
- ET&B
- Eugrammia Press
- Extraordinary Editions
- Facsimile Editions Ltd.
- Facsimilia Art & Edition Ebert KG
- Faksimile Verlag
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- Franco Cosimo Panini Editore
- Fundación Hullera Vasco-Leonesa
- G. Braziller
- Gebr. Mann Verlag
- Giovanni Domenico de Rossi
- Giunti Editore
- Graffiti
- Grafica European Center of Fine Arts
- Guido Pressler
- Guillermo Blazquez
- Helikon
- Henning Oppermann
- Herder Verlag
- Hes & De Graaf Publishers
- Hoepli
- Houghton Library
- Hugo Schmidt Verlag
- Idion Verlag
- Il Bulino, edizioni d'arte
- ILte
- Imago
- Insel Verlag
- Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses
- Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
- Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana - Treccani
- Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato
- J. Thorbecke
- Jugoslavija
- Karl W. Hiersemann
- Kasper Straube
- Kaydeda Ediciones
- Kurt Wolff Verlag
- La Liberia dello Stato
- La Linea Editrice
- La Meta Editore
- Lambert Schneider
- Leo S. Olschki
- Les Incunables
- Libreria Musicale Italiana
- Lichtdruck
- Lumen Artis
- Lund Humphries
- M. Moleiro Editor
- Maison des Sciences de l'homme et de la société de Poitiers
- Manuscriptum
- Maruzen-Yushodo Co. Ltd.
- MASA
- McGraw-Hill
- Militos
- Millennium Liber
- Müller & Schindler
- National Library of Wales
- Nova Charta
- Odeon
- Orbis Mediaevalis
- Orbis Pictus
- Österreichische Staatsdruckerei
- Oxford University Press
- Parzellers Buchverlag
- Patrimonio Ediciones
- PIAF
- Plon-Nourrit et cie
- Prestel Verlag
- Princeton University Press
- Prisma Verlag
- Priuli & Verlucca, editori
- Pro Sport Verlag
- Propyläen Verlag
- Pytheas Books
- Quaternio Verlag Luzern
- Reales Sitios
- Reichert Verlag
- Riehn & Reusch
- Roberto Vattori Editore
- Rosenkilde and Bagger
- Roxburghe Club
- Salerno Editrice
- Sarajevo Svjetlost
- Schöck ArtPrint Kft.
- Scolar Press
- Scrinium
- Scripta Maneant
- Scriptorium
- Siloé, arte y bibliofilia
- SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo
- Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología
- Stainer and Bell
- Styria Verlag
- Sumptibus Pragopress
- Szegedi Tudomànyegyetem
- Tarshish Books
- Taschen
- Tempus Libri
- Testimonio Compañía Editorial
- The Clear Vue Publishing Partnership Limited
- The Facsimile Codex
- The Folio Society
- The Marquess of Normanby
- The Richard III and Yorkist History Trust
- Tip.Le.Co
- TouchArt
- Trident Editore
- Typis Regiae Officinae Polygraphicae
- University of California Press
- University of Chicago Press
- Urs Graf
- Vallecchi
- Van Wijnen
- VCH, Acta Humaniora
- VDI Verlag
- Verlag Styria
- Vicent Garcia Editores
- Wiener Mechitharisten-Congregation (Wien, Österreich)
- Xuntanza Editorial
- Zollikofer AG