Portolan Atlas of Battista Agnese

In the 16th century, Venice was a stronghold of geography and cartography. Some of the most accurate and modern maps of the time were manufactured in Venice. The best and most valuable example thereof is the Portolan Atlas of Battista Agnese. The precious geographic work comprises 30 pages with luxurious depictions of the Earth and its individual regions. Additionally, the atlas contains a table of the declination of the Sun and an armillary sphere, a zodiac calendar, as well as two pages of text with astronomical and cosmographic information. The elaborately designed, precious work is considered to be one of the most detailed and artistically valuable map collections of the Renaissance.

Battista Agnese: Artist and Scientist

Battista Agnese was a cartographer in the Republic of Genoa and lived from the early- to the mid–16th century. Agnese was the leading geographer of a Florentine cartography workshop in Venice. In collaboration with his staff, he created at least 71 atlases and sea charts between 1534 and 1564, all of which were of the highest quality and were purchased exclusively by wealthy buyers. One work by the Venetian master was commissioned by Emperor Charles V for his son Philip II. Agnese’s 1546 Portolan Atlas was the result of an edition of some 30 autographed works. It represented the current geographic knowledge of his time and is considered to be one of the earliest cartographical works of world history. The gorgeously decorated atlas served not only for navigation while travelling, but also for the study of geography in the wealthiest houses of the Renaissance.

Science and Mythology Combined

In his atlas, Agnese depicted the world in an overall map in oval projection that showed the route of the world circumnavigation of Magellan. In doing so, he oriented himself on the newest geographic findings of his time. 12 maps of the atlas demonstrate the artist’s modern and scientifically substantiated work in a special way. The map of the new world with California and the Pacific Ocean, the map of the Atlantic Ocean with Africa and parts of Europe, the map of the Indian Ocean, and the map of Europe are only a few examples of the representational talent and the comprehensive geographic knowledge of the master. The pictorial adornment of the luxurious maps is particularly enchanting. Colorful, luminous depictions with splendid gold embellishments adorn the pages of the atlas. The fanciful images from Greco-Roman mythology lend the atlas an incomparable charm. The scenes show the famous mythological tales of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts as well as the storms that afflicted them, of Aeneas and his flight to Carthage, and of the god Atlas, who bears the world on his shoulders.