Sardinia In Geographical Descriptions 79
or in geographical manuscripts.26 Here again, there is more than one car-
tographic type, and each has its own distinguishing features. Nonetheless,
they share common elements, especially their link to charts, whose drawing
methods they adopt and modify.27 These are often remarkably accurate, es-
pecially the large maps on parchment, but they do not always describe the
islands. They are the basis for the modern illustrations of Italy contained in
some of Ptolemy’s manuscripts from the second half of the fifteenth century,
most notably in Florence. With their different origins and forms, these maps
provide representations remarkable in their diversity. By the fifteenth century,
the search for accuracy would not come to rest on a single representation of
Sardinia characterized by its geographical truth.
The emergence of an independent cartography of the Sardinian island re-
mains to be pointed out. One should of course turn to the isolarii (or “island
books”), in which maps of the islands and their descriptions are laid out side-
by-side. The basic model is Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber insularum archipe-
lagi, whose project was to document the islands of the Aegean, thus of course
excluding the islands of the Western Mediterranean. In Florence at the end
of the fifteenth century, Henricus Germanus Martellus produced a new map
of the islands, the Insularium illustratum, and provided several deluxe copies
for princely collections.28 Although its author considered it an original work,
the Insularium illustratum nonetheless originates in Buondelmonti’s Liber
insularum archipelagi. In fact, it is an extension of Buondelmonti’s work, which
it takes up and partially reworks, as can be seen in his working manuscript,
which has been conserved in Florence.29 Sardinia appears among the maps
added by Henricus Martellus.
A comparison between the map in the Florentine manuscript and a finished
copy of the Insularium illustratum enables us to address Henricus Martellus’
26 Marica Milanesi, “Antico e moderno nella cartografia umanistica: le grandi carte d’Italie
nel Quattrocento,” Geographia Antiqua, XVI–XVII (2007–2008), pp. 153–176, with repro-
ductions of several maps.
27 The large maps on parchment can be divided into two major types, one of them going
back to Paulin of Venice’s map of Italy, and the other derived from Venetian charts of the
fifteenth century. ibid, p. 155.
28 L. Böninger, Die deutsche Einwanderung nach Florenz in Spätmittelalter (Leiden-Boston,
2006); see also N. Bouloux, “L’Insularium illustratum d’Henricus Martellus,” The Historical
Review/ La Revue Historique, 9 (2012), pp. 77–94. On the isolarii, see Georges Tolias Isolarii,
“Fifteenth to Seventeenth Century,” The History of Cartography, III (part 1), Cartography
in the European Renaissance, ed. David Woodward (Chicago, 2007) pp. 263–284.
29 Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, XXIX 25. For a presentation and analysis of
the manuscript, see Sebastiano Gentile, Firenze e la scoperta dell’America. Umanesimo e
geografia nel’ 400 Fiorentino (Florence, 1992), 113, p. 237.