Sardinia In Geographical Descriptions 81
with the same exaggerated manner of emphasizing the jagged edges of the
coast. The place names, accompanied by vignettes representing the cities and
churches, are partly projecting, and are completed with names of Ptolemaic
origin, especially for the rivers. The very fact of combining Sardinia and Sicily
within the same frame stems from the model of Ptolemy’s regional charts,31
and is adapted to the new genre of the island map. One should also note that
the topographical position of Sicily and Sardinia resembles Ptolemy’s model
as well. From this point of view, Henricus Martellus’ map of Sardinia is a syn-
thesis based on marine cartography, Ptolemy’s maps, and the genius of the
cartographer himself.32 Based on his working manuscript, Henricus Martellus
produced four manuscript versions of his island map. The map of Sardinia
again follows the excerpts from the ancient authors already to be found in the
Florentine manuscript, but the map itself stands alone on its own page of the
manuscript. Neither the drawing nor the place names have been modified, al-
though the cities are called out in black ink, and the rivers, whose names are
all of Ptolemaic origin, are called out in red. The aesthetic quality is accentu-
ated through the framing, the cartouches which contain the Latin name of the
island, the caption calling out the measurements of Sardinia and the cardinal
directions, and by the indications of the prevailing winds. To my knowledge, it
is the first autonomous map of Sardinia.
The representation of Sardinia evolved considerably over the course of the
long medieval millennium. Information from antiquity was handed down and
sometimes simplified, but remained the basis for knowledge of the island, es-
pecially in the most widely known geographical texts. It was enriched, starting
in the twelfth century, with new elements that became more numerous and
more precise starting in the fourteenth century. Nonetheless, texts bringing
new information remained rare before the end of the Middle Ages. The com-
mon image of Sardinia remained stable, primarily consisting in the absence
of snakes, the presence of the solifugid, the Sardinian grasses, and the form of
the island in the shape of a foot. In part, this is due to the location of this large
31 Henricus Marcellus was also the author of two manuscripts of Ptolemy’s Geography,
one of which included new maps, especially maps of islands: the Mediterranean islands
(Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Cyprus appear in the same volume). Florence, Biblioteca
Medicea Laurenziana, Magliabechiano XIII, 16. See ibid., 114, p. 240.
32 In one manuscript of Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber insularium archipelagi, a notebook
with a map of Corsica, along with a map of Sardinia and Sicily, was added at some in-
determinate time. These maps are similar to those found in Henricus Martellus’ work-
ing manuscript, and he may have been inspired by them (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale,
Cartes et Plans, GEFF 935–1). On this subject, see N. Bouloux, “L’Insularium illustratum
d’Henricus Martellus.”