sound theoretical education, which he combined with
a Florentine appreciation of pragmatism and practical
experience. He was a scientist with a businessman’s eye
for calculations. Toscanelli numbered among his close
friends and acquaintances important humanists like
Nicholas of Cusa, Filippo Brunelleschi, Angelo Poliz-
iano, Cristoforo Landino, and Leon Battista Alberti; he
also knew Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico, although
he disagreed with them on the subject of astrology.
If little has survived of Toscanelli’s own writings, we
know from the tributes of his contemporaries that he was
held in great regard. Toscanelli was interested in a wide
variety of subjects, including optics and agriculture.
One surviving manuscript shows that his observations
on comets were remarkably accurate for his day. Highly
empirical, he founded his geographical theories more on
contemporary travel accounts and his own research than
on classical sources such as Ptolemy. He is reported to
have interviewed travelers and visitors recently returned
from Asia and Africa: he knew Marco Polo’s Divisament
du monde (c. 1298) and Niccolò dei Conti’s account of
Asia based on his travels (1435–1439), written by his
contemporary, Poggio Bracciolini.
Early biographers of Toscanelli credit him with hav-
ing theorized about the possibility of reaching the Indies
via the Atlantic, and of making his idea known to King
Alfonso V of Portugal (r. 1438–1481) and Christopher
Columbus (1451–1506). In 1474, Toscanelli is said to
have written a letter defending the notion that one could
sail west from Europe and reach the spice regions of
“Cathay” to Portuguese canon Fernão Martins de Reriz,
a familiar at court and later cardinal. The information
was meant for the king. Toscanelli and Martins had been
friends of Nicholas of Cusa for many years; both had
been present at his death in 1464. A world map supposed
to have accompanied the letter and now also lost, greatly
underestimated the true expanse of the Atlantic, show-
ing “Cipangu” (Japan) lying 3,000 nautical miles (some
3,450 miles or 5,555 kilometers) west of the Canaries
and at about the same latitude. Having learned of this
letter and map, Columbus wrote to Toscanelli from Lis-
bon some years later (c. 1480) requesting a copy of the
map. A transcription of Toscanelli’s response survives
in a book (Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum by Aeneas
Silvius [Pope Pius II]) that Columbus once owned.
The veracity of this correspondence has been disputed,
and even if authentic, Toscanelli’s miscalculation of
the earth’s circumference probably only confi rmed
Columbus’s own ideas rather than implanted them as
has been claimed.
The text of the letter encourages Columbus to un-
dertake such a westward voyage for several reasons:
commercial (the East was rich in precious commodities);
practical (a voyage across the Atlantic, as Toscanelli
misconstrued it, would be quicker than the route around
Africa); and pious (Christian Europe would be able to
resurrect its mission to Asia, which had been abandoned
in the fourteenth century, and mount a crusade to recon-
quer the Holy Land).
Years after his death, Toscanelli’s fame as a scientist
had not waned; in 1493, Ercole d’Este, duke of Ferrara,
sent to Toscanelli’s heir in Florence seeking to obtain
his manuscripts and maps.
See also Columbus, Christopher; Polo, Marco;
Nicholas of CusaFurther Reading
La Carta perduta: Paolo dal P.T. e la cartografi a delle grandi
scoperte. Florence: Alinari, 1992.
Flint, Valerie I.J. The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher
Columbus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1992.
Garin, Eugenio. “Ritratto di Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli.” Belfagor
3 [anno 12] (1957): 241–257; rpt. in Ritratti di umanisti. Flor-
ence, 1967, pp. 41–66.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. Journals and Other Documents on theLife
and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. New York: Columbia
UP, 1963.
Phillips, J.R.S. The Medieval Expansion of Europe. Oxford and
New York: Oxford UP, 1988.
Revelli, Paolo. Cristoforo Colombo e la scuola cartografi ca geno-
vese. Genoa: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 1937.
Gloria AllaireTRAINI, FRANCESCO (fl. 1321–1345)
The painter and illuminator Francesco Traini (Francesco
di Traino) is generally considered the most important
Pisan artist of the second quarter of the Trecento, when
Pisa was under the rule of Francesco Novello della
Gherardesca. Traini’s career is still a focus of debate
among scholars, but all would agree that he was one of
the most original painters in fourteenth-century Italy.
Traini’s only surviving signed work is an altarpiece
depicting Saint Dominic between eight scenes from his
life (1344–1345; Pisa, Museo Nazionale di San Matteo).
Since the nineteenth century, this altarpiece has been
a valuable point of reference in attempts to identify a
larger body of Traini’s work.Documented Life and Career: 1321–1345
Nothing is known about Traini’s formative years; but
to judge from his securely identifi able work, he was
indebted to Sienese artistic traditions, especially the art
of Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, who were both
active in Pisa in the early fourteenth century. This debt
is evident in Traini’s expressive treatment of line, his
use of richly wrought surface textures, and his interest
in spirited narrative detail. In addition, the Giottesque
traditions of Florentine painting in general and the San
Torpè Master in particular have been identifi ed as pos-TOSCANELLI, PAOLO DAL POZZO