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Introduction
The Cantino Planisphere is a Portuguese map of the known world produced in 1502 (Fig. 1). Created by an unidentified cartographer(s), the map’s name derives from Alberto Cantino, an Italian agent who obtained the map for the Duke of Ferrara.[1] While it is unknown whether the map was commissioned, copied, or stolen, Cantino claimed he paid the hefty sum of 12 gold ducats to procure it for his patron. The map could fetch such a high price because it recorded the very latest Portuguese knowledge of new-to-Europe maritime routes and lands both to the east in the Americas and to the West in Africa and Asia. With the Age of Exploration rapidly picking up pace, other European courts actively sought such valuable information, hoping to stake their own claims on new lands or at least benefit from the new trade routes.
In addition to being an important historical record, the map is also a fine work of art. Constructed from six pieces of vellum joined together, this luxury map is not only profusely labeled with hand-written toponyms and legends but also features skillfully painted details, including an ornate compass rose in its center. Particular attention is given to illustrating two regions most recently explored by the Portuguese, Brazil and West Africa. Each area, in turn, is populated by a single type of animal: parrots.[2] With no less than three distinct species represented (one in Brazil and two in West Africa, respectively), why were parrots so prominently featured on this map, and what can their presence tell us about the status of parrots in Portugal and the rest of Europe at the turn of the sixteenth century?
A Brief History of Parrots in Europe before 1500
Bruce Boehrer’s excellent 2004 monograph on the cultural history of parrots recounts how when Columbus first made landfall in the Caribbean in 1492, one of the first sights he marveled at was the large, colorful flocks of parrots.[3] Boehrer reports on how Columbus was so taken by these winged wonders that he brought dozens of the parrots back to Europe from this first voyage. While he and the other Europeans certainly had never seen these endemic American species before, they were nonetheless recognized as parrots of some sort; as such, they were initially assumed to be further proof that Columbus had indeed found an ocean route to India.
This general knowledge of the existence of parrots and their association with India can be traced back to Alexander the Great, who first brought parrots to Europe from his conquests in India in 327 BCE.[4] In fact, the first appearance of a parrot in European cartography is found on a thirteenth-century mappa mundi known as the Ebstorf Map, which marked the lands of India with a stylized green parrot icon (Fig. 2).[5] It would not be until subsequent explorations that Europeans would fully realize that the Americas were not connected to Asia at all but were rather a “new” land — and one filled with a plethora of previously unknown fauna and flora. With Neotropical parrot species like macaws and Amazons bigger and more colorful than any Afro-Asian parrots Europeans had seen before, parrots also quickly became one of the most desirable imports from what became known as the Columbian Exchange.
The Cantino Parrots as Geographic Icons
As previously noted, European mapmakers’ first use of a parrot as an icon dates back to the Ebstorf Map, which used a generic parrot to denote India. The Cantino Planisphere, however, broke new ground by using specific species of native parrots to represent areas of both West Africa and Brazil (Figs. 3, 4). As explored by Wilma George in her classic study of animals on maps, other mapmakers were quick to adopt the Cantino Planisphere’s use of parrots as a symbol of the Americas, and it soon became a standard iconographic device.[6]
Alida Metcalf’s “Parrots and Trees” focuses on the natural elements of the Cantino Planisphere, with particular attention given to how the Brazilian birds are depicted.[7] Metcalf comments that the way the illuminator “posed the birds in three different ways and paid attention to the curvature in their beaks, the holding of their heads, and the coloring of their feathers,” suggested that the artist had observed living birds; an entirely plausible scenario, given that sailors had brought back live individuals to Lisbon in 1501 from the Brazil expedition.[8]
Metcalf then compares the Cantino parrots with the four parrots used to denote Brazil on the subsequent Caverio Map, created just a few years later (c. 1506) (Fig. 5). Metcalf observes that this group of parrots is more stylized and less detailed than the previous group, and reduced in size. However, certain features such as the poses, curved beaks, and red body feathers are still present. Metcalf thus suggests it was far less likely that the Caverio mapmakers had yet seen live macaws in Genoa and instead simply modeled their images on the Cantino group. Boehrer, George, and Metcalf all report that increasingly derived parrot icons continued to represent the Americas on maps throughout the rest of the century.
The Cantino Parrots as Symbols of “New World” vs. “Old World”
George discusses how the Cantino Planisphere’s use of macaws to represent Brazil was part of the larger trend of mapmakers eager to incorporate the latest new animal reports into their iconography. We thus find multiple examples of the earliest known European representations of different species in the form of map illustrations. Indeed, the Cantino parrots are Europe’s earliest known artistic representation of Neotropical parrots in any media, appearing just a decade after Columbus’ first voyage.
George observes how these large and vibrantly colored South American parrots, identifiable as Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao), contrasted with the representations of the relatively smaller and duller African Gray Parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and Senegal Green Parrots (Poicephalus senegalus) depicted across the ocean in Africa (Fig. 6). Boehrer also comments on the choice to represent opposing sides of the Atlantic with these specific native parrots:
“…[the map] populates both Africa and America with indigenous species. In both cases, the species in question are parrots, and Cantino [sic] has carefully noted the difference between the Senegals and African Greys of the Old World and the Amazons [sic] and Macaws of the New. Painted in brilliant hues of red, blue, yellow, and green, these birds regard each other across the intervening space of the Atlantic Ocean, marking their continents with their distinctive presence.”[9]
George further observes that while the illustrated differences in size and coloration did reflect the reality of these birds’ respective appearances, their juxtaposition also emphasized the novelty of these and other “New World” animals to European eyes.
The Cantino Parrots as Markers of Portuguese Transatlantic Trade
Of course, despite Africa being situated within the sphere of the “Old World,” the Cantino Planisphere highlights the fact that the Portuguese had been leading the way in exploring the full extent of the continent during the fifteenth century. The Portuguese started exploring the coast of West Africa in earnest earlier in the century, eventually circumnavigating the continent to sail to India and back in 1499, thus becoming the first European power to forge a direct ocean route from Europe to Asia. This feat, in turn, ignited a new wave of exploration that would establish trade routes across the Indo-Pacific into the furthest reaches of Eastern Asia (and, eventually, Australasia). The subsequent exploration of Brazil in 1500 then expanded the Portuguese network across the Atlantic as well, establishing them as a truly transoceanic empire.
Exotic fauna and flora have been an established part of European intercontinental trade since ancient times, with parrots and primates usually being the first and most often exported animals from newly discovered areas. The Cantino parrots can thus also be seen as valuable commodities that the Portuguese were eager to capitalize on. As previously noted, all the parrots found on the Cantino Planisphere are readily identifiable at the species level, asserting the Portuguese familiarity with each of these birds in real life and not just via second-hand reports. Indeed, both the Senegal Greens and African Greys were first brought to Europe by the Portuguese expeditions of the fifteenth century, with an African Grey obtaining early celebrity status when it became a prized pet of none other than King Henry VIII of England.[10]
Meanwhile, the Scarlet Macaws, whose rainbow plumage distinguishes them as among the most brilliantly colored birds on the planet, were already making their way into Europe via the nascent Spanish colonial trade. Still, with the claiming of such a large and notably parrot-rich part of the South American mainland, Portugal instantly became a second key player in the acquisition of these highly sought-after birds.[11] Portugal thus established a fully transatlantic parrot trade for itself at the turn of the sixteenth century, a feat on full display in the Cantino Planisphere’s parade of parrots.
The Cantino Parrots as Symbols of the Portuguese Court
As elucidated by Boehrer’s book, parrots have a longstanding history of use as symbols of courtly power across the globe, including in early modern Europe. However, the prominence of parrots on the Cantino Planisphere can perhaps also be explained by the personal tastes of the Portuguese royal family. As discussed in Pérez De Tudela and Annemarie Gschwend’s scholarship, Manuel I of Portugal had a particular fondness for birds and collected both hunting birds and parrots for his royal menagerie.[12] They also discuss how parrots went on to become fully integrated into Portuguese court life, with the women of the family developing a particular fondness for them as companion pets. This passion for parrots would later be most famously taken up by Manuel’s daughter-in-law, Catherine of Austria, who became Queen of Portugal in 1557. As De Tudela and Gschwend note, Catherine had a well-known love for parrots, having kept them as pets since childhood. It is further noted that Catherine continued to enthusiastically collect parrots throughout her reign and subsequent regency, seeking out new exotic specimens from across her growing empire. Furthermore, Catherine gifted some of these parrots to her extended family across the Habsburg Empire, thus facilitating the percolation of the Cantino parrots’ real-life counterparts into other European courts later in the sixteenth century.
Conclusion
The parrots of the Cantino Planisphere of 1502 serve a multiplicity of symbolic purposes. They function as cartographic icons in the longstanding tradition of using native animals to denote geographic regions. Beyond this, the marked differences in size and color between the large, brightly colored macaws of Brazil and the relatively smaller and duller parrots of Africa serve as a striking juxtaposition of “New World” and “Old World” nature as perceived by early European explorers. Their respective placements, facing each other across the vast Atlantic, also highlight the new Portuguese transatlantic trade. Lastly, with exotic parrots amongst the most desirable court animals, the map represents the Portuguese court’s centrality in obtaining these prized status symbols for others, while also reflecting the royal family’s own passion for these beautiful and intelligent creatures.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boehrer, Bruce Thomas. Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World’s Most Talkative Bird. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
De Tudela, Pérez A. and A. Jordan Gschwend. “Renaissance Menageries. Exotic animals and pets at the Habsburg Courts in Iberia and Central Europe.” In Early Modern Zoology: The Construction of Animals in Science, Literature and the Visual Arts, edited by K.A.E. Enenkel and M.S. Smith, 427-456. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
George, Wilma. Animals and Maps. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.
Gschwend, Annemarie Jordan. “A Procura Portuguesa por Animais Exoticos [The Portuguese Quest for Exotic Animals].” In CORTEJO TRIUNFAL COM GIRAFAS: animais exöticos ao servico do poder [TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION WITH GIRAFFES: exotic animals at the Service of power], 32-42. Lisbon: Fundação Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva, Centro de História de Além, 2009.
Metcalf, Alida C. “Parrots and Trees.” In Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020.
[1] The basic facts of the map’s origin and acquisition can be found in all the bibliographic sources cited at the end of this essay.
[2] The only other non-human animal image appearing on the map is a large bear in Africa, which is not meant to represent a real-life bear but rather is a zoomorphic mountain representing Sierra Leone.
[3] Bruce Thomas Boehrer, Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World’s Most Talkative Bird. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015; Columbus’ interactions with Caribbean parrots are described on pp. 50-54.
[4] Boehrer, 1-3, 51. Parrots are not native to the European continent. With the extraordinary exception of a single Indonesian/Australasian cockatoo acquired by Frederick II in the mid-thirteenth century, apparently, only a select few species of Afro-Asian parakeets made their way into Europe before the fifteenth century, and most Europeans presumed parrots to be of Indian origin.
[5] Boehrer, 29-31.
[6] Wilma George, Animals and Maps, University of California Press, 1969.
[7] Alida C. Metcalf, “Parrots and Trees,” in Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), 95.
[8] Metcalf, 95.
[9] Boehrer, 57.
[10] Boehrer, 80.
[11] Brazil was dubbed “The Land of the Parrots” by Europeans on account of this psittacine richness.
[12] Pérez A. De Tudela and A. Jordan Gschwend, “Renaissance Menageries. Exotic animals and pets at the Habsburg Courts in Iberia and Central Europe,” in Early Modern Zoology: The Construction of Animals in Science, Literature and the Visual Arts (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 427-456; Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, “A Procura Portuguesa por Animais Exoticos [The Portuguese Quest for Exotic Animals],” in CORTEJO TRIUNFAL COM GIRAFAS: animais exöticos ao servico do poder [TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION WITH GIRAFFES: exotic animals at the Service of power] (Lisbon: Fundação Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva, Centro de História de Além, 2009), 32-42.
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