Battista Agnese

Portolan Atlas 1544

Battista Agnese (c. 1500 – 1564) was a cartographer from the Republic of Genoa, who worked in the Venetian Republic.

In 1525 he prepared an early map of Muscovy that was based on the geographical data, narrated to Paolo Giovio by the Russian ambassador Dmitry Gerasimov.

His workshop produced at least 71 manuscript atlases of sea charts between 1534 and 1564, more cheaply than Dieppe maps but still considered of fine craftsmanship. The charts normally included latitude but not longitude, along with various decorative features.

One of Agnese's best-known works is an atlas of the world commissioned by Charles V for his son, Philip II. Apparently produced around 1542, it depicts Baja California correctly as a peninsula (60 years later cartographers started to show California as an island).

Agnese liked to incorporate the new geographical discoveries in his maps. For example, he included in his world map the route of the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, and the route to Peru via the Isthmus of Panama, where a lot of the Spanish gold was found. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battista_Agnese

Learn more at

Library of Congres. Agnese Atlas. Portolan atlas of 9 charts and a world map, etc. Dedicated to Hieronymus Ruffault, Abbot of St. Vaast. (1544) and article about the atlas.
Atlas de Battista Agnese , 1544, digitized in Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, Biblioteca Nacional de España

[Portolan atlas of 9 charts and a world map, etc. Dedicated to Hieronymus Ruffault, Abbot of St. Vaast].Manuscript, pen-and-ink and watercolor, on vellum. Each double-page illumination (col. diagrs., col. maps) 21 x 29 cm. Compass rose on inside back cover. "Maps 1, 2, and 10 show America. No. 1 shows the Gulf of California which Ulloa discovered in 1539. On the same map Yucatan is shown as an island, and the east and west coasts of North and South America are only partially shown. On no. 2, the east coasts of North and South America are shown in their entirety and the west coasts only partially. Clumps of trees in green and gold are shown on no. 1, near the Noluccas, and on no. 2, in the Brazilian region of South America. The oval world map (no. 10) shows Magellan's route around the world and a route from Spain to Peru. The 12 wind cherubs on this map are named." -- Ristow and Skelton, Nautical charts on vellum in the Library of Congress, 1977. LC Nautical charts on vellum, 5 Rosenthal 1914, 1884 Ruge 1916, p. 17-18 Wagner 1931, 33 Skelton , 19 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Vault

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