Tra la «Mappa per i Sette Mari» ed il «Libro della Marina.» di Piri Reis

Abstract

Taking advantage of the publication of the first two volumes of Kitabi Bahriye (log-book) by Piris Reis, the great man of the sea and Turkish geographer and cartographer who lived between the XVth and the XVIth century, Geo Pistarino draws a concise biography of the author. He analyses his map dated from 1513 and gives us its editorial tradition. He stresses its importance for the history of geographic discoveries and, more precisely, for those of Christopher Colombus, and he underlines some of the problems still discussed today. The map of the New World area, drawn by Piri Reis, indirectly derives from the one prepared by Christopher Colombus in 1498, during his third trip. Christopher Colombus had sent it to the Kings of Spain and it was the base of the successive «Andalusian trips». In Kitab, written in 1521 and the second version in 1525-1526, Piri informs the reader about the continent he calls «Antilles», he affirms that Genova is Christopher Colombus's homeland and makes allusions to Genova's political situation at the time.