Stokes, I. N. Phelps The iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909 (v. 4)

(New York :  Robert H. Dodd,  1915-1928.)

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ADDENDA
 

4 CONTAINS MATERIAL OBTAINED TOO LATE FOR INCLUSION IN THE BODY OF THE BOOK, OR
WHICH IT SEEMED DESIRABLE TO SEPARATE FROM THE TEXT. THE MATERIAL IS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED,
AND IM MOST CASES REFERENCES THERETO ARE GIVEN IN THE BODY OF THE TEXT OR AS MARGINAL NOTES.
 

1505

At about this lime was published the weU-known and very
/■\ interesting xylographic leaf found by Mr. Henry Stevens
jL. JL. in 1850, and now belonging to the New York Public Libra¬
ry, Spencer Collection.

This leaf, which measures 13J i 8J Inches, represents "the people
and Island which have been discovered by the Christian King of
Portugd or by his subjects" (Brazil, visited by Vespuccius ia
1501). It has a German Inscription taken for the raost part trom
the first German edition of the MundusNoous of Vespuccius, which
suggests the possibility that it was drawn by Vespuccius on his
voyage in 1501-2. This very important falock-leaf is In all profaa-
bUity the earliest view ot America and the Araerican Indians. Only
one other copy is known—that owned by the Konigliche Hot- und
Staats-bibllothek at Munich.

The print is fully described, and Its origin and significance dis¬
cussed, in a monograph by Mr. Eames, published In a folio edition
of seven copies in 1920.

1507

The John Carter Brown Library contams a unique raap ot
the world showing the New World discoveries as weU as the
narae America. This map, which was brought to light by Mr.
Henry N. Stevens, shortly after 1900, is described In his Ptolemy's
Geography, p. 15, as "evidently an earlier Impression ot the one
found in the 1513 Strasburg Ptolemy," and was, Mr. Stevens
thinks, "prepared by WaldseemiiUcr at St. Die prior to 1507 for
tbe then projected edition of Ptoleray, but not used."

1508

In this year appeared the first issue ot Ptolemy to contain
American maps, and a separate chapter on the American discov¬
eries. The wdl-knowa Ruysch map of the world is supposed to
have been prepared tor tbis atlas, although it is occasionaUy found
bound up with the 1507 edition.

1513

In this year was published the first Strasburg edition of Ptoleray,
with the "Admiral's Map."—See 1507^ Addenda.

1558

In this year, Del Commenlarll Del Viaggie In Persia . . . Et
Delle Scoprimenio detf Isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engronelanda,
Estotilanda & Icaria was published in Venice. It contained the
first printed narrative ot the voyages ot Nicolo and Antonio Zeno
to the west, and a map, said to have been reproduced from a con¬
temporary chart left by them, ot their discoveries in the last decade
ot the fourteenth century.—Church Catalogue, No. no. For an
account ot the Zeno travels and a discussion regarding the authen¬
ticity of tbia work, see 1393.

1560
The map rrferred to ia Vol. IL p, 15, footnote 44, as reproduced
in Remarkable Maps, Part 1, No. 13, and given in outiine on C. PI.
17, Vol. II, is, I believe, one of the six (?) foUo sheets of a fine, large
map ot the world which I saw last summer (1921) In the possession
ot Mr. ChadenSt, the Paris book-seller. This map, ot which no
other copy is known, is dated (f) 1560. Mr. Chadenat assigns it to
Gastaldi, and considers it to constitute the first raodern world arias,
antedating that of OrteUus by a decade.—See H: 14- This raap
differs materiaUy frora Gastaldl's weU-known maps of 1546 (C. Pl.
 

17 andRemarkdileMaps,FartTV) aad I556(C. Pl 14 and Ramusio,
Voi. HI), the latter of which is evidently taken from the sarae -
original as the raap ofTierraNveva in the 1548 Ptolemy. It seems,
therefore, Ukdy that it is based on data obtained or adopted by Gas¬
taldi after thi publication of his earlier maps. It is clearly more
suggestive of the Verrazzano than of the Ribero type.

1579

On this day, Drake hdd a service tor the Indians at Albion,
the present San Francisco Bay, perhaps the first Protestant ser¬
vice hdd on U. S. soil. This bay is shown, although not named,
on the "Silver Map," issued probably m 1581, to commemorate
Drake's circuranavigatlon ot the globe.—The World encompassed
by Sir Francis Drake, etc (London, 1628), reprinted by Hakluyt
Soc, 1854; MiUer Christy, The Silver Map of the World (1900).

1582
"The student ot American colonial history of the seventeenth '
century is likely to be frequently perplesed by a confusion (and ;
soroethnes by an apparent contradiction) ot dates unless he under¬
stands and keeps In raind the differences between the 'old style' and
the 'new style'calendars. The ordinary year represents the mean
tirae required tor the earth to pass over its orbit around the sun.
This passage requires 365 days, 5 hours, 48 rainutes, 46 -I- seconds.
As only whole days can be counted in measuring the ordinary or
civil year, the fractional parts ofthe day make a difference between
the dvil and the solar periods. To remedy this difference and to
secure uniformity In time-reckoning, Julius Oesar decreed (B.C, 46)
that the year should consist of 365 days and 6 hours, that the
6 hours should be disregarded tor three successive years, and that an
entire dayshould be added to every fourth year. This day is called
the intercalary day and the year to which it is added the bissextile
or leap year. Such was the origin of the Julian calendar. Dates
reckoned according to the Julian calendar are caUcd 'old style' ab-
breriated to O. S. The old style is stiU used m the Russian Erapire.
[The revolutionary governraent adopted the New Style in 1918.]

"But the addition of the intercdary day made the average
Julian year a little more than eleven minutes longer than the solar
year and, by 1582, the cumulative error of the calendar was about
ten days. In the year 325, the councU of Nice, the first ot the
ecumenical councils ot the Christian church, had determined when
Easter should be observed. In 1582, ail fixed ecdeslastlcal obser¬
vances were falling ten days behind their proper seasons. To
correct this error and to remove the consequent confusion, Pope
Gregory SHI decreed that the fifth day of October, 1582, should
be caUed the fifteenth. This suppression of ten days restored the
vernal equinox to the twenty-first of March, the date on which it
occurred at the time of the council of Nice, and thus brought mto
their proper seasons the fixed festivds of the church. To guard
against future errors, it was decreed that years ending with two
ciphers should not be leap years except when the nuraber is an
exact multiple of 400. Such was the origin ot the Gregorian cal¬
endar, the error ot which is only one day in ahout five thousand
years. Dates reckoned according to the Gregorian calendar are
caUed 'new style', abbreviated to N, S. Frora 1582 to 1700, the
difference between the old style and the new was ten days. The
year 1700 being a leap year in the Julian cdendar and a comraon
year in the Gregorian cdendar, the two styles differed, in the
eighteenth century, by eleven days.  .  .  .

"Most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar soon
atter it was established. Great Britain, however, continued to use
the JuUan calendar unril 1752. At that time the dates of the JuUan
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