L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 36 L'Italo-Americano page of his copy of the Histo- ria Rerum Ubique Gestarum of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomi- ni (Pope Pius II)," says Pro- fessor Rombai. "Columbus heavily read and annotated t h a t b o o k w h e r e h e a l s o drew his itinerary." Today the book Columbus used to p r e p a r e f o r h i s v o y a g e i s k e p t i n t h e C o l u m b i n e Library in Seville Cathedral in Seville, Spain. Although there is no his- torical evidence that the Flo- rentine scholar wrote direct- ly to the Genovese explorer, i t i s n o w c e r t a i n t h a t Toscanelli laid the scientific foundations for the Colum- b u s e n t e r p r i s e , c o n f i r m s Professor Rombai. But why were Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli's studies so influential to be taken as absolute truth by Columbus? The explorer was not a scholarly man. He trusted Toscanelli because he was a great scientific personality, "perhaps the greatest in the f i e l d , i n b o t h I t a l y a n d Europe", says Rombai. "The f a m e o f T o s c a n e l l i , a n d specifically the letter to Mar- tins of 1474, are to be con- s i d e r e d t h e e l e m e n t t h a t convinced Columbus to elab- orate his project." "In the 1474 letter to Mar- tins, Toscanelli claimed that b e t w e e n t h e E u r o p e a n - African west and "the begin- ning of the Indies with the islands and places where you can go" (il principio delle Indie con le isole e i luoghi dove potete andare) there was a "brevissimo cammino" or a very short path. The Flo- rentine scholar estimated that the distance between L i s b o n a n d Q u i n s a y w a s 6,500 miles as evidenced by his letter: "From the city of Lisbon straight toward the west there are on the said chart 26 spaces, each one of which contains 250 miles, as far as the noble and great city of Quinsai, which is 100 miles around…"Quinsai was a s t r a t e g i c c i t y p o r t i n "Cataio" or Cathay (China) also mentioned by Marco Polo as the City of Heaven. T o d a y , i t i s c a l l e d H a n g z h o u . B u t w a s Toscanelli's unit of measure- ment a nautical mile (1,852 m) or a Roman-Ptolemaic mile (1,489 m)? "We don't k n o w , " s a y s R o m b a i . "Depending on the choice, the estimated distance fluc- tuates between 9,620 and 12,038 km". The indicated route was highlighted in an attached Carta de Marear or naviga- tional map that Columbus never let out of his sight for even a moment during his first voyage. The historical map was replicated at scale 1: 55,000,000 by Toscanelli scholars Herman Wagner and Gustavo Uzielli between the 19th and 20th centuries, says Rombai: "The copy of it is held at the Cartographic A r c h i v e o f t h e I s t i t u t o Geografico Militare Firenze, folder 95." But if Columbus hadn't followed Toscanelli's ideas to move west, wouldn't he have ever set foot on the New World? " I t i s d i f f i c u l t , i n d e e d impossible, to answer this question," says professor Rombai. "However, with his masterful nautical experi- ence acquired at first in the Mediterranean and later in the continental and insular space of the Atlantic between Iceland, England, Western Europe, and West Africa up t o t h e G u l f o f G u i n e a , Columbus had already had the opportunity to accumu- late clues and empirical evi- dence on the navigability of the great ocean to the west also taking into account the study of the direction of con- stant and periodic winds." P r o f e s s o r R o m b a i remarks that several cen- turies earlier the Vikings had a l s o v e n t u r e d t h e r e , although further north. At any rate, isn't it prodi- gious that Columbus found l a n d r i g h t t h e r e w h e r e Toscanelli had indicated, even though the continent was the wrong one? "Certainly, the substantial c o m p a t i b i l i t y o f t h e d i s - tances may seem weird. But it is to be considered a sim- ple, strange coincidence," comments Rombai. But again, who was Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli? He was a Renaissance man, the 'Universal Man' or l'uomo universale, according to an ideal that developed from the notion expressed by his close friend architect Leon Battista Alberti that "a man can do all things if he will." To him, Alberti dedicated his f i r s t b o o k o f t h e I n t e r c e - nales, a series of fantastic stories, fables, and short dia- logues written by the great architect. Sparse testimonies por- tray Toscanelli as a scholar w h o a t t e n d e d o n l y t h e restricted cenacoli or circles of humanists. He immersed himself in the study of the classics. Regarding his character traits, the great biographer o f a r t i s t s G i o r g i o V a s a r i described him as a man of strict morals, laconic, and a bit gloomy. He was curious about the world and willing to transmit his erudition to the young Florentine bour- geois in the years the Medici family consolidated their power. Florence, the cultural epi- center of the Italian Renais- s a n c e , w a s a h a v e n f o r a r t i s t s , w r i t e r s , p h i l o s o - p h e r s , a n d a l l k i n d s o f thinkers open to innovations f r o m a l l o v e r t h e k n o w n world. And they all freely exchanged ideas. Toscanelli loved listening to travelers yet never per- s o n a l l y t r a v e l e d m u c h . "Numerous travelers flocked to Florence in 1439, on the occasion of the Council of Florence, the seventeenth ecumenical council recog- n i z e d b y t h e C a t h o l i c Church," says Rombai. "They brought geographic innova- tions in some ways shocking, on little-known parts such as Africa and especially Asia. T h e r e a r e t e s t i m o n i e s o f Toscanelli questioning trav- elers coming from the region where the River Tanai (the legendary River Don) sprang a n d d i s c u s s i n g w i t h a n Ethiopian monk … ." "With his humanist friend Giorgio Antonio Vespuc- c i -- navigator A m e r i g o V e s p u c c i ' s u n c l e - - Toscanelli would have trans- mitted the passion for cos- mography, geography, and c a r t o g r a p h y t o a y o u n g A m e r i g o V e s p u c c i a n d t o Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' M e d i c i , " a d d s R o m b a i . "Later, the great navigator Amerigo Vespucci became an employee of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici." In the early 1500s, Amerigo w o u l d s e n d m o s t o f h i s famous letters on the New World to Lorenzo di Pier- francesco. Other friends were theolo- gian Nicholas of Cusa and e n g i n e e r F i l i p p o Brunelleschi. Toscanelli a n d B r u n e l l e s c h i h a d a n active collaboration on the construction of the Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del F i o r e . I n t h e l e g e n d a r y Brunelleschi's dome, there is a gnomon for measuring the maximum elevation of the sun at the summer solstice. "To expand his patient celes- tial observations, Toscanelli succeeded at building that gnomon in Santa Maria del F i o r e i n 1 4 7 5 , " e x p l a i n s Rombai. After graduation, his first job in Florence was that of an "astrologo giudiziario." What did it mean? He pro- vided horoscopes to mem- bers of the Medici family, even if he made fun of horo- scopes as his friend Marsilio Ficino recounted. T h e F l o r e n c e C e n t r a l National Library preserves two natal charts Toscanelli c a s t i n 1 4 4 8 a n d 1 4 4 9 . "There was a great demand from the ruling classes who could afford to pay for their natal horoscopes and paid well." Astrological expertise was important in their eyes. And those experts were the astronomers themselves. His geographic works -- all handwritten -- went miss- ing. "Printing was taking its first steps in the last years of his life," remarks Professor Rombai. The Florentine geo- grapher represents "the true e q u i l i b r i u m p o i n t o f t h e extraordinarily advanced Florentine geographic cul- ture of the 15th century," he says. "Toscanelli used, and made known, new geograph- ic works and maps to be con- structed in a modern way utilizing topographical con- t e n t s o b t a i n e d t h r o u g h empirical knowledge and the scientific support of celestial observations. Toscanelli not only did that for the sake of scientific progress, but also for the precise practical use o f m o v i n g a r o u n d t h e world." A s a c o m m e m o r a t i v e plaque reads on the facade of h i s p a l a z z o a t P i a z z a d e ' Pitti, "Toscanelli began the d i s c o v e r y o f t h e N e w World." Thanks to miscalcu- lations, he opened the win- dow to landscapes of won- der. LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE Continued from page 34 The commemorative plaque in Piazza de' Pitti (Photo: Sailko/ CC BY 2.5)

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