Del extremo Oriente al Nuevo Mundo. Reflexiones sobre posibles predescubrimientos y algunas consideraciones críticas extraídas de la Cartografia ¿1474=1513?

Zusammenfassung

This research is animed at recalling some ideas and representations of the Far East as well as at knowing their evolution, which led to the earliest discoveries in America. Four subjects are focused on: Toscanellis' prestige and his conception of the Far East; the reflection of Portuguese explorations around Africa and Martellus' cartography depicting the Far East; Columbus' ideas and their consequences for cartography, and the problems arisen from the geographical information provieded by Piri Re' is' map. Some Martellus' ideas of the Far East, as well as Piri Re' is' ideas of South America, may be based on explorations previous to the great discoveries and on samples of mapmaking derived therefrom, as those consedered by Menzies' Chinese theory.