Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500 by Alida C. Metcalf

Author:Alida C. Metcalf
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

When did the earliest known printed world maps include mention of anthropophagy in the Americas? Based on surviving printed maps, a legend appeared first, and an image later. The first known textual legend can be seen in an edition of Ptolemy’s Geography, published in Rome in 1508. The mapmaker, Johannes Ruysch, included a legend that described anthropophagy, but he did not insert a visual image of it.30 Opposite Brazil on Ruysch’s world map is a long legend that does not emphasize the date of discovery or the right of possession. Instead it consists of a description of the native peoples, animals, trading goods, and cannibalism:

Land of the Holy Cross / This region, which many believe to be another large continent of the world, is inhabited in scattered fashion. Females and males walk around either completely naked or ornamented with woven roots and birds’ feathers of various hue. Many live together with no religion or king. They fight wars between themselves without stopping, and they devour the human flesh of their captives. They enjoy weather so mild that they live over 150 years. Rarely are they sick and then they are cured with only roots of herbs. Lions breed here, and serpents and other foul beasts. Forests, mountains and rivers are here as well as a great abundance of pearls and gold. The Lusitanians [Portuguese] carry away from here brazilwood, also known as verzini, and wild cinnamon. / Or the New World.31

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