Shelf mark: Res. GE. AA. 562.
Date: c. 1492.
Dimensions: 115 x 71 cm
Origin: ca. 1492 − Portugal
Physical Features: Map on 110gsm paper 
Content: Portolan chart of the Mediterranean and World Map
 
The world map attributed to Christopher Columbus dates back to 1492. Created before his voyage to the Americas, this chart primarily depicts the Mediterranean region and its surrounding coasts, and includes a cosmographic representation of the Earth. This remarkable Mappa Mundi captures the pivotal transition from the Gothic worldview to the Renaissance.
 
In 1924, French historian and cartography specialist Charles de la Roncière attributed a portolan navigation chart to Christopher Columbus—an attribution that has since stirred much debate among scholars.
 
The chart follows the classical design of Mediterranean maps but extends westward to include the Atlantic coastlines from southern Scandinavia to the mouth of the Congo River. It offers an especially detailed naming of places along the African coast, a region where Columbus is believed to have sailed during his service with the Portuguese. To the east, it encompasses the Black and Red Seas, while to the west it portrays a chain of islands—some real, others imaginary—stretching from the Arctic to the Gulf of Guinea.
 
A distinctive feature of the parchment is an elongated section containing a small circular Mappa Mundi, with Jerusalem at its center surrounded by celestial rings that symbolize the geocentric model of the universe. The combination of a practical navigation chart and a cosmographic map is rare. A Latin inscription notes that, although drawn on a flat surface, the Mappa Mundi should be understood as spherical—a reflection of the evolving geographical understanding between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
 
The Spanish flag painted over Granada indicates that the map was completed after January 1492, following the city’s conquest by the Catholic Monarchs. Unlike Juan de la Cosa’s 1500 planisphere and later maps, this chart makes no reference to the new lands discovered after 1493.
 
The origins of this chart remain shrouded in mystery. It entered the collection of the National Library of France in 1848, but nothing is known about its earlier ownership or provenance. The French scholar Jacques de la Roncière first studied and presented the chart in 1925.
 
Many years later, researcher Danielle Lecoq examined Columbus’s personal copy of Pierre d’Ailly’s Imago Mundi, preserved in the Columbian Library in Seville. In one of the numerous marginal notes, Columbus refers to four paper charts, each depicting a sphere. This observation led Lecoq to propose that Columbus may have possessed this very chart, even if he was not its creator. However, this remains speculative—the true history of the map continues to be unknown.