Suma de Geographia

Did You Know?

• The Suma is divided into a cosmographical part (including nautical guidance) and a geographical part.
• The unpublished world map is thought to have been very influential on the map smuggled by Robert Thorne to England in 1527, later published by Hakluyt in 1580.

Background

Martín Fernández de Enciso likely started composing his Suma de Geographia in Spain no later than 1518. A printing patent for the book was issued to him in Zaragoza on 5 September 1518. Jacobo Cromberger first published the work in Seville around mid-to-late 1519. A revised version came out in Seville in 1530, printed by Juan Cromberger, and a later posthumous edition was released in Seville in 1546 by Andrés de Burgos. An incomplete English translation, A briefe description of the weast India, appeared in London in 1578, published by Henry Bynneman.

Map

Enciso planned for a world map to go with the Suma. He weighed two map types—nautical planispheres and polar azimuthal hemispheres—and picked the planisphere as better for navigators. Yet not one surviving copy of the Suma includes a map. Some writers blame politics, suggesting Portugal might have objected, but no censorship is proven, and the printing license clearly allowed the map’s release. A more likely explanation is technical: Iberian printers lacked the ability to produce a map as large and detailed as the one Enciso described.