Cape Canaveral

This Alberto Cantino map is one of the oldest maps depicting Cape Canaveral at the top left of the map.

A nautical chart made by Alberto Cantino in 1502 for his Portuguese patron may be the earliest certain portrayal of Cape Canaveral. Historical cartographers have assigned three possibilities to a large unidentified mass on the map. Some continue to think it is a depiction of the Yucatan peninsula, others think that it the island of Cuba, but the most widely accepted idea is that it depicts Cape Canaveral with its familiar protrusion from the Florida peninsula.

After Columbus’s 1492 landing on behalf of Spain on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, other European nations attempted to claim title to lands in the “New World”. As was custom of the times, the Pope stepped in and facilitated an agreement known as the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal in 1494. The treaty divided lands at a line 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands known as the Line of Tordesillas. The line cuts though Newfoundland in the north down through Brazil.

On the map the coast of Brazil is in a time of new discovery by Cabral in 1500 or by Vincente Pinzon in 1499. To the north of Brazil is an island with the inscription “the Antilles of the King of Castille” crediting the discovery to the Spanish. This is the first mention of Antilles on a chart. Just north of the Antilles is a slip of land which is probably Florida that has not yet been discovered by Ponce de Leon. The source of the land information is unknown. If Portugal were to acknowledge the finding of this land it would be a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. Who was this anonymous discoverer?

(2006).Old Florida Maps. University of Miami Library.
https://scholar.library.miami.edu/floridamaps/view_image.php?image_name=dlp00020000140001001&group=spanish

Parker, S. (2008). Canaveral National Seashore Historic Resource Study. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/cana/cana_hrs.pdf

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NPS/Photo Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Modena, Italy, Public Domain