Nicolas Sanson and his Map: The Course of the Amazon River

Autor(es)

Cintra, Jorge Pimentel ^[1] ; de Oliveira, Rafael Henrique ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Escola Politecn, Dept Engn Transportes, BR-05424970 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Acta Amazonica; v. 44, n. 3, p. 353-365, SEP 2014.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

One of the first scientific maps of the Amazon region, The Course of the Amazon River (Le Cours de La Riviere des Amazones), was constructed by Nicolas Sanson, a French cartographer of the seventeenth century, and served as the prototype for many others. The evaluation of this chart, until now, has been that it is a very defective map, a sketch based on a historical account, according to the opinion of La Condamine. Thus, the aim of the present work was to prove that the map of the Amazon River traced by Nicolas Sanson is a scientific work, a map that presents precise geographic coordinates considering its time, shows a well-determined prime meridian, and also employs a creative methodology to deduce longitudes from latitudes and distances that had been covered. To show such characteristics, an analysis of the accuracy of the map was made by comparing its latitudes and longitudes with those of a current map. We determined the prime meridian of this map and analyzed the methodology used for the calculation of longitudes. The conclusion is that it is actually a good map for the time, particularly considering the technology and the limited information that Sanson had at his disposal. This proves that the negative assertion of La Condamine is unfounded. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 11/02114-8 - Cartografia Histórica do Rio Amazonas
• Beneficiário: Rafael Santos Do Carmo
• Linha de fomento: Bolsas no Brasil - Iniciação Científica
• Processo FAPESP: 11/01445-0 - Cartografia histórica do rio Amazonas III
• Beneficiário: Rafael Henrique de Oliveira
• Linha de fomento: Bolsas no Brasil - Iniciação Científica