In 1554 a Franciscan friar of Angoulěme/France, André Thevet, published his first book, Cosmographie de Levant. The author had recently returned from a three year journey to Constantinople and the Holy Land, and the Cosmographie was the first of a number of geographical works. One of the maps he had also drawn and published in 1575, is from Mount Athos.
This map is now for sale on Ebay, where I found these pictures.
The map shows a condensed version of Athos, with a number of names of monasteries and skitis. The isle of Lemnos is seen on the right, with birds flying in the sky. It is said that Thevet never set foot on Athos, as the location of the monasteries is not very precise. This also counts for an even older map from Buondelmonti, who already made a map of Athos around 1420/30 (see also the article below).
This is the text in French that accompanies the card. Here you can also read the names of other monasteries, such as “Chelandar, Pantocratorou, Caracoul, Glygoriou, Rusio, Angelos, Castamoniti”, which are not depicted on the map, and Karyes, which is also missing.
Read more about old Athos map in this article of Veronica Della Dora.
Wim Voogd, 13-1
(If you would like to contribute to purchasing this map for our Athos archive, please make a small donation)
