Peter Martyr map
Analysis
Analysis
--------

### Sources

Martyr, in virtue of his 'privileged position' within the court of the [Catholic Monarchs](/wiki/Catholic_Monarchs_of_Spain "Catholic Monarchs of Spain"), is thought to have been privy to current discoveries of the day, and to classified intelligence therefrom, via, for instance, personal debriefings from leading explorers. Varela Marcos has recently claimed the following *Decades* passage, listing sources employed during a map\-making session by Martyr and Fonseca,  names the very sources of the Peter Martyr map. 

| \+ Possible sources of the Peter Martyr map. |
| --- |
| Source | Via | Note |
| Spanish explorers | nautical chart | – |
| Portuguese explorers | nautical chart | *possibly* including [Vespucci](/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci "Amerigo Vespucci") |
| [Columbus](/wiki/Christopher_Columbus "Christopher Columbus") and [brother](/wiki/Bartholomew_Columbus "Bartholomew Columbus") | nautical chart, debriefing | – |
| [Juan de la Cosa](/wiki/Juan_de_la_Cosa "Juan de la Cosa") | nautical chart | *possibly* the 1500 [Juan de la Cosa map](/wiki/Map_of_Juan_de_la_Cosa "Map of Juan de la Cosa") |
| Andrés de Morales | nautical chart | – |
| [Vicente Yáñez Pinzón](/wiki/Vicente_Y%C3%A1%C3%B1ez_Pinz%C3%B3n "Vicente Yáñez Pinzón") | debriefing | post\-[Pinzón–Solís voyage](/wiki/Pinz%C3%B3n%E2%80%93Sol%C3%ADs_voyage "Pinzón–Solís voyage") |
| [Martín Fernández de Enciso](/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Fern%C3%A1ndez_de_Enciso "Martín Fernández de Enciso") | debriefing | – |
| [Juan Ponce de León](/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n "Juan Ponce de León") | nautical chart | post\-Florida discovery |

### Content

[thumb\|upright\=1\.5\|Peck correction of the Peter Martyr map ](/wiki/File:Peck_correction_2003.tif "Peck correction 2003.tif")
Commenting on the map's noticeable distortion, Jesús Varela Marcos suggests Fonseca, the [bishop of Burgos](/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Archdiocese_of_Burgos "Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Burgos"), may have requested or required it 'in order to highlight clearly that what was shown on the map was within the area of natural expansion of Spain.' In a 2005 paper for *The Florida Geographer*, the unaffiliated scholar Douglas T Peck proposed a correction of the northwestern portion of the map which shifted the western continental coastline down by some six degrees.


Did the Peter Martyr map accurately represent geographic discoveries at its time?