Samgipura. O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues - Singapore's birth certificate?

Name: Folio 34, O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues

Year: ca.1513

Map maker/publisher: Francisco Rodrigues
Manuscript location: La bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale, Palais Bourbon, Paris, France.

Figure 1.  Folio 34 of O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues (The Book of Francisco Rodrigues). Picture taken from facsimile [1] 

In the previous entry, we discussed the toponym Bargimgaparaa that appeared on the Cantino World Map and its possibility that that was the earliest mention of the Singapore toponym (or its variant) on a map. However Bargimgaparaa does seem a bit too different from the current names of Singapura or Singapore. In this entry, we talk about another early map which features a name that is distinctly a near cognate of Singapura or Singapore.

The Portuguese first reached Malacca in 1509. By 1511, they had conquered Malacca from the Malacca sultanate. One major reason for the conquest was to ensure that the Portuguese had a monopoly over the spice trade route.  Not long after the conquest, António de Abreu was commissioned to lead an expedition from Malacca, to explore the Malay Archipelago and the sources of the treasured spices, such as nutmeg and cloves. Francisco Rodrigues was a pilot on this voyage which visited the Spice islands of the Moluccas (Maluku) and lasted from November 1511 to December 1512 [2].  Knowledge of the Malay Archipelago gained from this voyage made its way to his O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues (The Book of Francisco Rodrigues).

O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues contains navigational charts and maps covering Western Europe, Mediterranean, Africa, India, South East Asia and the Far East. It also contains shoreline profiles and navigational instructions. It is an extremely important document of early maritime history as it details the first European maritime ventures into Southeast Asia and the Far East, and the first mapping of these areas. Because of the geographical spread of the maps, it can perhaps be called the first modern atlas of the world [1], albeit only covering the geography of the old world. 

This manuscript was 'rediscovered' by Armando Cortesão in 1944 [2]. The manuscript is part of a codex that also contains the only known manuscript of the more famous Suma Oriental by Tomé Pires. Currently, this codex sits in the Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale (Library of the National Assembly of France) housed in the Palais Bourbon in Paris, France.

Folio 34 of O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues is shown in Fig. 1. This manuscript map shows the Malay peninsula and the northern part of Sumatra island. As you can see, the map is rather crude and the Malay peninsula is not of the correct shape and size. 

Figure 2. Left (a). Zoomed in figure of the bottom left corner of Fig. 1. Right (b) The right most word in Fig. 2(a), placed horizontally. It reads Samgipura.   

Let us focus on the lower right corner of the map. Fig. 2(a) zooms into that part of the map. From left to right, the first word reads Rio de Malla[c]a (Malacca River). This is followed by Muar (Present day river and town of the same name, in Johor state, Malaysia). The next word is Rio Fermossa, which is present day Sungei Batu Pahat (Batu Pahat River) in Johor state. Next, right at the tip of the peninsula is the star of our show here.  In Fig. 2(b), I have enlarged the word and placed it horizontally for all to read. It seems to read Samgipura. This no doubt denotes what is today Singapore or Singapura. Cortesao believes that the series of maps which this map is part of, was drawn circa 1513 [2]. This therefore is probably the earliest map that features a distinctly near cognate of Singapura or Singapore.

One interesting thing is that Rodrigues was not very consistent in his spelling. In the verso of folio 37 of the manuscript, where he writes about the navigational instructions from Malacca to China, Singapore was mentioned twice, but spelt differently as 'Syngapura' and 'Singapura' (in the same sentence!). It is probable that the folio 34 map and the directions on the verso of folio 37 were made at a different times, hence the discrepancy.  

Perhaps we can view this manuscript as some sort of 'birth certificate' of Singapore, much like how the Americans view the 1507 world map by Martin Waldseemüller. Wouldn't it be nice if Singapore, be it the National Museum, National Archives or National Library, can acquire by loan or purchase, this very worthy piece of history? 

References

[1] José Manuel García, O Livro de Francisco Rodrigues: O Primeiro Atlas do Mundo Moderno (Editora da Universidade do Porto, Porto, 2008)
[2] Armando Cortesão, The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues (The Hakluyt Society, London, 1944). Introduction

Bargimgaparaa. Carta del Cantino

Name: Carta del Cantino

Year: 1502

Mapmaker/publisher: Alberto Cantino
Manuscript location: Biblioteca estense universitaria di Modena, Italy

Figure 1. The Cantino Planisphere, 1502. The original is kept at the Biblioteca estense universitaria di Modena, Italy. The map image can be obtained from this link. Fig. 2 zooms in to the portion of the map enclosed in the black rectangle.

Is this where 'Singapore' (or variations of the name) first appear on a map? 

The map featured above (Fig. 1) is known as the Cantino world map (or planisphere) or Carta del Cantino. This manuscript map dates back to 1502, and is named after Alberto Cantino. Cantino was a diplomat active in the Portuguese court, working for the Duke of Ferrara (in present day Italy). 

Portugal at that time was the leading nation in maritime exploration. Maps, navigation charts and navigation directions were closely guarded state secrets then, and were often targets for espionage. While in the Portuguese court, Cantino bribed a mapmaker to create a map showing the latest navigational and map knowledge of the Portuguese. The result is this map, which was then smuggled out to the Duke of Ferrara. The map is currently part of the collection of the Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy  

Since the early 1400s, the Portuguese had been actively exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa, moving gradually southwards. By 1502, the Portuguese had had rounded the southernmost tip of the African continent (Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488) and have recently reached the coast of India (Vasco da Gama reached Calicut, Kerala in 1498). 

This explains why the parts of the Cantino map featuring the Europe and Africa coastlines are pretty accurate. The accuracy decreases steadily as one heads eastward. Nonetheless, one can easily pick out the main geographical features. First, we have Arabia peninsula, and the Persian gulf in the shape of a rounded rectangle. Moving east, we have the Indian subcontinent, with southern tip that is too sharp. Further east, is an oversized peninsular feature, which represents the Malay peninsula and Indochina. As the Portuguese had not ventured so far east at that date, the information of this peninsula must have come from Asian sources, presumably from the Arabs or the Indians.    

Figure 2. Zooming in to the part of Cantino map that shows the southern end of the Malay peninsula (The area enclosed in the black rectangle in Fig. 1) .

Let us take a closer look at the tip of this large peninsula (Fig. 2).  The most prominent feature, written in red, is Malaqua. This undoubtedly refers to the present city and UNESCO world heritage site of Malacca. This confirms that this peninsula on the map represents the Malay peninsula.

At the southermost tip of the peninsula, one should be able make out a word written in red against the green background. If you squint a bit you may be able to read Bargimgaparaa. This is not quite our modern Singapore or Singapura. However several scholars and writers have attributed this to be a related toponym of Singapore. According to Suarez, Bargimgapara is a corruption of  Bahr-Singapura, where bahr is Arabic for land[1] (Although a quick internet search for the meaning of bahr gives it as "a large body of water or river"). In a recent article, historian Peter Borschberg writes and quotes from an Arabic source that "the name term bâr can be equally applied to refer to a kingdom of a coastal region"[2]. Whichever the case, there seems to be a consensus that the Bar- in Bargimgaparaa refers to some geographical entity. 

Interestingly, in the same article Borschberg contends that the word is Bargungaparaa. Frankly, from the resolution of the picture, I cannot really tell whether it is un or im, so I will leave it to the reader to decide whether it be Bargimgaparaa or Bargungaparaa. It should be noted that later maps that are very similar the Cantino map (These maps were either derived from the Cantino map or derived from maps that were the source of the Cantino map) typically has it as Bargimgapara. One such example is shown below: the 1513 printed map Tabula Moderna Indiae from Waldseemüller's edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia. 

Figure 3. The part of Waldseemüller's Tabula Moderna Indiae (1513) that shows the southern end of the Malay peninsula. The place name at the southernmost tip reads Bargimgapara. You can get an image of the full map at this link.

Within less than a decade after Cantino map was produced, the Portuguese arrived at and conquered Malacca. The doorway to the Spice Islands had been opened, and the mapping endeavours of the Portuguese continued in earnest. Soon, much more accurate maps and charts of the land and seas around this region were produced.

So back to the question of whether this is the earliest map that features a variant of the name 'Singapore'. Since the Cantino map is derived from other map or chart sources, by definition, this map cannot be the earliest one. There may be older maps still waiting to be discovered in archives in Portugal or the Middle East [3] or they may all have been destroyed in war, earthquakes or other catastrophes. Until these are found, the Cantino map is to the best of my knowledge, the earliest surviving map that features 'Singapore' (or variations of it). 

References

[1]Thomas Suarez, Early Mapping of Southeast Asia (Periplus, Singapore, 1999). p. 104

[2]Peter Borschberg, "Singapura in Early Modern Cartography: A Sea of Challenges" online
[3]There are earlier Arabic manuscripts (not maps or charts) that mention 'Singapore', dating back to the 1400s . That will be the subject of another blog entry.