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