THE NEW MAP OF HEREDITARY CAPTAINCIES OF BRAZIL

• Main Author: Jorge Pimentel Cintra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia 2015-09-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Cartografia
• Online Access: http://www.seer.ufu.br/index.php/revistabrasileiracartografia/article/view/44625

This paper presents a new map of the Hereditary Captaincies at the moment of their creation (1534-1536), which differs from the traditional map proposed by Varnhagen in 1854, has remained until now. The new design is based on primary sources, namely, charts of donation and the cartography of the time, particularly the map by Bartolomeu Velho. The main changes refer to boundary lines in northern captaincies, which should follow under meridians and not parallels; they also refer the particular configuration of the southern captaincies, with lines pointing northwestwards; again to the division into portions, named quinhões, of the captaincies of Aires da Cunha and Joao de Barros; finally reference is made to the existence of undistributed lands.