One primary slide and three narrative slides. The Newport Tower is illustrated at the entrance of PONTA ROIXA.

This Rumold Mercator map has been ascribed with two dates, 1587 (c. 1620). Barry L. Ruderman’s map article lays out that this map was first printed in 1587, and was contained within the 1595 and 1602 Mercator atlas’s. The copper plate engraving developed a crack in the title after the 1602 print was completed, therefore assigning a date of 1603 or later for versions which displayed the crack. The plates were sold to Jodocus Hondius who re-issued prints from it between 1606 and the 1630s. Gerard Mercator and John Dee first began to collaborate in the late 1530s when both were students of Gemma Frisius. Mercator assisted Frisius with the latter’s 1535 globe – which illustrated the Newport Tower. Mercator crafted his own globe in 1541. Mercator’s globe illustrated the Newport Tower. John Dee crafted a map for Sir Humphrey Gilbert in c. 1582-83 to support Gilbert’s planned colonization effort of the region encompassed by Narragansett Bay. Dee illustrate the Newport Tower on the island of CLAUDIA. The northward shift of CLAUDIA beyond the RIO GRANDE, where Gerard Mercator illustrated his stylistic wheel tower on both his 1569 World Map and the 1587 World Map that we are presently discussing, occurred in the mid-1550s. In 1576, Philip Apian produced his globe which illustrated the Newport Tower on the main just inshore of the island of CLAUDIA. In 1592, Emery Molyneux, assisted by Jodocus Hondius, produced a terrestrial globe which illustrated the Newport Tower in the inlet on the main just inshore of the island of CLAUDIA. This 1587 (c. 1620) engraving of Gerard and Rumold Mercator, later used in a print produced by Jodocus Hondius in 1620, illustrated three structures on the island of CLAUDIA. Two of the structures qualify as tower icons. This tower icon on CLAUDIA was predicated from John Dee, who maintained a personnel correspondence with Gerard Mercator. What is the “secret” about the Newport Tower? There are two: (1) You can’t see these tiny tower icons on black and white reprints/photographic images of cartographic works and (2) You can’t see these tiny tower icons on a map image that is 8’ x 4’ that has been reduced to fit on an 8.5’ x 11” page in a history book.

Imagery of this map currently for sale on the private market on the Barry Lawrence Ruderman, Antique Maps, Inc. web site, is one of a series of cartographic works demonstrating the adjusted placement of the Newport Tower on the Mercator family’s maps. This specific double-hemisphere map, according the Mr. Ruderman, was first produced in 1587. This specific map is a 1595 edition from the copper engraved plate used eight years prior. The large wheel tower icon in the NOROMBEGA region, a staple of the Mercator maps subsequent to Gerardus Mercator’s 1569 World Map, is present on the eastern (right) side of the RIO GRANDE. This river’s name is absent on the engraving for this map series. The wheel tower icon has been argued by others to thematically represent the Newport Tower, but skeptics have rebutted this argument, citing the northerly-displaced latitude of the wheel tower and asserting that the RIO GRANDE represented the Penobscot River. On maps produced from this engraved plate the wheel tower’s center point is 43.21° latitude. The 1.73° northerly displacement is not an accurate placement for the 41.48° actual latitude of the Newport Tower. The RIO GRANDE toponym was used on numerous cartographic works spanning across the 16th century. On the c. 1529 Girolamo Verrazano map (Greenwich Maritime Museum, G201:1/15) the large river labeled with this toponym was above the 50th parallel of latitude. On later maps this toponym would be affixed to a large wedge-shaped river in the latitude region corresponding to the Penobscot Bay/River (≈ 44° latitude) in Maine. The RIO GRANDE toponym, while it continued to be used for the Penobscot region on some maps, on others it would continue its migration to the south. Eventually the toponym arrived at, or just above the 41.50° latitude, and adjacent (on the north side) to the RIO DE BUENA MADRE toponym. To be succinct, the RIO GRANDE toponym arrived in the Narragansett Bay region where the actual Newport Tower was located. The Mercator’s, father Gerardus and son, Rumold, knew that the RIO GRANDE wheel tower icon on their copper-engraved plates was not an accurate positioning of the Newport Tower. The choice was simple, either destroy the costly engraving and start anew, or retain the engraving and then, post-printing, have the colorist insert new illustrations for the Newport Tower. The Mercator’s chose the latter option – the colorist would rehabilitate the positioning of the Newport Tower. The colorist illustrated two additional sets of tower icons on the specific Rumold Mercator map. Both sets are situated along the 41.73° latitude parallel, a mere 0.25° north of the 41.48° actual latitude of the Newport Tower. One set is placed on the western side of the unlabeled RIO GRANDE, near its mouth. A black-traced, black-filled, two pillar, bottom arch icon overlaps the western boundary of the bay. Attached to the eastern side of this tower icon is a rectangular, white pigment-filled tower icon. The second set of icons is tucked into the turn of the coast slightly to the south. Presentation is 30 slides. Google Drive PowerPoint: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hQJLYhSvopgmQDQyPqGDVKicQVaOFiQ2/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108078659971084354140&rtpof=true&sd=true

This 1508 chart of Pietro Russo, a holding of the Museu Marítim de Barcelona (Barcelona, ES), illustrated the Newport Tower. The four tower icon illustrations Russo crafted are rather unique, rendered in white pigment. The icons are clustered in a 0.89° range of latitude fixed between 41.38° to 42.27°. One of the icons contains an interior X. A second tower icon has a large cross extending from its upper reaches. Russo's 1508 chart was a precursor to his 1511 chart, an even more impressive cartographic work illustrating the Newport Tower. This presentation contains 20 slides. PowerPoint presentation available on my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zL81Pbkc9i4lAx5JCJdALxcIaJfPwsri/view?usp=sharing

Johannes Blaeu’s famous 1662 double-hemisphere map of world was a copper-engraved printed map. Post-printing, a colorist (which could have been Blaue) dressed up the surface of the map with coloring. Barry Lawrence Ruderman, Antique Maps Inc. has shared on the Internet excellent imagery of two different versions of the same state of Blaue’s map. These versions differ in how the colorist illustrated the Newport Tower. This is a rare find. Johannes Blaue was the son of Willem Janszoon Blaue, another notable Dutch cartographer, and whom illustrated the Newport Tower on maps and globes produced between 1630 and 1640. This presentation contains 59 slides. The first thirteen slides comprise a streamlined analysis of the second version of the map. The remaining slides are a repetition of the analysis performed on the first version. PowerPoint presentation available on my Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r7kkWyVsclZH6bQWyBrpg-UtJ4LV-wEl/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108078659971084354140&rtpof=true&sd=true

Johannes Blaeu illustrated the Newport Tower on this 1662 double-hemisphere map of world. On the coast of Nieu Nederland, the Dutch name for the region of North America corresponding to Englishman’s John Smith’s name of New England, Blaue inserted a rectangular white pigmented platform illustration on the coast of the condensed Narragansett Bay. He topped this rectangular feature with a thinly traced black line projecting upwards at a slight angle. This pole feature coupled with the rectangular outline confirms the first tower icon representation, both features being classic elements of tower icons. Within this larger tower, Blaue then illustrated a bottom V-notch columnar tower. The pole extension from the upper right-hand aspect, again, confirms the tower icon illustration. Johannes Blaue was the son of Willem Janszoon Blaue, another notable Dutch cartographer, and whom illustrated the Newport Tower on maps and globes produced between 1630 and 1640. This presentation contains 40 slides. PowerPoint presentation available on my Google Drive: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LIiyJZXnXDJOluBuCjA0X8eIvj4a0Goo/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108078659971084354140&rtpof=true&sd=true

This presentation examines three cartographic works of Dutch mapmaker Petrus Plancius. Two works are variations based on a copper plate engraving dated as c. 1590. The third work is a different copper plate engraved map dating to c. 1594. This sequence of maps not only illustrated the Newport Tower, but they show how the post-printing process executed by the colorist not only beautified the print, but added historical details. The Newport Tower on the c. 1590 work was traced and over-washed by the colorist. The c. 1594 work engraved the Newport Tower, then the colorist added details.

A twelve-slide presentation analyzing the 1470-dated portolan chart crafted by Grazioso Benincasa, an Italian cartographer from Ancona, Italy. Benincasa illustrate the Newport Tower on the western margin of his 1470 chart on the latitude meridian that intersected Rome (41.74°).

This analysis identified the tower icon representing the Newport Tower on four charts crafted by the Ancona, Italy-based Freducci’s. Three of the charts (1536, two charts; 1538, one chart) were produced by Conte di Ottomano Freducci. The fourth chart was produced by Angelo de Conte Freducci in 1550. All four of the charts were highly accurate with respect to latitude (referenced to the northern coast of Portugal and the northern end of the Straight of Gibraltar). All the charts placed the island of CORVO MARIM at the high-latitude placement of 41.50°. All of these mentioned charts placed the tower icon to the west of CORVO MARIM (literally, the ’Black Mary’). The genius of Conte di Ottomano Freducci is highly evident with respect to how he illustrated the Newport Tower and how he employed the various cross-referencing devices for its positioning. Angelo de Conte Freducci (1550) made the task of finding the Newport Tower rather easy. He placed it adjacent to the Blessed Mother and baby Jesus within the circular vignette positioned on the western margin of the chart. The cityscape that Angelo illustrated is positioned due west of Rome (41.90°). Giovanni Verrazano, in his 1524 Cèllere Codex, identified Narragansett Bay (later to become the oft-repeated RIO DE BUENA MADRE on 16th century charts) as being at the equivalent latitude of Rome, 41 and 2/3rd’s degrees.

Philipp Apian, a noted German mathematician, cartographer, and globe maker, illustrated the Newport Tower on his 1576 Erdglobus, a holding of the Bavarian State Library Manuscript and Rare Print Department (Munich, GE) (BSB Cod.icon. 129). Apian's positioning of the tower on the east side of the RIVER GRANDE, nestled just inshore of the island of CLAUDIA, would be emulated sixteen years later on the 1592 globe of Emery Molyneux (engraver was Jodocus Hondius).