Abstract
Ferdinand Konšćak (Fernando Consag) was a Croatian Jesuit and a missionary who carried out the exploration of Baja California according to the order of Compañia de Jesús. In 1730 he was assigned to the missions in Baja California, where he worked until his death. During his missionary work, he made three major research expeditions (1746, 1751, 1754) and made at least two maps of Baja California. His diaries from the first and second trips, in which he gave descriptions of the terrain and the people of Baja California, were published during his lifetime and have been enjoyed even after his death in several editions and in various languages. His map, “Seño de California y su costa oriental,” played a special role after the existence of a California peninsula was officially accepted. Although F. E. Kino and J. de Ugarte had claimed this on their own maps before him, the official position of the Spanish government changed after Konšćak’s research.
In this paper we will present the original versions of Konšćak’s maps of California and later redactions of the same maps on which Ferdinand Konšćak is listed as the author. With their comparisons with later maps based on Konšćak’s template, we will assess his contribution to the cartographic and geographic knowledge of Baja California.
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Notes
- 1.
Krmpotić, Davorin. 1923. Life and Works of the Reverend Ferdinand Konšćak, S.J. 1703–1759 and early missionaries in California. Boston: The Stratford Company, 1–13.
- 2.
Suárez, Thomas. 2004. Early Mapping of the Pacific: The Early Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who Mapped the Earth’s Greatest Ocean. Singapore: Periplus Editions, 107.
- 3.
Kelsey, Harry. 1998. “Spanish Entrada Cartography.” In The Mapping of the Entradas into the Greater Southwest, eds. Denis Reinhartz and Gerald D. Saxon, 69. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
- 4.
America Sive India Nova, 1595.
- 5.
Americae Sive Novi Orbis Nova Descriptio Antwerp, 1571.
- 6.
Published as a title page of “Descriptio Indiae Occidentalis per Antonium de Herrera.”
- 7.
Amerique Septentrionale, Paris, 1650.
- 8.
America Septentrionalis, Amsterdam, 1641.
- 9.
America, London, 1676.
- 10.
Paskaerte van Nova Granada et t’Eylandt California, Amsterdam, 1666.
- 11.
Novissima et Accuratissima Septentrionalis ac Meridionalis Americae Descriptio, Amsterdam, 1690.
- 12.
L’Amerique Septentrionale ou la Partie Septentrionale du Indes Occidentales, Paris, 1689.
- 13.
Provinciae Borealis Americae… Munich, 1720.
- 14.
North America, ca.1720.
- 15.
Novus Orbis Sive America, Augsburg, 1750.
- 16.
Goodwin, R. Katherine. 1998. “Entrada: The First Century of Mapping the Greater Southwest.” In The Mapping of the Entradas into the Greater Southwest, eds. Denis Reinhartz and Gerald D. Saxon, 189. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
- 17.
“Derrotero del viaje que en descubrimiento de la costa oriental de California hasta el Río Colorado… hizo el padre Fernando Consag… por orden del padre Cristóbal de Escobar y Llamas, provincial de Nueva España de la Compañía de Jesús; empieza en 9 de junio de 1746.”
- 18.
This manuscript, duplicated in multiple copies, exists today and was published in O’Crouley Pedro Alonso. 1775. Ydea compendiosa del Reyno de Nueva Espagna. Ciudad de Mexico.
- 19.
Unfortunately, that part of the manuscript is preserved in the subsequent transcript from March 1791.
- 20.
Fascimiles of the Konšćak’s maps are published in, Burrus, J. Ernest. 1967. La Obra Cartograpica de la Provincia Mexicana de la Compañia de Jesus (1567–1967). Madrid: Ediciones Jose Porrua Turanzas.
- 21.
Huntington Library, San Marino. One example under the same title is in the British Library.
- 22.
Mapa del paso por tierra á la California y sus confinantes nuevas Naciones y Misiones nueva de la Compañia de Jesús en la America Septentrional, Descubierto andado y demarcado por el Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, jesuita, desde el año de 1698, hasta el de 1701.
- 23.
Delineacion de la Nueva Provincia de San Andrés del Puerto de la Paz y de las Islas circunvecinas de las Californias ó Carolinas que al Excmo. Señor Conde de Paredes, Virrey de la Nueva España dedica y consagra la Mission de la Compañia de Jesus de dichas Californias ó Carolinas en 21 de Diciembre dia del Glorioso Apostol de las Indias S. & Thomas, de 1689.
- 24.
Nuevo Reyno de la Nueva Navara son suos confinantes obros Reynos 1710.
- 25.
Seno de California, y su costa oriental nuevamente descubierta, y registrada desde el Cabo al las Virgenes, hasta su termino, que es el Rio Colorado año 1747. por el Pe. Ferdinando Consag de la Compa. de IHS, Mission en la California.
- 26.
Mapa de la California, su golfo y provincias fronteras en el Continente de Nueva Espagna. Is. Peña sculp.1757. It was released in the first volume of Burriel’s works.
- 27.
The letter is preserved in the Manuscript Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino.
- 28.
Aschmann, Homer. 1966. The Natural and Human History of Baja California. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 18–19.
- 29.
Kaart van het Westelyk Gedeelte van Nieuw Mexico en van California Volgens de laatste Ontdekkingen der Jesuiten en anderen/Isaak Tirion, Amsterdam 1765. The map was included in Tirion’s well-regarded Nieuwe en Beknopte Hand-Atlas.
- 30.
Carte Generale du Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne depuis le Parallele de 16° jusqua’au Parallele de 58° (Latitude Nord) …
- 31.
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1814. Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown and H. Colburn, XXV–XXXIII. He explicitly mentioned that he used the map of California published in Venegas-Burriel.
- 32.
Humboldt, 174.
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Altić, M.S. (2012). Ferdinand Konšćak – Cartographer of the Compañia de Jesús and his Maps of Baja California. In: Liebenberg, E., Demhardt, I. (eds) History of Cartography. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19088-9_1
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