 the cantino planisphere (or cantino world map) is the earliest surviving map showing portuguese geographic discoveries in the east and west. it is named after alberto cantino, an agent for the duke of ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from portugal to italy in 1502. the map is particularly notable for portraying a fragmentary record of the brazilian coast, discovered in 1500 by the portuguese explorer pedro Ãlvares cabral, and for depicting the african coast of the atlantic and indian oceans with a remarkable accuracy and detail. it was valuable at the beginning of the sixteenth century because it showed detailed and up-to-date strategic information in a time when geographic knowledge of the world was growing at a fast pace. it is important in our days because it contains unique historical information about the maritime exploration and the evolution of nautical cartography in a particularly interesting period. the cantino planisphere is the earliest extant nautical chart where places (in africa and parts of brazil and india) are depicted according to their astronomically observed latitudes. ==history==  thumb|180px|major wind rose of the cantino planisphere in the beginning of the 16th century, lisbon was a buzzing metropolis where people from diverse backgrounds came in search of work, glory or fortune. there were also many undercover agents looking for the secrets brought by the portuguese voyages to remote lands. among them was alberto cantino, who was sent to portugal by the ercole i d'este, duke of ferrara, with the formal intention of horse trading, while secretly collecting information on the portuguese discoveries. cantinoâs diligence is shown in two of his letters to the duke, dated from 17th and 18 october 1501, where he describes, amongst other things, hearing gaspar corte-real detailing his latest voyage to newfoundland (terra nova) to king manuel i of portugal. a popular theory, introduced in the earliest studies of the map,duarte leite (1923), 225-32 suggests that the cantino planisphere was ordered to an official portuguese mapmaker, who made a copy of the royal cartographic pattern, the so-called padrÃ£o real, kept in the armazÃ©ns da Ãndia. however, there is no historical evidence that such order was ever made and the theory is weakened by the presence of numerous mistakes. one would expect a carefully made copy of an official standard, if it existed in portugal at that time, would be accurate.gaspar (2012), 181-82 a more plausible explanation is 
1502_works Old_maps_of_the_world