Neotropical 12(3).text.indd Neotropical Primates 12(3), December 2004146 FURTHER INFORMATION ON NEOTROPICAL MONKEYS REPORTED IN THE XVI CENTURY Bernardo Urbani Previously, I reviewed chronicles that reported on or illus- trated Neotropical primates in the XVth and XVIth centuries (Urbani, 1999). Recently, I found two new documents that are important for understanding how New World monkeys were initially represented in Europe and Asia. The first is an Ottoman map of 1513 made by the Turkish Admiral Piri Re’is (1470–1554), a navigator and polyglot who spoke Greek, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. This work, known as the Piri Re’is Carte de L’Atlantique (90 x 65 cm), is housed at the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey (La Ronciere et al., 1984: plate 28). The polychrome map was lost until 1929 and was part of a larger planisphere. Monkeys were illustrated but not mentioned in the text (Afetinan, 1954; McIntosh, 2000) (Fig. 1). In addition to Portuguese and Arab sources, Piri Re’is may have drawn from a chart by Christopher Columbus, appar- ently found in a Spanish ship captured by the Turks in the Neotropical Primates 12(3), December 2004 147 Mediterranean Sea around 1501. In fact, Piri Re’is’ map may reflect the earlier Columbus map of 1498 (La Ronciere et al., 1984: 218), which coincidentally is the year that Co- lumbus, in his travels, first reported on monkeys in America (Urbani, 1999). In the highly detailed map of Piri Re’is, baboon-like monkeys in the New World were drawn for the first time (Fig. 1). It is possible to infer that these illustra- tions were made with African primate referents, as were the reports by other travelers in the New World such as Ameri- go Vespucci (who referred to Neotropical primates as ba- boons and macaques; Urbani, 1999) and Arabic chroniclers (Kruk, 1995). On the other hand, Piri Re’is might have obtained another original source on New World monkeys directly from the Europeans. Two primates are represented and associated with mythical animals, one “dancing” with a cynocephalus (dog-head) and another with a fruit in its hand together with an acephalus (headless) (Fig. 1). These mon- keys were illustrated as inhabiting the area that is currently Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela. In February 1595, the English pirate captain Sir Robert Dudley (1574–1649), voyaging in the West Indies, en- tered the Gulf of Paria (Venezuela) from the southwest at Serpent’s Mouth, leaving it by the Dragon’s Mouth in order to arrive at the Isle of Trinidad. Of this island, he said, “the country is fertile, and ful of fruits, strange beasts and foules, where of munkeis(3), babions and parats were in great abundance [sic]” (Dudley, 1899: 71). He also in- dicated that the local name for primates in Trinidad was “howa” (Dudley, 1899: 78). Of interest is that the editor, G. F. Warner, wrote a footnote citing Charles Kingsley (1819–1875): “(3)His ‘munkeys’ were, of course, the little Sapajous; his ‘babions’ no true Baboons, for America dis- dains that degraded and dog-like form, but the great red Howlers (Kingsley, At last, p.69).” In principle, it is the first reference that we know of for monkeys from a Ca- ribbean island, and specifically Trinidad. Considering the two primates of this island (Phillips, 1998), the “munkeis” are most likely Cebus albifrons trinitatis, whereas the “ba- bions” refer to Alouatta seniculus insulanus, both endemic subspecies. Acknowledgments: To the personnel of the UIUC libraries for their cooperation, and Paul Garber and Anthony B. Rylands for their suggestions. As always to Tania Urquiza- Haas. B. U. is supported by a Fulbright-OAS Scholarship. The author would appreciate comments and references for future updates. Bernardo Urbani, Department of Anthropology, Uni- versity of Illinois, 109 Davenport Hall, 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA, e-mail: . References Afetinan, A. 1954. Life and Works of the Turkish Admiral: Pirî Reis. The Oldest Map of America Drawn by Pirî Reis. Türk Tarih Kurumo Basimevi, Ankara. Translated to English by Leman Yolaç. Dudley, R. 1899. Robert Dudley’s voyage to the West Indies, 1594–1595, narrated by Himself. In: The voyage of Robert Dudley, afterwards styled Earl of Warwick and Leicester and Duke of Northumberland, to the West Indies, 1594–1595, narrated by Capt. Wyatt, by Himself, and by Abram Kendall, master, G. F. Warner (ed.), pp.67–79. The Hakluyt Society, London. McIntosh, G. C. 2000. The Piri Reis Map of 1513. University of Georgia Press, Athens. Kingsley, Ch. 1896. At last: A Christmas in the West Indies. Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London. Kruk, R. 1995. Traditional Islamic views of apes and monkeys. In: Ape, Man, Apeman: Changing Views Since 1600, R. Corbey and B. Theunissen (eds.), pp.29–42. Leiden University, Leiden. Phillips, K. A. 1998. Tool use in wild capuchin monkeys (Cebus albifrons trinitatis). Am. J. Primatol. 46(3): 259– 261. La Ronciere, M., Mollat du Jourdin, M., Azard, M.-M., Raynaud-Nguyen, I. and Vannereau, M.-A. 1984. Les Portulans, Cartes marines du XIIIe au XVIIe siècle. Office du Libre S. A., Friburg (Switzerland). Urbani, B. 1999. Nuevo mundo, nuevos monos: Sobre primates neotropicales en los siglos XV y XVI. Neotrop. Primates 7(4): 121–125. Figure 1. Two monkeys of the New World in the Piri Re’is’ Carte de L’Atlantique 1513. One is to the right of a cynocephalus (on the left of the map) and the other to the right of an acephalus (on the right of the map) (La Ronciere et al., 1984: plate 28).