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Guillaume Le Testu, sometimes referred to as Guillaume Le Têtu (c. 1509-12 – April 29, 1573) was a French privateer, explorer and navigator. He was one of the foremost cartographers of his time and an author of the Dieppe maps. His maps were distinguished by their sophistication and detail; they influenced generations of cartographers, navigators and explorers. Le Testu was successful as a privateer during the early years of the French Wars of Religion. In 1573, he and Sir Francis Drake attacked a Spanish mule train escorting gold and silver to Nombre de Dios on the Atlantic coast of Panama, and he was subsequently killed following his capture by the Spanish. Suggestions that Le Testu may have mapped (or even visited) Australia are based on: first, his maps' depiction of a large island (or continent), south of Java, which Le Testu identified as the ''Jave la Grande'' ("Java Major" or "Great Java") mentioned by Marco Polo (and was otherwise known at the time as ''Terra Australis'') and second, Le Testu's incorporation in these maps of birds that resemble black swans and cassowaries, which are both native to Australia.〔Eisler, William. ''The Furthest Shore: Images of Terra Australis from the Middle Ages to Captain Cook''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. (pg. 23) ISBN 0-521-39268-3〕 However, he did not claim to have seen Jave la Grande in person and many cartographers at the time incorporated hypothetical, mythological or fantastic elements, a practice that is clearly also true of Le Testu.〔McIntosh, Gregory C. ''The Piri Reis map of 1513''. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. (pg. 45) ISBN 0-8203-2157-5〕 His maps also showed unicorns and monstrous creatures such as 200 metre long giant snakes, basilisks, satyrs, Blemmyes (headless humans) and Cynocephalics (dog-headed humans).〔Pettegree, Andrew. ''Europe in the Sixteenth Century''. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. (pg. 228) ISBN 0-631-20704-X〕 Le Testu's work was used by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and French Huguenots hoping to establish themselves in Brazil, Florida, the Caribbean and even the ''Terra Australis'' derived from Le Testu's "Jave la Grande". However, these attempts were abandoned following Coligny's assassination in 1572 and Le Testu's death the following year.〔Quinn, David B. ''Explorers and Colonies: America, 1500-1625''. London: Hambleton Press, 1990. (pg. 63) ISBN 1-85285-024-8〕 ==Biography== Guillaume le Testu was born sometime around 1509–12, in either Le Havre, Normandy or Grasse, Provence. He was one of the last students to be taught cartography at the famed school of Dieppe. Le Testu subsequently took part in voyages of exploration throughout the Atlantic Ocean. In 1550, Le Testu was commissioned by King Henry II to create a map of the Americas, particularly where the French were trading. In June 1551, he sailed to Brazil on both an exploration and reconnaissance mission from Henry II, charting as far as the Rio de la Plata. His ship, the ''Salamandre'',〔The salamander was a royal device favoured by Henry II and his father, Francis I.〕 reached as far south as 26 latitude a fair distance past present-day Rio de Janeiro. In late December, he became involved in a firefight with two Portuguese ships near Trinidad and sustained heavy damage to his ship, although he was successful in mapping much of the South American coastline by the time of his return to Dieppe in July 1552.〔McGrath, John T. ''The French in Early Florida: In the Eye of the Hurricane''. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. (pg. 17) ISBN 0-8130-1784-X〕 Le Testu was also involved in the founding of a French colony near Rio de Janeiro in 1555. In 1555 or 1556, Le Testu published a world atlas entitled ''Cosmographie Universelle selon les Navigateurs, tant anciens que modernes'' and was consequently awarded the title of ''Pilote Royale'' by Henry II.〔(Cosmographie universelle, Guillaume Le Testu, Le Havre, 1556. )〕 The ''Cosmographie Universelle'' contained 56 maps reportedly based on charts Le Testu had personally drawn by hand on his expeditions.〔Buisseret, David, ed. ''Monarchs, Ministers, and Maps: The Emergence of Cartography as a Tool of Government in Early Modern Europe''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. (pg. 103) ISBN 0-226-07987-2〕 This atlas was dedicated to his mentor and patron Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, who had become leader of the Huguenots three years earlier. The manuscript was based on charts from French, Spanish and Portuguese sources supplied by Coligny. Included in this atlas were twelve charts of ''Jave le Grand/Terra Australis,'' which Le Testu located southward of the Moluccas. Le Testu commented: "However, what I have marked and depicted is only by imagination, and I have not noted or remarked on any of the commodities or incommodities of the place, nor its mountains, rivers or other things; for there has never yet been any man who has made a certain discovery of it."〔Jacob, Christian. ''The Sovereign Map: Theoretical Approaches in Cartography Throughout History''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. (pg. 146) ISBN 0-226-38953-7; Frank Lestringant, ''Mapping the Renaissance World'', (transl. by David Fausett), Cambridge, Polity/Blackwell, 1994, p.133..〕 Coligny subsequently supported a proposal from the d'Albagno brothers, for an expedition to Terra Australis to investigate the possibility of a French colony there.〔Amy Glassner Gordon, "Mapping La Popelinière's Thought: Some Geographical Dimensions", ''Terrae Incognitae'', vol.9, 1977, pp.60-73; Numa Broc, "De l’Antichtone à l’Antarctique", ''Cartes et figures de la Terre'', Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1980, pp.136-49.〕 Three centuries later, the English scholar Edward Jenks suggested that a chart said to have been created in 1542 and later held by the British Museum may have been Le Testu's source for Jave la Grande.〔Jenks, Edward. ''A History of the Australasian Colonies (From Their Foundation to the Year 1893)''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1895. (pg. 5-6)〕 Le Testu's ''Cosmographie Universelle'' (1555) and world atlas (1556) are both in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.〔Clarke, Marcus. ''History of the Continent of Australia and the Island of Tasmania (1787 to 1870)''. Melbourne: F.F. Bailliere, 1870. (pg. 4)〕 The map, said Jenks, was said to have been “the property of a man named Rotz, a French sailor who passed some part of his life in England”. Jenks commented: “this fact gives some colour to the claim put forward by the French, that their countryman, Guillaume le Testu, was the true discoverer of Australia. The claim is based mainly upon the fact that Testu’s name appears on a map dated 1555, on which a southern continent, styled Jave la Grande (“Great Java”), is outlined. But this fact, of course, merely proves that Testu had heard of such a country..." ] The next several years saw the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion, civil wars between the Huguenots and Catholics; in 1567, Le Testu sided with the Protestant Huguenots, conducting privateering raids for two years before his capture by the Catholics. He would remain imprisoned for over four years until he was released by order of King Charles IX, due to public interest on his behalf. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guillaume Le Testu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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