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Martin (of) Behaim (October 6, 1459 – July 29, 1507), (or Behem, Boemia or Bohemia) was a German navigator and geographer to the King of Portugal. more...

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Behaim was born in Nuremberg, according to one tradition, about 1436; according to Ghillany, as late as 1459 and was supposedly of Bohemian origin. He was drawn to Portugal by participation in Flanders trade, and acquired a scientific reputation at the court of John II of Portugal. As a pupil, real or supposed, of the astronomer Regiomontanus (i.e., Johann Müller of Königsberg in Franconia) he became (c. 1480) a member of a council appointed by King John for the furtherance of navigation.

His suggested introduction of the cross-staff into Portugal (an invention described by the Spanish Jew, Levi ben Gerson, in the 14th century) is a matter of controversy; many diverse instruments had been in use for centuries by Scandinavian, Greek, Roman, Arab, and Chinese navigators, the similarities of or differences between which are difficult to ascertain. His improvements in the astrolabe were the introduction of brass instruments in place of cumbrous wooden ones; it seems likely that he helped to prepare better navigation tables than had yet been known in the Peninsula.

He is thought to have accompanied Diogo Cão in his second expedition to West Africa, undertaken in 1485-86, reaching Cabo Negro in 15°40 S. and Cabo Ledo still farther on. Behaim's position in history is unsettled; it is suggested by his detractors that instead of sharing in this great voyage of discovery, the Nuremberger only sailed to the nearer coasts of Guinea, perhaps as far as the Bight of Benin, and possibly with José Visinho the astronomer and with João Afonso de Aveiro, in 1484-86.

However, Behaim's later history is as follows: on his return from his West African exploration to Lisbon he was knighted by King John, who afterwards employed him in various capacities; but from the time of his marriage in 1486 he usually resided at Fayal in the Azores, where his father-in-law, Jobst van Huerter, was governor of a Flemish colony.

Before Magellan?

The crown of Portugal used to buy exploration charts from all over the world, even if not accurate or from unknown/mythic regions. It is supposed that when in contact with the king John II of Portugal, Martin of Behaim could have sold a drawing about a misterious passage in an unknown land. Antonio Pigafetta, an italian writer that accompained Magellan's trip to discover a passage to the Pacific Ocean, cites that Magellan would have a partial drawing of the channel, analising it even before they have reached the land . Pigafetta cites that Magellan would have the second half of the drawing memorized, to avoid being killed in a mutiny and the passage being \"discovered\" by his spanish officers. Although historians usually do not accept Behaim's influence on the discovery, it is fact that he is cited in the original Pigafetta's diary as the author of the original drawing of the channel. This drawing was never exposed.

Read more at Wikipedia.org