Carta Pisana
Encyclopedia
The Carta Pisana is a map made at the end of the 13th century, about 1275-1300. It was found in Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, hence its name. It shows the whole Mediterranean, the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 and a part of the atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 coast, from the north of present-day Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 (down to roughly the 33rd parallel north
33rd parallel north
The 33rd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 33 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean....

, with the town of Azemmour
Azemmour
Azemmour or Azamor |The Olives]]"; ) is a Moroccan city, on the left bank of the Oum Er-Rbia River, 75 km southwest of Casablanca. Although it was a dependency of the King of Fez, Azemmour had great autonomy. In 1486 its inhabitants became vassals and tributaries of João II of Portugal...

) to present-day Holland, but the accuracy of the map is mostly limited to the Mediterranean. It is the oldest surviving nautical chart
Nautical chart
A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land , natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids...

 (that is, not simply a map but a document showing accurate navigational directions). It is a portolan chart
Portolan chart
Portolan charts are navigational maps based on realistic descriptions of harbours and coasts. They were first made in the 14th century in Italy, Portugal and Spain...

, showing a detailed survey of the coasts, and many ports, but bears no indication on the topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...

 or toponymy
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 of the inland
Inland
Inland is an area of land away from the coast or shore line. It usually refers to the interior part of a country or region.Inland may refer to:* Inland Fräkne Hundred, a hundred of Bohuslän in Sweden...

. On the map, North is on the top, in contrast to other maps of the same period such as the Hereford Mappa Mundi
Hereford Mappa Mundi
The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a mappa mundi, of a form deriving from the T and O pattern, dating to ca. 1300. It is currently on display in Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England...

 (ca. 1300), where East is on the top.

Origin and content

Possible places of origin for the map include Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

, where it was found, Venetia, and Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

, which is the conventionally recognised place of origin. The density of the ports referenced on the map is the highest for the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....

, and the lowest for that of the Ionian Sea
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...

. This is possible evidence that the map is of genoese
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 origin, since Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

, at this time, was a major power in the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....

. Additionally, the first textual reference to the use of such a detailed maritime chart, in 1270, is in relation to a Genoese ship.

The inaccuracy of the Atlantic part of the Carta Pisana, especially when compared to its Mediterranean part, can be exemplified by its depiction of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

: an irregular, rectangular shape, lying on an east-west axis. Only six place names are indicated for Great Britain. Civitate Londra (London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) is placed in the middle of the southern coast.

As to the date of the map, it is partly indicated by the mention of the town of Manfredonia
Manfredonia
Manfredonia is a town and comune of Puglia, Italy, in the province of Foggia, from which it is 35 kilometres northeast by rail. Manfredonia is situated on the coast, facing east, to the south of Monte Gargano, and giving its name to the gulf to the east of it...

, which was founded by king Manfred of Sicily
Manfred of Sicily
Manfred was the King of Sicily from 1258 to 1266. He was a natural son of the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen but his mother, Bianca Lancia , is reported by Matthew of Paris to have been married to the emperor while on her deathbed.-Background:Manfred was born in Venosa...

 in 1256.

The sources used in the making of the Carta Pisana are difficult to determine. The use of several dialects in the place-names indicated on the map would tend to suggest that several regional sources were compiled to make the map. Other possibilities include a hypothetical earlier, no longer extant portolan chart, or Ancient Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 cartography. However, there is absolutely no evidence supporting the existence of an earlier portolan chart, and the fact that the map's most glaring error concerns Italy would undermine the theory of an Ancient Roman influence.

Navigational aspects and relation to the compass

The map encompasses almost all of the Mediterranean inside two circles, one for the western Mediterranean, one for the eastern. These circles are divided into sixteen parts, providing the map with sixteen corresponding wind direction
Wind direction
Wind direction is reported by the direction from which it originates. For example, a northerly wind blows from the north to the south. Wind direction is usually reported in cardinal directions or in azimuth degrees...

s. Furthermore, it comprises a two-directional scale
Scale (map)
The scale of a map is defined as the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground.If the region of the map is small enough for the curvature of the Earth to be neglected, then the scale may be taken as a constant ratio over the whole map....

subdivised into several segments corresponding to 200, 50, 10, and 5 miles. The exact value of these "portolan miles" is difficult to calculate in present-day units, given discrepancies between geographical areas on this map and others; but it is conventionally accepted to be around 1.25 kilometers.
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