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Portolan chart

 
Portolan Chart

 
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a portolan nautical chart
Nautical chart

A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a Sea 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 to navigation, information on tides and Current...
 of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
. Second quarter of the fourteenth century.]]
Portolan charts were first made in the 1300s in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 and Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
. Portolan comes from an Italian word meaning "navigation instructions." These charts, which were actually rough maps, were based on accounts of medieval Europeans who sailed the Mediterranean and Black seas. Drawn on sheepskin, portolan charts show coastal features and main ports.






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a portolan nautical chart
Nautical chart

A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a Sea 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 to navigation, information on tides and Current...
 of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
. Second quarter of the fourteenth century.]]
Portolan charts were first made in the 1300s in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 and Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
. Portolan comes from an Italian word meaning "navigation instructions." These charts, which were actually rough maps, were based on accounts of medieval Europeans who sailed the Mediterranean and Black seas. Drawn on sheepskin, portolan charts show coastal features and main ports. The straight lines crisscrossing the charts represent the 32 directions of the mariner's compass.

The portolan combined the exact notations of the text of the periplus
Periplus

Periplus is the Latinization of an ancient Greek word, pe??p???? , literally "a sailing-around." Both segments, peri- and -plous, were independently Productivity : the ancient Greek speaker understood the word in its literal sense; however, it developed a few specialized meanings, one of which became a standard term in the ancient...
 or pilot book with the decorative illustrations of the conceptual T and O map
T and O map

A T and O map or O-T or T-O map , is a type of medieval world map, sometimes also called a Beatine map or a Beatus map because one of the earliest known representations of this sort is attributed to Beatus of Li?bana, an 8th-century Spanish monk....
, but a portolan chart did offer a realistic depiction of the shore and was meant for practical use by a mariner of the period.

The portolan did not take into account the curvature of the earth, so it was a misleading document for crossing an ocean.

Portolani were useful for navigation in smaller bodies of water such as the Mediterranean or the Red Sea.

The oldest portolan which has survived to our era, the Carte Pisane, dates from circa 1296. The cartographer Angelino Dulcert
Angelino Dulcert

Angelino Dulcert , probably also the same person known as Angelino Dalorto, was a Majorcan mapmaker whose portolan is the first known to have been produced in Palma, in 1339....
 produced a portolan in 1339.

See also

  • Catalan Atlas
    Catalan Atlas

    The Catalan Atlas is the most important Catalan map of the medieval period. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham....
    , 1375
  • charts


External links

  • mini-site, University of Minnesota
  • butronmaker