Census of pre‐sixteenth‐century portolan charts

Abstract

Introduction The portolan charts, which appear to have originated in the late thirteenth century, as far as can be deduced from the documentary record and examination of surviving examples, gave a coastal configuration for the Mediterranean and Black seas of unparalleled accuracy for their time.' Armando Cortesao believed that the 'advent of the portolan chart ... was one of the most important turning points in the whole history of cartography'.2 Their contemporaries, the later medieval mappaemundi, display a view of the world that reflected theological concerns and was sometimes dominated by them. By contrast, the portolan charts encapsulate the Mediterranean seaman's intimate knowledge of his own world. Ironically, it was the charts' exceptional usefulness to practical men that has left a comparatively small sample for study today. If the content of the earliest surviving examples can be commended to historians for its coastal accuracy and the richness of its toponymic data, the subsequent atlases and charts which appeared with increasing frequency through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are equally relevant to the wide range of historical disciplines. Analysis of the toponymic development discernible in charts produced before the middle of the fifteenth century shows that for the original core area, the Mediterranean and Black seas, the charts take note, if belatedly, of the creation and abandonment of coastal setlements, while recording, with some degree of faithfulness, changes in place-name forms. The revelation that the earliest charts were constantly evolving, unlike many of their printed successors in later centuries, gives them an added importance for medievalists, particularly those whose concern is with the Mediterranean littoral. Portolan charts were not restricted, though, to the Mediterranean and Black seas. In the fourteenth century, they were extended northwards to take in the British Isles, North Sea and Baltic, and the charts of that period also began to reflect the newly discovered (or newly imagined) Atlantic island groups. This was followed in the fifteenth century by the systematic Portuguese advance southwards along the western coast of Africa. For historians to make the most effective use of the surviving portolan charts, they must have ready access to a comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of known survivors. Up to now this has been denied them. Existing catalogues are restricted in scope, partially obsolete, or both. The present Census nevertheless owes an inevitable debt to earlier efforts. Previous Censuses A full historiography of the subject is beyond the scope of this essay but the major developments can be briefly outlined. It was over a century and a half ago that Giovanni Andres attempted what was perhaps the first global census of portolan charts, although his total of seventeen is less than 10 per cent of those recorded today. The next noteworthy contribution was that of the Genoese scholar Cornelio Desimoni, who in 1866 (and again, with amendments, in 1875) offered a catalogue of charts either made by Genoese or preserved in Genoa. This unfortunate self-limitation, which set primary store by what is often indeterminable, namely the nationality of the chartmaker, was repeated, though with more latitude, by the next in sequence, the first major catalogue of its kind, that by Uzielli and Amat di S. Filippo. Despite being issued more than a century ago and restricted to material preserved in Italy or of Italian authorship, their Mappamondi of 1875 (better known from the second edition of 1882) remains an invaluable tool. Given the pre-eminence of Italian portolan chartmaking centres and the strength of Italian collections today, the Uzielli net was wide enough to catch a significant proportion of the surviving material. In deference to their continuing usefulness, the numbers from Uzielli's catalogue are cited in the Census, along with those from more recent inventories. Nordenskidld's broader-based (though selective) list in his Periplus (1897) made some additions, and Kretschmer's Italienischen Portolane des Mittelalters of 1909 refined still further the Italian contribution before 1500. Next followed the Irish scholar, Michael Andrews, who included a general listing of charts from the first two centuries in articles published in 1925 and 1926. A number of the manuscripts had not been noticed previously. Guarnieri's list of 1933, on the other hand, was unoriginal. So far, the Catalan charts had received less attention, but this was rectified in 1960 by Rey Pastor and Garcia Camarero in their indispensable La Cartografia Malorquina. Very little extra Catalan material has come to light since. The latest contribution was that made by Armando Cortesao in his History of Portuguese Cartography (1969-7 1), which combines references to recently discovered material with useful bibliographical notes and discussions of provenance. Taken together, these nine general listings ostensibly covered the full range of medieval sea charts. Yet a sizeable minority of the works included in the present Census escaped their notice. Some have only been recorded in obscure periodical articles or specialist studies. A few of the latter can be singled out as of

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