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Cool! This is something I'm interested in learning more about.
Portolan Map
I've been wanting to do a portolan map, so I've decided to do a Portolan map of the West Indies, Central American and the southern United States. Attached is an outline of the RULES of a portolan map and the area of study.
STORY: Pietro on a mapping expedition off the coast of Africa is caught in a storm that takes him across the Atlantic Ocean to an uncharted area. As he tries to find his bearings, he begins to map the coast lines, meeting native along the way who give him food and shelter. This map represents his journey.
Cool! This is something I'm interested in learning more about.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
ChickPea;
There is a really good website on the HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY, books are available, but they also have PDF of the first three book on the site, three more books are planned. I was able to get the Portolan info from Chpt 19, Volume 1.
Here is the website http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html
I'll also post this on the Reference Forum.
I suggested making a portolan map as a mapping challenge a couple of months ago and I've been meaning to make a portolan map myself. Maybe this could kick it off..
Thanks for those handy "rules", snodsy!
On another note, it seems to me that you are misrepresenting the uses and value of a portolan map. It is a navigational instrument for captains, used in conjunction with wordly descriptions of ports and routes. To craft a portolan map was a technical difficult task, something only an expert cartographer would be able to do and normally resourced by a wealthy enterprise (Venitian or Genoese trade, Iberian travels of discovery).
A map-which-is-a-travel-diary seems to me very far from a Portolan. But, having said this, I think mixing the two concepts is original and it might just work out very nicely! Go for it
Last edited by Pixie; 10-16-2015 at 09:56 AM.
Thanks for the info on the difficulty to produce, I'm sure it will be difficult for me. However has noted in the Storyline, Pietro is an experienced cartographer who was employed to map the African coast, so the experience is there, and he still has some funds left over from the Africa project, although the payment might not be of value where he ended up. His travel I'm sure he would have to circumvent the area a couple times to get better understanding of the area and measurments. So this may have taken many years to complete. Oh well this is a site for fantasy! Look forward to seeing your Portolan map if you decide to do one. I was just looking for an area that probably wasn't done as one prior.
Thanks for the info. I've glanced at that before, but guess I need to take a closer look.Originally Posted by snodsy
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
Portolan Map
Think I'm about done, the names aren't really accurate, but are front the region, the american names are mostly indian tribes from that area, may not have been in that region at that time. Pietro Vesconte was thought to have died in 1330, but this is where he ended up the last twenty years of his life mapping this area, not really, but my fantasy.
This is an italian style Portolan Map, not much inland features. I may expand this and do a Catalan Portolan Map, which adds more decoration and inland features. Flags are sometimes part of a portolan map, but these areas were not under any rule at this time. Maybe on the Catalan I'll add tribal markings or something.
Comments, critiques welcome.
That's pretty amazing! Nice job
Fantastic!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
Can't give you any reputation at this point, but this portolan map is great. Really great! Great in using the proper rules of how to use wind roses, how to label and how to represent rocks/rivers/islets. And you should get some special reputation for getting it done in a couple of days. That, sir, is extra AMAZING!!
Things I don't like so much... the scale in quilometers and the title - because they don't have a place in a late medieval map, they look too modern... and the mismatch between the latin/spanish language of the land labels and the english language of the water bodies labels.
And, lastly, have you tried a version without the pacific coast drawn?
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