portolan charts
Medieval sailing maps
Portolan charts are medieval and Renaissance nautical maps characterized by networks of crisscrossing compass lines radiating from multiple points.
These lines, called rhumb lines, allowed sailors to plot courses by compass bearing.
The charts depicted coastlines with remarkable accuracy—far more detailed than contemporary land maps—and dense annotations of ports and harbors.
The portolan chart showed every inlet along the Mediterranean coast.
The name comes from Italian for "relating to ports."
- MajorcaSpain's largest Balearic island
- compass roseCartographic direction indicator
- medieval mapsPeriod cartography before Columbus
- vellumPrepared calfskin for writing
- Mediterranean SeaIntercontinental landlocked water body
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portolan chartsdead reckoning
Position-tracking via estimated motion
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