1424 Nautical Chart

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1424 Nautical Chart.

The earliest portolan — or nautical — chart in the James Ford Bell Library was made in 1424 by a Venetian cartographer whose name almost certainly was Zuane Pizzigano (Parker 1955, 3). This manuscript portolan chart on vellum is approximately two by three feet in size. Like the Carte Pisane, the 1424 Nautical Chart is simple, with no pictoral decoration, and it does not have a separate decorated compass rose.

http://gallery.lib.umn.edu/archive/original/f2db0238c13e5e92a0aa09443b60b9cb.jpg

The North - from the island "Brazil" in the Atlantic to Ireland, England and name-places along the coast of France to "Finlandia" and more rhumb lines in the east.

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The South - from the Fortunate Islands in the Atlantic to place-names along the coast of Africa and the rhumb lines in the east.

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The East - has color-coded rhumb lines and the holes for attaching the chart to a wooden post.

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The West - from the "neck" of the chart and the signature to the Antilia islands. See the "Mysteries" section of the Portolan Chart website for more about the islands.

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The Center - not the Mediterranean this time. From islands in the Atlantic to the coast of Spain and Portugal [Casteia], with sections of France and Africa.

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The Circle for Navigation.