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Traces of the Common Origin of Carte Pisane, Cortona Chart, and Pietro Vesconte’s Charts

Spuren des Gemeinsamen Ursprungs von Carte Pisane, Cortona-Karte, und Pietro Vescontes Seekarten

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 February 2024

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Abstract

Anonymous Carte Pisane (c. 1275) and Cortona chart (c. 1300), as well as Pietro Vesconte's charts, made in 1311 and 1313, which represent some of the earliest known portolan charts, were cartometrically analysed to examine the geometric similarities between their coastal renderings. The research results show that not only the majority of their territorial coverage was drawn very similarly to each other but also that certain parts of the coastline are nearly identical between all the examined charts. Also, the magnitude and orientation of displacement vectors of residuals revealed that the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas on charts contain seven subsections which are on average, twice as accurate in comparison to the same area treated as a whole. The fundamental conclusion is that there is a high probability that the coastline renderings on the earliest known portolan charts are, actually, more or less skilfully made copies of the same source material used as a graphic template. The hypothetical source might have been an atlas whose origins date back to before the Middle Ages, containing charts whose extents were, perhaps, similar to the extents of detected subsections, which medieval cartographers were not able to assemble correctly due to their ignorance of map projections.

Zusammenfassung

Die anonyme Carte Pisane (ca. 1275) und Cortona-Karte (ca. 1300) sowie die Seekarten von Pietro Vesconte aus den Jahren 1311 und 1313, die zu den frühesten bekannten Portolan-Karten gehören, wurden kartometrisch analysiert, um die geometrischen Ähnlichkeiten zwischen ihnen zu untersuchen ihre Küstendarstellungen. Die Forschungsergebnisse zeigen, dass nicht nur der Großteil ihrer Gebietsabdeckung sehr ähnlich zueinander gezeichnet war, sondern auch, dass bestimmte Teile der Küstenlinie in allen untersuchten Karten nahezu identisch sind. Die Größe und Ausrichtung der Verschiebungsvektoren der Residuen ergab außerdem, dass die Mittelmeer- und Schwarzmeergebiete auf den Karten sieben Unterabschnitte enthalten, die im Vergleich zum gleichen Gebiet als Ganzes im Durchschnitt doppelt so genau sind. Die grundlegende Schlussfolgerung ist, dass es eine hohe Wahrscheinlichkeit gibt, dass es sich bei den Küstenliniendarstellungen auf den frühesten bekannten Portolan-Karten tatsächlich um mehr oder weniger geschickte Kopien desselben Quellmaterials handelt, das als grafische Vorlage diente. Die hypothetische Quelle könnte ein Atlas gewesen sein, dessen Ursprünge bis in die Zeit vor dem Mittelalter zurückreichen und der Karten enthielt, deren Ausmaße möglicherweise den Ausmaßen entdeckter Unterabschnitte ähnelten, die mittelalterliche Kartographen aufgrund ihrer Unkenntnis von Kartenprojektionen nicht korrekt zusammenstellen konnten.

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Data availability

The paper provides all the data relevant to this study (digital reproductions of nautical charts, as well as the number and locations of selected control points).

Change history

Notes

  1. Additional information about the general characteristics of portolan charts can be found in Campbell’s extensive and detailed book chapter which can be downloaded for free at the following link: https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V1/Volume1.html

  2. The author of charts made in 1321 and 1327 is Perrinus (Perrino) Vesconte. Adolf E. Nordenskiöld believed Perrinus is a variation of the name Petrus (Nordenskiöld 1987: 58), while Paolo Revelli believed Perrinus was Petrus Vesconte’s son or a nephew (Revelli 1937, according to Campbell 1987: 407, note 274).

  3. The other two early-made charts are the so-called Lucca chart (Archivio di Stato di Lucca, Fondo Stampe n. 1193), and the chart made by Giovanni di Carignano (Archivio di Stato di Firenze, CN 02). Lucca chart is believed to have been made before 1327, its map scale is drawn in a linear fashion, and it does not appear to be less sophisticated aesthetics-wise. Carignano’s chart, presumably made in the early thirteenth century, was destroyed in 1943 (the only remaining artefact is its monochromatic photo-reproduction), but it appears to be less accurate, and not a typical portolan chart (Campbell 1987: 438).

  4. It was selected as a plane of reference because the previous extensive and detailed research (Loomer 1987; Nicolai 2014) suggests that portolan charts were, most likely, made in a normal conformal cylindrical projection.

  5. Helmert transformation was also applied by Loomer (Loomer 1987: 113–114), while Nicolai, as well as Livieratos and Boutoura applied six-parameter affine transformation, which allows each of the chart’s axes (X and Y) to be scaled and rotated individually in order to obtain the best-fit (Nicolai 2014: 455–458; Livieratos and Boutoura 2018: 163).

  6. Since there are n-2 statistically significant points per axis in the LSE (least squares adjustment) with the application of Helmert transformation, the cumulative number of statistically significant points for computing charts’ estimated accuracy (RMSE dLON and RMSE dLAT) is 2n-4 (Jenny and Hurni 2011: 403–405; Penzkofer 2016: 27–28).

  7. A high-quality digital reproduction of Jomard’s Carte Pisane facsimile can be downloaded for free at the following link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carte_Pisane_Jomard.png

  8. The relative rotational offset of the Adriatic Sea on Carte Pisane was used by Wagner (among his several other arguments) to support his hypothesis that portolan charts could be composites (Wagner 1896 (1969): 481, 483).

  9. The existence of segments from which the portolan charts were most likely compiled in the late Middle Ages is not new. As stated earlier; Loomer and Nicolai had already done extensive research on the subject, but the methodology applied in all three cases was not the same, and therefore each research yielded different outcomes. Loomer applied Helmert transformation and did not remove the statistical outliers of residuals as well, but he opted for an a priori sub-basin division, previously determined by the historian Philippe Braudel (Loomer 1987: 159) and not related to the distribution of residual-vectors. Also, none of the charts examined in this research were analysed by him. Nicolai analysed the Carte Pisane, but the boundaries of sub-charts determined by him are the result of 6-parameter affine transformation and the removal of outliers after the repetitive statistical testing of the residuals (Nicolai 2014: 207–210, 240–243).

  10. The term subsection (instead of just a section or a sub-basin) was coined intentionally because the spatial distribution of cartometrically determined chart-pieces is not deducible with the naked eye, and because their borders seem to be mainly unrelated to the typical Mediterranean sub-basin division (Fig. 10).

  11. The earliest known explicit record of the magnetic declination (variation) is from Christopher Columbus’s diary. However, according to the pre-Columbian existence of devices in which the sundial and magnetic compass were pieced-together (so called travellers’ companions, the oldest preserved of which was made in Nuremberg in 1451), and some pre-Columbian testimonies of Portuguese sailors written during their circumnavigations of Africa, it could have been known among the western Europeans for decades before (Taylor 1957: 172–173).

  12. Normal equidistant conic projection with standard parallels φ1 = 17°N and φ2 = 36°N.

  13. Rex Tholomeus chart and the basic information about it can be accessed at Barry Lawrence Ruderman webpage: https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/91710/the-rex-tholomeus-portolan-chart-anonymous

  14. The transcript of Cotrugli’s text: … Lo qual Ptholomeo fo nel tempo de divio Antonino et scripse mirabilmente. Fo grande astrologo et geometra, et ordinò et divise le mesure et le proportioni dello mare, cielo et terra, et misurò tucto per lo compasso cieleste et descripse lo mappamundo donne nui havimo la cartha dello navigare, la qual c’insegna lo andar per mare et non ci lassa errare … nulla de mino semo multi obligati ad Ptholomeo perché allo giorno de ogi non erramo. Ançi, quello facievano in prima a casu et zero arbitrio, hora havimo reducto per venti et mesure.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Zadar, Franje Tudjmana 24i, 23000, Zadar, Croatia

    Tome Marelić

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Marelić, T. Traces of the Common Origin of Carte Pisane, Cortona Chart, and Pietro Vesconte’s Charts. KN J. Cartogr. Geogr. Inf. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42489-023-00154-6

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