Catalan charts or Catalan portolans are

portolan chart Portolan charts are nautical charts, first made in the 13th century in the Mediterranean basin and later expanded to include other regions. The word ''portolan'' comes from the Italian ''portulano'', meaning "related to ports or harbors", and wh ...

s in

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...

. Portolan charts are a type of medieval and early modern map that focuses on maritime geography and includes a network of rhumb lines.Maps and their Makers, J.C.C Crone, Hutchinson & Co, London, W.I (1964) Most medieval portolan charts were made in Italian-speaking cities (mainly

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

), with a substantial minory made in Catalan-speaking Majorca. In the 19th century, historians of cartography emphasized the differences of style and content between Italian and Catalan charts, but other authors have nuanced this distinction since then.

Common properties of all portolan charts

Portolan charts all share the characteristic windrose networks, which emanate out from

compass rose A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their i ...

s located at various points on the map. These better called

windrose line A rhumbline network, more properly called, a windrose network, or sometimes also called harbour-finding chart, compass chart, or rhumb chart, is a navigational aid drawn on early portolan charts dating from the medieval to early modern perio ...

s, are generated by observation and the compass, and designated lines of bearing (though not to be confused with modern rhumb lines,

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

s or

isoazimuthal The isoazimuth is the locus of the points on the Earth's surface whose initial orthodromic course with respect to a fixed point is constant. That is, if the initial orthodromic course Z from the starting point ''S'' to the fixed point ''X'' is 8 ...

s). Portolan charts are also characterized by the accuracy of inland features, sometimes for the lines of

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lette ...

and specially for the lack of

map projection In cartography, map projection is the term used to describe a broad set of transformations employed to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and longit ...

, for cartometric investigation has revealed that no projection was used in portolans. To understand that the straight lines drawn on the map should be better called "

s", one has to know that they can be

loxodrome In navigation, a rhumb line, rhumb (), or loxodrome is an arc crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, that is, a path with constant bearing as measured relative to true north. Introduction The effect of following a rhumb li ...

s (modern rhumblines) only if the chart was is on a suitable projection. As leo Bagrow states:''"..the word ("Rhumbline") is wrongly applied to the sea-charts of this period, since a loxodrome gives an accurate course only when the chart is drawn on a suitable projection. Cartometric investigation has revealed that no projection was used in the early charts, for which we therefore retain the name 'portolan'."''

Differences between Italian and Catalan Portolans

Italian portolan charts tend to focus exclusively on coast lines, harbors and the open sea, whereas Catalan ones often shows information about the interior such as rivers. Catalan charts also tend to have richer decoration, with illustrations of cities, monarchs and animals.History of Cartography, Second Edition, Bagrow and Skelton, Transaction Books, New Brunswick (US) (1985)

Catalan maps milestones

Major Catalan maps in history

* Catalan Atlas

Sites of Major Catalan Schools

* Majorca (

Majorcan cartographic school "Majorcan cartographic school" is the term coined by historians to refer to the collection of predominantly Jewish cartographers, cosmographers and navigational instrument-makers and some Christian associates that flourished in Majorca in the 1 ...

) *

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Major Catalan Mapmakers

* Angelino Dulcert * Abraham Cresques

References

{{reflist Map types