Pietro Vesconte (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1310–1330) was a Genoese

cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an ...

and

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

. A pioneer of the field of the

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 ...

, he influenced

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and

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mapmaking throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He appears to have been the first professional mapmaker to sign and date his works regularly. Although Vesconte was born in Genoa, he produced much of his work in

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

. He was active between 1310 and 1330, producing numerous maps. His

nautical chart A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land ( topographic map), natural features of the seabed, details of the co ...

s are among the earliest to map the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

regions accurately. He also produced progressively more accurate depictions of the coastlines of northern Europe, in particular that of Britain and, to a lesser extent, Ireland. Pietro Vesconte's 1311 portolan chart of the east Mediterranean is the oldest signed and dated nautical chart that survives from the medieval period. He is also the author of at least four signed multi-sheet atlases (1313, 1318a, 1318b, c. 1321), where the various sheets can be combined into a single nautical chart. There is also an atlas (1321) and a solitary portolan chart (1327) signed by "Perrino Vesconte", assumed to be either Pietro himself or possibly a younger relative member of his family using a diminutive form of 'Pietro'. The image of a mapmaker at work, which appears in a Vesconte atlas of 1318, may depict the chartmaker himself. Pietro Vesconte brought his experience as a maker of portolans to bear on the mappa mundi (circular world map) he produced, which introduced a previously unheard of accuracy to the genre. He provided a world map, nautical atlas, a map of the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

and plan of Acre and

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

for inclusion in Marino Sanuto's '' Liber secretorum fidelium crucis'', a work which aimed to encourage a new crusade. There are three known copies of Sanuto's ''Liber'' (c. 1320–21, c. 1321, c. 1325) that include Vesconte's maps, only the first of which is signed; the latter two are confidently assumed to have been done by him, or at least under his direction.

Works by or attributed to Vesconte

The following works have been signed or attributed to Pietro Vesconte. * 1311 dated & signed portolan chart of the east

, held (C.N.1) by the Archivio di Stato in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, Italy. * 1313 dated & signed atlas of six sheets held (DD 687) by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, France. (1. calendar, 2. Black Sea, 3. Aegean Sea, 4. east Mediterranean, 5. central Mediterranean, 6. west Mediterranean and British Isles) * 1318 dated & signed atlas of seven sheets held (Port. 28) by

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the square on the upper ...

, Italy. (1 calendar, 2. Black Sea, 3. east Medit., 4. central Med., 5. west Med, 6. Spain and north Africa, 7. north Atlantic) * 1318 dated & signed atlas of ten sheets held (MS 594) by

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek The Austrian National Library (german: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of Vi ...

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, Austria. (1.calendar, 2. Black Sea, 3. east Medit., 4. central Medit. (south), 6. central Medit. (north) 7. west Medit., 8. Spain and French Atlantic coast, 9. British Isles, 10. Adriatic Sea) * c.1320-21 undated but signed by Vesconte, for Marino Sanudo's ''Liber secretorum'', mappa mundi plus atlas of five sheets (partially missing), held (Pal. Lat.1362A) by the Bibliotheca Apostolica in

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

(2. Black sea, 3. Aegean, 4. Palestine & east Medit. 5. Adriatic and North Africa, 6. west Medit and north Atlantic) * 1321 dated and signed Perrino Vesconte, atlas of five sheets held (R.P.4) by the Zentralbibliothek in Zurich, Switzerland. (1 calendar, 2. Spain and north Atlantic, 3. central Medit., 4. east Medit. 5. Black Sea) * c.1321 undated atlas of nine sheets held (MS 175) by the Bibliothèque municipale in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

s, France. (1. calendar, 2. rhumb network, 3. Black Sea, 4. east Medit., 5. central Medit (north), 6. central Medit (north) 7. west Medit. 8. British Isles & France, 9. Adriatic Sea) * c.1321 undated and unsigned, confidently attributed to Vesconte, for Marino Sanudo's ''Liber secretorum'', mappa mundi and atlas of five sheets held (Vat. Lat. 2972) by the Bibliotheca Apostolica in

(1. Black Sea, 2. Aegean and north Africa, 3. Palestine & east Medit. 4. central medit,5. west Medit and north Atlantic) * c.1325 undated and unsigned, confidently attributed to Vesconte, for Marino Sanudo's ''Liber secretorum'', mappa mundi and atlas of five sheets, held (Add MS 27376) by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

, in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, UK. (1. Spain and north Atlantic, 2. central Medit., 3. Palestine & east Medit., 4. Aegean & north Africa, 5. Black Sea) * 1327 dated and signed Perrino Vesconte, portolan chart, held (Med Palat.248) by the

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze ...

, Italy.The signature reads ''Perrinus Vessconte fecit istam cartam Anno dhi M ccc xxvii in Veneciis'' (Cortesão, 1969: p.38) Image:1311 portolan of Pietro Vesconte.jpg, Pietro Vesconte's 1311 portolan of the eastern Mediterranean, the first signed

(Archivio di Stato, Florence) Image:Calendar from Pietro Vesconte 1313 atlas.jpg, Astronomical calendar from the 1313 atlas of Pietro Vesconte. (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris) Image:Map from Pietro Vesconte 1313 atlas.jpg, Atlantic map, sheet from the 1313 atlas of Pietro Vesconte. (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris) Image:Adriatic map in Vesconte 1318 atlas.jpg, Map of the Adriatic Sea, sheet from the 1318 atlas of Pietro Vesconte (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna) Image:Atlantic map from Perrino Vesconte 1321 atlas (Zurich).jpg, Atlantic map, sheet from the 1321 atlas of "Perrino" Vesconte (Zentralbibliothek Zurich) Image: West Mediterranean from Vesconte c.1321 (Lyon) atlas.jpg, west Mediterranean map, sheet from Pietro Vesconte c. 1321 atlas (Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon) Image: North Atlantic map from Vesconte c.1321 (Lyon) atlas.jpg, north Atlantic (France, Britain, Ireland) map, sheet from Pietro Vesconte c. 1321 atlas (Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon) Image:Atlantic map from Pietro Vesconte 1321 atlas.jpg, Atlantic map, sheet from Vesconte's c.1321 atlas for Marino Sanuto's ''Liber Secretum'' (Vatican Library) Image:Atlantic map from Pietro Vesconte 1325 atlas.jpg, Atlantic map, sheet from Vesconte's c.1325 atlas for Marino Sanuto's ''Liber Secretum'' (British Library) Image: World map pietro vesconte.jpg, Pietro Vesconte's ''Mappa Mundi'' from Marino Sanuto's ''Liber secretorum'' (oriented with East at the top)

References

* Cortesão, Armando (1969) ''History of Portuguese Cartography", Lisbon: Ultramar. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vesconte, Pietro 14th-century Italian cartographers 14th-century Genoese people