The British Isles in the Nautical Charts of the XIVth and XVth Centuries
Michael C. Andrews
The Geographical Journal, Vol. 68, No. 6. (Dec., 1926), pp. 474-481.
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THE BRITISH ISLES IN THE NAUTICAL CHARTS
OF THE XIVTH AND XVTH CENTURIES
Michael C. Andrews , M.R.I.A.
With nine jigures on folding sheet at end. The numbers in brackets
refer to the list on p. 480.
0NE of the most remarkable features of the early nautical charts is the comparative accuracy in their representation of the Mediter-
ranean basin. In sharp contrast with the confused, inaccurate, often
symbolical, and always theoretical delineation in contemporary Mediaeval
Mappae Mundi, the work of the marine cartographers, although strictly
limited in scope, stands out conspicuously as the earliest attempt to
produce a map of practical utility. Although in the period we are about
to examine, their excellence was little appreciated by learned geographers,
who continued to rely upon ancient models, maps of the marine type
began to find their way, as supplements, into the Ptolemaic Atlases.
With the change of outlook that is characteristic of the sixteenth-century
renaissance of geography they were increasingly used to expand the
restricted area and correct the established errors of ancient cartography ;
and they constitute one of the elements of our modern maps.
The lack of examples before the end of the thirteenth century makes
it difficult to form any clear idea as to the origin and development of the
nautical chart of the Mediterranean. Bearing in mind the want of
suitable instruments and the elementary methods of hydrographical
survey practised at this early period, it is difficult to believe that a map
of such correct general form and relative proportions, with so many
coastal details and such a wealth of place-names, could have been de-
veloped in rather less than half a century. But other considerations
may perhaps lead us to accept, as a provisional hypothesis, the view
which supposes that the prototype of the portolan charts was put together
from partial coastal sketches in the last half of the thirteenth century.
It is certain that the work was completed by the end of that century ;
for the model then in use was copied with but little alteration, except in
detail, for the next three hundred years.
But if the source and growth of the Mediterranean chart are still
subjects for speculation and discussion, the materials at our disposal
happily permit of a greater certainty for the regions outside the Straits
of Gibraltar.
In the thirteenth century a considerable maritime commerce was
carried on by the traders of Western Europe, but if they used charts
none have come down to us ; and while the overland route to Flanders
and the Low Countries was the recognized mercantile channel of the
Italian cities, their map-makers had little incentive to delineate these
coasts. That they formed no part of the original, or, as Nordenskiold
terms it, the "Normal," portolan chart, may be inferred from an examina-
BRITISH ISLES IN THE XIVTH AND XVTH CENTURIES 475
tion of the maps themselves. Drawn on a scale which differs from that
employed for the Mediterranean, the poor form of the Atlantic coasts in
our earliest examples indicate that they had not long been laid down.
As the British Isles were not introduced until a still later date, we
may trace their representation from the earliest partial and inaccurate
form, through several stages of expansion and improvement, to a complete
map. And we shall find that this map never approached either to the
accuracy or to the fullness of detail that characterizes the chart of the
Mediterranean ; nor did it attain a like degree of standardization, but
suffered continual alteration and revision at the hands of many carto-
graphers of various nations. In the three centuries during which the
portolan charts flourished, no less than fourteen distinct typical forms of
the British Isles may be distinguished. A comparative study of over
one hundred charts dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
shows that with few exceptions these conform closely to four main types :
(I) the early Genoese ; (2) the Venetian ; (3) the Catalan ; and (4) a
later group of uncertain origin. I t is therefore possible to present a
fairly comprehensive and, I trust, not inaccurate view of the work of
this period by means of a limited number of typical examples. Any
consideration of the few but interesting charts containing individual
and unclassifiable characteristics must be omitted from this brief sketch.
The earliest known chart-the so-called "Carte Pisane " of the late
thirteenth century-shows only the south coast of England. Lying
outside the loxodromic network, this outline illustrates by its crude form,
scarcity of place-names, and by the extraordinarily erroneous position
assigned to the Thames estuary, how little of English geography was
then known to the marine cartographers of Italy.
I t is to the craftsmen of Genoa, famed alike for her military and
mercantile marine, that we owe the first nautical map of the British
Isles which shows any detailed knowledge of these kingdoms. From
what source did the Genoese obtain their information ? M. Charles de la
Roncihre, believing that medizval hydrography was based upon data
obtained from military operations of a naval character, suggests that it
was from Benedetto Zaccaria (I). In his office of grand admiral to the
Byzantine fleet, this illustrious Genoese captain certainly had every
opportunity of appreciating the value of such charts as were then in use
in the Eastern Mediterranean; while the naval operations against
England conducted by him for the King of France in 1298 were un-
doubtedly favourable for the collection of coastal information. But we
have no positive knowledge that Zaccaria caused this information to
be recorded in the form of a chart ; and in any case it was not until
Genoese merchants were already engaged in comnercial ventures by
the sea route that we find any detailed knowledge of England.
The map of 1311 by Petrus Vesconte, which is the earliest dated
marine chart now known, includes only the Black Sea and the Eastern
476 THE BRITISH ISLES IN THE NAUTICAL CHARTS OF
Mediterranean. In 1313 Great Britain appears for the first time. Two
other charts by the same hand, both dated 1318, contain the same map,
while in 1320 a very defective representation of Ireland, with no place-
names, is added. In a little-known atlas of the following year by
Perrinus Vesconte, Ireland, with its great western bay of the "happy
and fortunate islands," assumes the characteristic form which, with some
variation but with no radical alteration, was employed by the portolan
chart makers of all schools for the next century and a half ; and which,
notwithstanding the introduction of many new types, continued to be
copied throughout the sixteenth century. The full series of place-names
on this map from Achill Island in the west to Portrush and the river
Bann in the north-east, indicates that Irish seaports and harbours were
well known at this period to the navigators of the Mediterranean (Fig. I).
All these examples agree in the delineation of England. The whole
of the south coast so far as the Thames estuary is depicted in some
detail and with comparative accuracy ; but the projection of East
Anglia is barely indicated, north of which the Wash is the only
recognizable feature. Of the west coast it is apparent that little was
known ; even the Bristol Channel is omitted, and north of St. David's
Head the coastline is carried in one great unbroken concave sweep to
the Mull of Galloway. Scotland is left unfinished in the north ; the
coastlines so far as the Firths of Clyde and Forth are only roughly
indicated, and no place-names are recorded.
But in his chart of 1327, Perrinus Vesconte corrected some of these
faults (Fig. 2). Although Cornwall and Devonshire are too much re-
duced in size, the Bristol Channel with Carmarthen Bay is a prominent
feature. The western projection of Wales is indicated, but it is carried
too far north and terminates in the great gulf of the Solway Firth. The
position of points on the east coast relatively to those on the west remains
erroneous ; the Wash is on the same latitude as the Solway Firth
Of particular value for the north is the fine chart of I325 by Angellinus
de Dalorto (Fig. 3). Nothing is known of the author, but the workman-
ship indicates an Italian, perhaps Genoese, origin. A closely related
chart of 1339 signed by Angelino Dulcert, although made at Majorca, is
probably a copy of the earlier work. In these maps for the first time we
find a completely finished outline for Great Britain, but although the
northern coasts are indicated it is evident that little was known of them.
Of poor shape and lacking in detail, Scotland leans so far to the west as
to overhang Ireland, while a few scattered islands between represent the
Hebrides. Few place-names are recorded, but the great circular island
of Tile, off the north-east point, which was retained for more than two
and a half centuries, makes its first appearance. A central castle-crowned
mountain and two rivers separate Scotland from England, for which
country the later Vescontian model was adopted with but little change,
either in coastal outline or in place-names. Ireland, on the other hand,
Plate 1. Type 1 Vb. c. I 489. Anonymous Ve~etian
London, British Museum, Egerton MS . No. 73, Map 29
THE XIVTH AND XVTH CENTURIES 477
agrees more nearly with the earlier form of 1321, although the nomen-
clature is fuller.
Some surprise may be felt when we find that the great maritime
city of Venice was much more backward in the practice of nautical
cartography than its rival in sea-borne commerce. It seems, indeed,
that at first Venetians were content to borrow the charts and to employ
the chart-makers of Genoa. Both Petrus and Perrinus Vesconte are
known to have worked for some time at Venice, and it is said that they
were consulted as to the best route to be followed when, in 1317, the
government of that city organized the famous trading fleet known as
('The Flanders Galleys." A few years later, in 1321, when Marino
Sanudo the elder wished to illustrate the copy of his Li6er secretor~m
fidelium ccrucis, which he presented to Pope John XXII. in support
of his crusading propaganda, he would naturally seek out the most
competent draughtsman ; and Kretschmer believes that it was Petrus
Vesconte who designed the required charts and mappa mundi (2). The
remarkable similarity of an anonymous map of the British Islands in
the London Sanudine codex to the signed work of Perrinus Vesconte
would suggest that he also, at a Iater date, was employed on the same
work.
Venetian dependence upon foreign sources for their nautical charts
seems to have continued a Iong time, for in 1367 we find Franciscus
and Marcus Pizigano of that city reproducing the Dalorto map of the
British Isles without alteration. Towards the close of the fourteenth
century, however, a distinctive Venetian type appears in the two
anonymous collections known from their former owners as the " Pinelli
Atlas " and the "Atlas of Nicolaus de Combitis " (Fig. 4).
Neither England nor Ireland in this map shows any improvement,
although some new names appear in Scotland. which is completely
separated from England and unfinished in the north. This uncertainty
concerning Northern Britain is characteristic of all typical Venetian
work, but charts dating from the fifteenth century do not adopt the
insular form of the earlier examples. An interesting group of later
Venetian origin is a series of eight charts and atlases by Jacobus de
Giroldis ; for both England and Ireland these follow the earlier Genoese
series of place-names rather than the " Pinelli " example. The earliest,
dated 1422, also follows the Genoese form for England, but the later
examples from 1426 till 1448 adopt a characteristic representation of
South Wales, the Bristol Channel and the Cornish peninsula, which is
derived from a chart of 1408 by Pasqualini of Venice (Fig. 5).
Up to this point we have been concerned with Italian work, but
nautical cartography was in an advanced state at an early date among
the mariners of Catalonia. There can be no doubt that the official recog-
nition given to the value of sailing charts by an ordinance of Peter of
Aragon in the year 1354 had a stimulating effect upon their production (3).
478 THE BRITISH ISLES IN THE NAUTICAL CHARTS OF
As each war galley was obliged to carry two, considerable numbers
must have been required, but none of these early examples have been
preserved. The first work of the Catalan school now known is the
great chart of 1375 from the library of Charles V., King of France, which,
not being subjected to the accidents inseparable from use on board ship,
has been preserved in a fine state of perfection. Probably the work of
Abraham Cresques, the Jewish "master of maps and compasses " to
the King of Aragon, rather than, as was formerly thought, of his son
Jaffuda, who subsequently held the same office, this chart is based upon
a model of the Dalorto type. I t was not, however, copied directly
either from this map or from its close relative the Dulcert chart, but
from some similar work now lost. England indeed shows little change,
but Scotland has been remodelled and much reduced in size. No
boundary between the two kingdoms is indicated, but no further real
knowledge of these northern parts is to be discovered. Ireland is un-
altered and contains practically the same series of place-names, but the
islands between it and Scotland are omitted. Founded by Jewish philo-
sophers learned in astronomical and geographical science, the famous
cartographical school of Majorca remained exclusively in the hands of
their converted descendants for the next half-century. Cresques' model
was followed by Soleri in 1385 and by Mecia de Viladestes in 1413
(Fig. 6). But towards the end of the first quarter of the fifteenth century
the Catalan map of the British Isles underwent considerable alteration,
and in its revised form was adopted by the cartographers of Majorca,
of Italy, and indeed by craftsmen from all parts of the Mediterranean.
Although, of course, it is not possible to assign this revision with
certainty to any particular hand, there is some justification for supposing
that it was due to Battista Becharius of Genoa (Fig. 7). Not only are
two of his charts, dated 1426 and 1435, the earliest known examples of
this type, but Petrus Roselli of Majorca, in 1447, expressly records his
obligation to Becharius (4). But the earlier Catalan cartographers,
Gabriel de Vallsecha in 1439, and Petrus Roselli from 1447 till 1468, and
the Genoese Bartolomeo de Pareto in 1455, copied the map of 1435 rather
than that of 1426. In this map Great Britain is considerably wider
relatively to its length, especially in the northern parts of England and
in the south of Scotland, which is further extended towards the west by
a great projection of the Galloway peninsula. No indication is given
of any better acquaintance with the west coast of England and Wales,
the outline of which remains very defective and lacking in place-names.
On the east the estuary of the Thames is enlarged, and the shores of
Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk run in a straight line nearly north-west to
the Wash, which is now placed only slightly to the north of the parallel
of Holyhead. No separation of Scotland from England is indicated ;
two short river estuaries with a considerable tract of country, but no
mountain, between them form the boundary. Ireland is little changed,
THE XIVTH AND XVTH CENTURIES 479
except that the northern parts are rather less sharply pointed and the
great western gulf less elongated.
The great popularity of this type from the middle of the fifteenth
century seems to have been due to the prolific and beautifully executed
work of Gratiosus Benincasa of Ancona, of whose charts dating from
1461 till 1487 no less than twenty-two examples are preserved in the
libraries of Europe (Fig. 8). Benincasa, although apparently of Catalan
descent, did not follow the map employed by his countrymen, but adopted
the earlier Becharius model of 1426. The principal difference between
this chart and that of 1435 is the representation of the boundary between
England and Scotland, which returns to the earlier type with a central
mountain, but in a highly conventialized form. Two wide rivers
discharging into the eastern and western seas are provided with the large
circular sources of mediaeval tradition, between which the mountain
from which they flow is so tightly squeezed that it is almost unrecognizable.
Although beyond the period now under consideration, it is of interest
to notice that a misunderstanding of this symbolic treatment led many
cartographers of the next century to separate Scotland from England
completely by an open sea passage, in which traces of the original
mountain and river sources are sometimes retained as a central lake-
like widening. Not only were the sixteenth-century chart-makers misled,
but modem investigators have taken Benincasa's representation to
indicate a complete insular~ty of Scotland, which was not intended (5).
This revised Catalan model of the British Isles became the
standardized form of the fifteenth century. It was copied by Conte de
Hoctomano Freducci of Ancona (1497-1539), by Georgio Sideri, called
Calapoda, of Crete (1537-1565), and by many other cartographers from
all parts of the Mediterranean for over one hundred years.
But at the same time that Benincasa was copying the revised Catalan
model, another and entirely different representation of the British Isles
appears in a small and little-known group of nautical charts (Fig. g and
Plate I). Up to the present only the smallest and most defective example
has been reproduced (6)' and the map has therefore escaped the notice
even of those students who have paid any particular attention to the tarto-
graphy of our island group. Its origin cannot be so clearly traced as that
of the standard Catalan chart, but it seems probable that it also w
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