Category — Portolan Atlases

The National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory has added the four-volume Atlantic Neptune Atlas to its extensive online collection of maps, atlases and charts. The atlas:

…of sea charts and views of the east coast of North America, published during the American Revolutionary War by Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres (1722-1824). The atlas spans from the St. Lawrence River and Nova Scotia, to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. One volume also includes Havana and ports in Jamaica. The four volumes were completed between 1777 and 1781, though sheets were published individually as early as 1774.

The National Maritime Museum collections contain more than 100,000 sea charts and maps dating from the medieval period to the present day, illustrating the work of the leading hydrographers and cartographers throughout the history of charting and mapmaking.

The British contribution to hydrography was highlighted by the voyages of discovery made by Captain James Cook between 1768 and 1780. Britain led the charting industry during the 19th century.

The museum also has a wonderful online display of early ‘Portulan’ or ‘Portolan’ charts, a name taken from the written sailing directions, ‘portolani’, which they supplemented and superseded, drawn in coloured ink on vellum.

Works can be viewed by “Title”, “Maker” and “Date”.

Via MapHist.

[tags]National Maritime Museum, Online Map Collections, Portolan Atlases, Famous Cartographers, Antique Maps[/tags]

BibliOdyssey has a rich display of images from The Portolan Atlas of Battista Agnese, a cartographer active from 1535-1564, the height of Italian cartography. BibliOdyssey notes:

A portolan or nautical atlas (or chart, manuscript or map) refers to an early modern European rendering, usually on vellum, in which complete coasts, ports and waterways were depicted together with characteristic direction lines from the thirty-two points of the compass. Essentially they were hand-drawn, practical navigation aids prior to the days of accurate surveying and map engraving techniques.

[tags]Antique Maps, Nautical Charts, Cartographic History, Cartography[/tags]