Finding Their Way at Sea: The Story of the Portolan Charts, the Cartographers Who Drew Them and the Mariners Who Sailed by Them by Richard L. Pflederer (Hardback, 2012)
With an introduction by Tony Campbell. The story of sea charts, of manuscript portolan charts in particular, is a story intimately intertwined with the history of the western world during some of the most significant and eventful periods of recorded history. Through these astonishingly beautiful and functional charts, we can trace developments in trade and warfare, exploration and colonial domination from the late medieval period through the Renaissance and into the Age of European Enlightenment. Beginning with their introduction in the late thirteenth century, these sometimes quaintly fanciful portolan charts enjoyed an important place in the navigator's sea chest until they were finally superceded in the eighteenth century by their cheaper but far less charming printed cousins. In the mid-fifteenth century when the Europeans first ventured beyond their home waters and into the open oceans, their successes and their sometimes-heroic failures were documented on charts of the newly discovered oceans and coasts. These new charts, although depicting faraway coasts and employing the latest navigational techniques, were drawn on vellum in the same style as Mediterranean Sea charts. They served the dual purposes of recording information gleaned from previous voyages and guiding the mariners of subsequent voyages.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Hes & De Graaf Publishers Bv
ISBN-10
9061944902
ISBN-13
9789061944904
eBay Product ID (ePID)
148774862
Product Key Features
Author
Richard L. Pflederer
Format
Laminated Cover, Hardback
Language
English
Subject
Ships & Waterways: General Interest
Type
Textbook
Additional Product Features
Content Note
Illustrations
Date of Publication
01/01/2012
Country of Publication
Netherlands
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