Articles | Volume 17, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-17-83-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-17-83-2026
Article
 | 
07 Sep 2026
Article |  | 07 Sep 2026

Classical antiquity origin of spatial data underlying portolan charts: how Pietro Vesconte might have assembled the Carta Riccardiana utilising maps in Marinus of Tyre's projection

Tome Marelić

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Cited articles

Ahmad, S. M.: Cartography of al-Sharif al-Idrisi, in: The History of Cartography, Volume 2, Book 1 – Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, edited by: Harley, J. B. and Woodward D., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 156–174, ISBN 0-226-31635-1, 1998. 
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Braudel, F.: The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II (trans. Reynolds, S.), Harper & Row, ISBN 978-0520203082, 1972. 
Campbell, T.: Portolan Charts from the Late Thirteenth Century to 1500, in: The History of Cartography, Volume 1 – Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, edited by: Harley, J. B. and Woodward D., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 371–463, ISBN 0-226-31633-5, 1987. 
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Short summary
The manuscript pesents the first-ever empirical study supported by historcal records which strongly indicates that portolan charts are copies of maps from classical antiquity. Their sub-parts were likely derived from maps in the equidistant cylindrical projection that were graphically adjusted to partially resemble a map in conic projection. It also provides a detailed historical overview of the most significant cartometric studies on portolan charts conducted over the past century and a half.
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