Notes on the Weimar Portolan

THE Weimar portolan, to which the date 1424 is often assigned, figures in cartographical literature as the first chart upon which the name Antilia appears. The date however has been challenged, and as no reproduction of the chart has been published, previous discussion has been rather fruitless. The chart is also of interest as being the only one which does not show the island of Brazil to the west of Ireland, and as the sole chart of Italian origin containing the legend about the Baltic which is otherwise found on Catalan charts alone. I have recently been able to remove the chart from its glass frame, to examine it carefully and to photograph it. As it has frequently been discussed, I shall limit myself to points previously overlooked. The chart is in places very rough and cracked; it appears at one time to have been varnished, and the colours are dull. The black and the green have sunk in, and the green, which has turned brown, is scarcely distinguishable from the black. The red lines, on the other hand, have retained their colour. The red of the names, for example, Antilia, and of the islands, e.g. tile, has been put on so heavily that it has in part flaked off, without leaving any trace. This makes it difficult to read some names, e.g. those of the Azores. In some cases however the falling away of the colour has left a white outline behind, so that the name is still legible, e.g. Re de rossia. In type the chart closely resembles the group to which the name Catalan has been given, based on the Atlas of 1375. The west-east course of the south coast of Norway however resembles the outline of the Dulcert chart of 1339, and other features, such as the Baltic, the north coast of Scotland tending far to the west, and the lacus fortunatus in Ireland, recall the Dalorto chart of 1325. Unlike most of the Catalan charts, which mark the Baltic with wave lines, the Weimar chart shows it with a solid colour, now a greenish brown. The only other map which resembles it in this is the Fredutijs chart of 1497, though this is not apparent in Jomard's reproduction. The legend on the Baltic is now illegible, but comparison with Catalan

Archaeology · Art · German · Weimar Republic · Historical Geography and Cartography · History

• The North Atlantic nautical chart of 1424

  Armando Cortesao•Imago Mundi•1953

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