The Avignon Chart (c. 1300–c. 1310): An Early Attempt to Represent the Northern Regions of Europe on a Nautical Chart

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Avignon chart, which came to light in 2002, is one of the earliest surviving charts of the Mediterranean area. Despite its fragmentary nature and damage from reuse as a book cover in the sixteenth century, its precocity alone—it is thought to date from between c. 1300 and c. 1310, following only the Pisane (c. 1270) and the Cortona (c. 1300) charts—would be enough to ensure its importance. Researches to date, however, underline its particular significance in the history of medieval chart making. Pending further, multidisciplinary research, the present article draws attention to the main characteristics of the Avignon chart and highlights some of the enigmas of its construction, such as the way the chartmaker manipulated the orientation of the Iberian Peninsula in order to create space at the top to show, for the first time, the northern coastline of mainland Europe as far as the North and Baltic seas. The anonymous creator also constructed a grid to ensure the correct alignment of Britain, whose detailed configuration points to the use of local information among the available geographical sources for, and cultural knowledge about, the island.