Abstract

In this article I examine early nautical charts and isolarii, or island books illustrated with maps, for evidence that indicates the maps were made on the basis of first-hand observation by the cartographer. There are very few claims on early nautical charts that the charts were created based on the cartographers’ own observations. I suggest that these claims are rare because chart-making was more an artistic enterprise than as a medium for recording discoveries. This conception of nautical charts changed with the advent of the Age of Discoveries, and claims that charts were made based on eyewitness information become more common. The case with isolarii is very different, although the maps in isolarii derive from the nautical chart tradition. Some of the creators of isolarii claim that their works were based on first-hand experience, but not always truthfully. Other authors neither sailed among the islands they describe nor claim to have visited them.

Highlights

  • In this article I examine early nautical charts and isolarii, or island books illustrated with maps, for evidence that indicates the maps were made on the basis of first-hand observation by the cartographer

  • At the same time that makers of nautical charts hesitated to claim that their charts incorporated their own firsthand observations, the authors of isolarii, island-books illustrated with what are in effect fragments of nautical charts that depict each island, made exactly this type of claims

  • While makers of early nautical charts were reticent about claiming the authority of first-hand experience on their maps, such claims were common in contemporary island books illustrated with maps, a surprising divergence given that the maps in isolarii were derived from nautical charts

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Summary

Introduction

In this article I examine early nautical charts and isolarii, or island books illustrated with maps, for evidence that indicates the maps were made on the basis of first-hand observation by the cartographer. We have little information about the transfer of knowledge from sailors to chart-makers during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but this text shows that at least some cartographers were actively seeking out and incorporating into their maps new information from both sailors and other cartographers, and placed a high value on first-hand experience.

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