Carta Pisana, ca 1275-1300

The earliest preserved portolan map is generally believed to be the so-called Carta Pisana (Paris, BnF, Département des Cartes et Plans, CPL GE B-1118), thus called because it was discovered in Pisa. Most scholars date it to the final quarter of the thirteenth century. It shows the whole Mediterranean, Black Sea and a part of the Atlantic coast, from the north of present-day Morocco to the Netherlands, although the accuracy of the map is mostly limited to the Mediterranean.

Commentary. Philipp Nothaft (May-June 2019)