Portolan Chart

Timeline

1. 1300–1350Genoa · LiguriaCartographers of the Italian maritime city-states began drawing parchment charts built on lines connecting ports and headlands, paired with compass bearings, serving merchant ships sailing along the coast.
2. 1400–1460Mallorca · Balearic IslandsMallorca, Venice, Genoa, and other places developed competing cartographic traditions; charts added more compass roses and wind rose decorations, and coastal terrain markings became increasingly refined.
3. 1461–1470Venice · VeniceWorkshops in Venice and elsewhere produced precise portolan charts covering the Eastern Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast, used by merchant ships, galleys, and military order fleets; cartographic skill and navigational practice were highly coupled.
4. 1500–1570Lisbon · PortugalThe Age of Discovery pushed charts toward latitude and longitude lines and the coasts of Africa and the Americas; the portolan tradition merged with Ptolemaic world maps, but Mediterranean coast-oriented techniques were retained for a long time.