Anonymous nautical chart in portolan style probably drawn in Genoa.

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Autore: Anonymous

Anno: 1320

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Anonymous nautical chart in portolan style probably drawn in Genoa.
Covers Mediterranean Sea from the Balearic Islands to the Levantine coast; also covers western part of Black Sea. Oldest original cartographic artifact in the Library of Congress. Title from printed label on box in which the map is housed. Pen-and-ink (red/green/brown). Matted and mounted between sheets of transparent lucite. Sheet cut into the shape of an irregular rectangle. Imperfect: Vertically fold-lined at center, cracked, annotated in pencil on verso. Includes bar scale with unidentified divisions. The green rhumb lines on the recto are also visible on the verso. LC Nautical charts on vellum 3. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Purchase; Ludwig Rosenthal, Munich; 1914.

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