[ISHMap-List] Dating the Carte Pisane
Tony Campbell
tonycampbellockendon at gmail.com
Mon Mar 2 15:24:33 CET 2015
I would like to announce a new online publication:
"A detailed reassessment of the Carte Pisane: a late and inferior copy,
or the lone survivor from the portolan charts' formative period?"
(An extended essay, supported by tables and an updated version of the
comprehensive toponymic listing - apparently the first systematic and
wide-ranging examination of the Carte Pisane's content)
http://www.maphistory.info/CartePisaneMenu.html
The Abstract or the Conclusions page might be the easiest ways in:
http://www.maphistory.info/CartePisaneTEXT.html#abstract
http://www.maphistory.info/CartePisaneConclusions.html
This is the first formal response, as far as I know, to the dramatic
claim made by Ramon Pujades at the Paris conference in December 2012
that the Carte Pisane is much younger than the late 13th-century date
usually given it, namely the late 14th century or even the 1420s or 1430s.
http://www.lecfc.fr/new/articles/216-article-3.pdf
On the basis of the chart's toponymy, hydrography, constructional method
and drafting conventions I conclude that it should be returned to a
position well before 1311, to a suggested c.1290.
It is essential that there is general agreement about the dating of the
Carte Pisane since without that we are left with two contradictory
narratives about the early history of the portolan charts. There is the
traditional view that sees the Carte Pisane as the earliest survivor and
the sole witness to the start of a 40-year period during which
simplified Atlantic coastlines were added to fully recognisable
Mediterranean and Black Sea outlines as part of the final phase of the
charts' initial development. Pujades's alternative proposition would
banish the Carte Pisane, along with its associates, the Cortona and
Lucca charts, to the irrelevance of a late 14th or 15th-century date.
How can we leave it in limbo, with a possible 13th, 14th or 15th century
date unresolved?
I would be glad of comments about the content of the essay and
notification of any errors or navigation difficulties you might find.
Tony Campbell
tony at tonycampbell.info
https://independent.academia.edu/CampbellTony
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