• Portolan Chart of the Mediterranean Sea. Messina, Sicily, 1640.

Collections:
  • Welcome Additions
  • Manuscripts (Welcome Additions Exhibition)
  • Digitized Manuscripts
  • Ancient and Modern Greek Collections at PUL
@type:
  • Maps
  • Portolan charts
Location:
  • HSVM Princeton MS. 254
  • HSVM Electronic Resource
  • ELF1 Princeton MS. 254
  • ELF1 Electronic Resource
Call number:
  • Princeton MS. 254
  • Electronic Resource
Format:
  • Map
  • Manuscript
Title sort:
  • Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Sea.
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/47429d993
Available online:
Publisher:
  • [Messina, Sicily, 1640]
Curatorial Note:
  • The cartographer Placidus Caloiro et Olivia prepared this navigational map on parchment, showing Mediterranean ports of call from the Iberian peninsula in the west (top) to Greece and the Holy Land in the east (bottom), with compass roses and rhumbline networks. Centered on Sicily, where it was made, this chart has colorful cartouches, major cities with banners, rivers colored blue and the Red Sea in red, the African coast decorated with palm trees, and other details. At the top is a medallion image of the Virgin and Child, below which the mapmaker signed and dated the chart: “Placidus Caloiro et Olivia fecit in Nobili urbe Messanae Anno 1640.” Portolan charts were first produced in medieval Italy and continued to be made, both as charts and atlases, until the eighteenth century.
Abstract:
  • Portolan covering the area from Iberia to Greece to the Holy Land, with Sicily at the center. The chart provides names of ports, compass roses, cartouches, city views with banner and other details.
Language:
  • Latin
Date:
  • 1649
Description:
  • The upper part of the sheet is cut into triangle shape and is decorated with a circular image of the Virgin and Child (85 x 85 mm) with below the following text in gold: Placidus Caloiro et Oliva fecit in nobili urbe Messane Anno 1640. The coastal places are plotted in red and brown ink; the major cities are represented by groups of buildings bearing a colored flag. The isles are painted in red, blue and green. Some rivers are shown in blue and the African coast is decorated with two palms, the Red Sea is colored in red.
Creator:
  • Caloiro et Oliva, Placidus, 1611-
Spatial:
  • Mediterranean Region; Mediterranean Sea
Provenance:
  • Inscription (late 19th or early 20th century) on verso: Archives de Merode, Westerloo, Bruxelles. Purchased at an auction at Pierre Bergé, Paris (June 18, 2014), lot 83, by Sanderus Antique Maps, Ghent, Belgium.
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
View in catalog:
Description:
  • The upper part of the sheet is cut into triangle shape and is decorated with a circular image of the Virgin and Child (85 x 85 mm) with below the following text in gold: Placidus Caloiro et Oliva fecit in nobili urbe Messane Anno 1640. The coastal places are plotted in red and brown ink; the major cities are represented by groups of buildings bearing a colored flag. The isles are painted in red, blue and green. Some rivers are shown in blue and the African coast is decorated with two palms, the Red Sea is colored in red.
Title:
  • Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Sea
Cartographer:
  • Caloiro et Oliva, Placidus, 1611-
Extent:
  • 1 map ; 85 x 44 cm
Subject:
  • Mediterranean Sea—Maps
  • Maps—Greece—1640
  • Maps—Mediterranean Sea—1640
  • Portolan charts
Abstract:
  • Portolan covering the area from Iberia to Greece to the Holy Land, with Sicily at the center. The chart provides names of ports, compass roses, cartouches, city views with banner and other details.
Provenance:
  • Inscription (late 19th or early 20th century) on verso: Archives de Merode, Westerloo, Bruxelles. Purchased at an auction at Pierre Bergé, Paris (June 18, 2014), lot 83, by Sanderus Antique Maps, Ghent, Belgium.
Created:
  • 1649-01-01T00:00:00Z
Source acquisition:
  • Purchase; Sanderus Antique Maps, November 2018. Acquired with matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies, with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund and matching funds provided by a gift of the Orpheus Trust to the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton.
Extent:
  • 1 map ; 85 x 44 cm