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

Curatorial note:

The cartographer Placidus Caloiro et Oliva 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 Oliva 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.

and

Princeton Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, MS. 254. Manuscripts Division. Acquired in 2018 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 fortieth anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton.

Collections:
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  • Digitized Manuscripts
  • Ancient and Modern Greek Collections at PUL
Title:
  • Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Sea
Language:
  • Latin
Call number:
  • Princeton MS. 254
  • Electronic Resource
Extent:
  • 1 map ; 85 x 44 cm
Format:
  • Map
  • Manuscript
Type:
  • Maps
  • Portolan charts
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.
Publisher:
  • [Messina, Sicily, 1640]
Subject:
  • Mediterranean Sea—Maps
  • Maps—Greece—1640
  • Maps—Mediterranean Sea—1640
  • Portolan charts
Title sort:
  • Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Sea.
Spatial:
  • Mediterranean Region; Mediterranean Sea
Created:
  • 1649-01-01T00:00:00Z
Date:
  • 1649
Location:
  • HSVM Princeton MS. 254
  • HSVM Electronic Resource
  • ELF1 Princeton MS. 254
  • ELF1 Electronic Resource
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/47429d993
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
Creator:
  • Caloiro et Oliva, Placidus, 1611-
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.
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.
Cartographer:
  • Caloiro et Oliva, Placidus, 1611-
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.
Range label:
  • Logical
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