Atlante Nautico
Title
Atlante Nautico
Description
The Atlante Nautico is a collection of ten maps made in 1436 by “Andreas Biancho de Veneciis” as attested on the first page. Besides containing 15th century copyright data, the first page also contains a large chart meant to assist sailors blown off course by the wind (including instructions!) The next 7 are all maps in the tradition of the portolan charts, featuring the Eastern, Central, and Western Mediterranean basins, the Black Sea, the British isles and the northern coast of Europe, Scandinavia, and a complete map of Europe.
The last two maps are a circular mappamundi and a world map in the Ptolemaic style. This combination of maps tells us that the Atlante Nautico was not meant as a navigational tool, but rather as a survey of existing map forms. Knowing that this atlas came from Venice, the combination of Ptolemaic map and portolan charts tells us that it was made by an author attempting to understand Ptolemy’s Geography through the lens of practical nautical charting.
The visual style is largely utilitarian as portolan charts tend to be. Neither land nor sea is colored, and the only differentiatior is the coastlines drawn with city names written inside them. One sixteen-pointed circle of rhumb lines overlies each map, save the first, reference page, and the two world maps at the end. Smaller islands are often colored and inland rivers tend to be stylized and colorful as well. There are occasional flags or crowns or other figures in emptier spots on the map. (Allen Smith '19)
The last two maps are a circular mappamundi and a world map in the Ptolemaic style. This combination of maps tells us that the Atlante Nautico was not meant as a navigational tool, but rather as a survey of existing map forms. Knowing that this atlas came from Venice, the combination of Ptolemaic map and portolan charts tells us that it was made by an author attempting to understand Ptolemy’s Geography through the lens of practical nautical charting.
The visual style is largely utilitarian as portolan charts tend to be. Neither land nor sea is colored, and the only differentiatior is the coastlines drawn with city names written inside them. One sixteen-pointed circle of rhumb lines overlies each map, save the first, reference page, and the two world maps at the end. Smaller islands are often colored and inland rivers tend to be stylized and colorful as well. There are occasional flags or crowns or other figures in emptier spots on the map. (Allen Smith '19)
Creator
Andrea Bianco
Source
Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Ms. It. Z, 76 (=4783): Andrea Bianco, Atlante.
Format
Atlas
Publisher
Andrea Bianco, Atlante nautico (1436), ed. Pietro Falchetta. Venice: Arsenale, 1993.
Date
1436
Medium
manuscript
Contributor
Special Collections, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
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Relation
http://geoweb.venezia.sbn.it/cms/en/articles/9-carte-geografiche-nei-manoscritti-marciani.html
Language
Italian
Type
Atlas
Spatial Coverage
World, Europe, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Scandinavia, British Isles
References
Dalché, Patrick Gautier. “The Reception of Ptolemy’s Geography (End of the Fourteenth to Beginning of the Sixteenth Century).” In The History of Cartography vol. 3, part 1, Cartography in the European Renaissance, ed. by David Woodward, 285-364. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Rights
Rights for maps held by individual publishers and institutions. Thumbnails displayed constitute fair use.
Collection
Citation
Andrea Bianco, “Atlante Nautico,” Mapping the World, accessed May 3, 2025, https://www.hist231.hist.sites.carleton.edu/items/show/15.