Wyborghian Chart

Portolan chart drawn in to vellum.

Draw material: Regna Europa Septentrionalia:  Willem Blaeu, 1626   Livonia, vulgo Luetland, Blaeu Meklenburg Ducatus, Blaeu Pomeranoa ducatus tabula, Blaeu Prussia accurata descripta, Blaeu Ducatus Uplandia, Blaeu

Materials: Reindeer vellum Black india permanent ink Red and gold permanent ink Birch rod Leather string Dark oak stain 1x15 mm brass nails States of work: I sketched map in to a white paper from Regna Europa Septentrionalia. After drawing of the shorelines I scaled map 1,5 times bigger. First version was too small for texts. Then I draw the rhumb lines with a long liner. I taped paper on to board to keep it steady and all the lines in to correct angle with a degreeplate. I draw the place names. Places were picked from six different maps. Place names are mostly in swedish or german form. Place names starts from Wiborgh and they are all in the direction to read them while you sail ahead. States and place names are on the year 1400 level. I tested how ink and vellum are working together, and found no problems. I cutted vellum in to a proper size (565x505) mm and taped paper behind it. I used a strong lightsource behind the sketch and vellum and drew shorelines, rhumblines and compassrose in to vellum. All the things are drawn in to vellum on to the hairside of it. Next I wrote the place names. Important places are written with red ink, and others with black. I used sharp pointed nib and my own font. Text hight is about 2,5 mms. After that I draw the names of states with red ink. I picked them from the map of 1400. Estonia ja Litauen were then under Teutonic knights rule, but I named those areas still Esthonia and Livonia. Text font is Roman and height 7 mms. Last I draw the scale, using the style of  Genoese Portolan Chart.   I made the rod from diameter of 28 mms birch. Originally it was ment to be a curtainrod. I designed knobs smaller than original. Then rod and knobs were painted oakbrown with stain. Map was attached in to rod with 1x15 mm brass nails. Drawing inside. On to the other side of the map I made small holes for leatherstrings. Map is tied with the strings on to rod to prevent its opening. Historical backround In the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, maps called "portolan charts" recorded the accumulated experience and wisdom of generations of Mediterranean seafarers. Portolan charts were practical tools made for the use of sailors who sailed "great waters." As Tony Campbell, Map Librarian of the British Map Library put it so well: "The medieval mappaemundi (world maps in the Christian tradition) are the cosmographies of thinking landsmen. By contrast, the portolan charts preserve the Mediterranean sailors firsthand experience of their own sea, as well as their expanding knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean"  Charasteristics       A portolan is an early modern European navigation chart, dating from the fourteenth century or later, in manuscript, usually with rhumb lines, shorelines and place names.   The portolan combined the exact notations of the periplus (document that listed in order the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate distances between, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore) with the decorative illustrations of the conceptual T and O map but on the whole it offered a realistic depiction of the shore and was meant for practical use by a mariner of the period. The portolan did not take into account the curvature of the Earth, so it was a misleading document for crossing an Ocean. It was useful for navigation in smaller bodies of water such as the Mediterranean or the Red sea. The oldest portolan which has survived to our era dates from 1296. Features that usually appear on portolan charts include:   a network of lines made within a circle, coastlines of lands, place-names, scales of distance, a compass showing cardinal directions, and indications of shoals, reefs, and islands along coastlines. Material   The portolan charts have several characteristics in common. First, they are handwritten and hand painted on vellum. Portolan charts were used at sea. They went down with ships; they got wet and were damaged; they became outdated and were discarded. Vellum was expensive and was not wasted.   Vellum was originally a translucent or opaque material produced from calfskin that had been soaked, limed, and unhaired, and then dried at normal temperature under tension, usually on a wooden device called a stretching frame. Today, however, vellum is generally defined as a material made from calskin, sheepskin, or virtually any other skin obtained from a relatively small animal. Some authorities do not even distinguish between vellum and parchment, although traditionally the former was made from an unsplit calfskin, and consequently had a grain pattern on one side (unless removed by scraping), while the latter was produced from the flesh split of a sheepskin, and consequently had no grain pattern. The important distinction between vellum (or parchment) and leather is that the vellum is not tanned but is prepared essentially by soaking the skin in lime and drying it under tension. Most medieval manuscripts, whether illuminated or not, were written on vellum. Uterine vellum was made in the 13th and 14th centuries from the skins of unborn or still-born animals.   Along the edge of the portolan charts are often holes which could be used to attach the chart to a wooden roller, around which the chart was to be wrapped, then tied with a thong for carrying, probably in a protective container, on board ship.   rhumb lines   Another characteristic is a network of lines, like the web of a spider, that forms a grid for the map. This grid can easily be seen by looking at the portolan chart from the blank side, against the light, since the vellum is fairly transparent. The hole at the center of the circle which defines the grid is also visible from the back of the portolan chart. Directions are indicated on the portolan charts by this network of lines joined on the points dividing the circle that is a basic element of the portolan chart. The circle is divided into 16 equal parts, each joined to others through the center point on the opposite side. The lines are called rhumb lines.   The rhumbs for the 8 primary winds (or directions) are drawn in black (or sometimes gold) ink; the 8 half-winds are in green; the 16 quarter winds in red. Patterns of squares, triangles and parallelograms are visible within the circle on portolan charts.   Portolan charts have no "up" or "down" and north is not necessarily at the "top" of the map. They were made to be turned in whichever direction the traveler was headed, so that writings on the coasts are placed so the viewer is looking south to read them.