11. Pedro Reinel, Portulan (Atlantik), ca. 1504

Color Plate 11

Cod.icon. 132, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich.


On this Atlantic chart Pedro Reinel placed the centerpoint in the middle of the Atlantic. Over it is a sixteen-point ornamental compass rose, with a blue fleur-de-lis on top pointing North. Thirty-two lines extend from the center of the central rose, and on the invisible circle, six of the sub-points are decorated. Reinel’s use of a visually prominent central compass rose, as well as the decorative sub-roses on the invisible circle, define the Atlantic as the central geographic space of the chart. The chart suggests an Atlantic World that is coming into focus; it is composed of Europe in the Northeast, Africa in the East, and hints of the North American continent (Labrador and Nova Scotia) in the Northwest. The chart has two latitude scales, one in the center of the Atlantic, and another angled off the coast of North America. About this chart Ivan Kupčík writes: “In its time, Reinel’s chart must have been a major new aid to navigation. Despite mariners’ recently acquired knowledge of magnetic declination, that is compass variation, the use of charts on Atlantic crossing had continued to cause considerable navigational problems. . . . Reinel inserted an additional latitudinal scale from 44º to 57º north on his chart. . . . the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador run correctly in a north north west direction and the latitude of Cape Race is almost exact. This additional scale near the coast of Newfoundland was an innovation and almost uniquely Portuguese.”* To consult the chart in the Bavarian State Library, click here.

 

*Ivan Kupčík, Münchner Portolankarten: Kunstmann I-XIII, und zehn weitere Portolankarten / Munich portolan charts : “Kunstmann I-XIII” and ten further portolan charts (Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2000), 22-23.