ancient_maps_txt

The Cartography of Cyprus Through the Ages (excerpt).
by Dr Andreas Hadjipaschalis, President of the Map Collectors Society of Cyprus.

From "Cyprus, Copper and the Sea", edited by Anna Marangou. Publication accompanying the Cyprus exhibition at the 1992 Seville Universal Exhibition EXPO '92.

(...) Cyprus does not feature prominently on the Mappae Mundi (the world maps) of the Middle Ages. There was not much naval travelling or campaigning to be done during the Middle Ages, so Cyprus was just a blob on the world map.

As far as Cyprus is concerned, however, a most important source of information on navigation and charting is the Byzantine Stadiasmos or Periplus. Even more important are the portolan charts on which Cyprus featured prominently because of the existing links between Cyprus, Venice and Genoa during the 14th century. There is no reason to believe that contemporary chart-makers, or people acting as informants to the Venetian or Genoese chart-makers, actually visited and stayed in Cyprus during this period of portolan chart development.

Cyprus, as drawn in the portolan charts, is certainly not the haphazard affair displayed in the medieval Mappae Mundi. The oldest portolan chart existing today, the late 13th century Carte Pisane, gives reasonable representation of Cyprus, especially of the southern coastline. As regards place names, the Carte Pisane includes 11 which gradually increase to 24 in the early 15th century Venetian charts.

The next development in the mapping of Cyprus comes in the isolaria, which were the successors to the portolan charts. The first isolario to contain a map of Cyprus was published in manuscript form by Bartolomeo dalli Sonetti in c.1480. The island of Cyprus is presented by itself with the most up-to-date shape and contains a multitude of new medieval place names (62 to be exact), including some inland ones. Soon after (c.1485) printed editions of the same work appeared. Although we have no direct evidence that dalli Sonetti himself charted Cyprus, we do have a great deal of circumstantial evidence to suggest that he was actually on board the Venetian trireme Loredana which, in 1458, on one of its regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem, stopped in Cyprus where several of its passengers met members of the High Court in Nicosia, the capital.

Bartolomeo dalli Sonetti's map of 1480 signified the renaissance of Cyprus cartography and was the crowning achievement of the gradual development of the sea-chart over several centuries during the Middle Ages.

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The Cartography of Cyprus Through the Ages (excerpt). by Dr Andreas Hadjipaschalis, President of the Map Collectors Society of Cyprus. From "Cyprus, Copper and the Sea", edited by Anna Marangou. Publication accompanying the Cyprus exhibition at the 1992 Seville Universal Exhibition EXPO '92. (...) Cyprus does not feature prominently on the Mappae Mundi (the world maps) of the Middle Ages. There was not much naval travelling or campaigning to be done during the Middle Ages, so Cyprus was just a blob on the world map. As far as Cyprus is concerned, however, a most important source of information on navigation and charting is the Byzantine Stadiasmos or Periplus. Even more important are the portolan charts on which Cyprus featured prominently because of the existing links between Cyprus, Venice and Genoa during the 14th century. There is no reason to believe that contemporary chart-makers, or people acting as informants to the Venetian or Genoese chart-makers, actually visited and stayed in Cyprus during this period of portolan chart development. Cyprus, as drawn in the portolan charts, is certainly not the haphazard affair displayed in the medieval Mappae Mundi. The oldest portolan chart existing today, the late 13th century Carte Pisane, gives reasonable representation of Cyprus, especially of the southern coastline. As regards place names, the Carte Pisane includes 11 which gradually increase to 24 in the early 15th century Venetian charts. The next development in the mapping of Cyprus comes in the isolaria, which were the successors to the portolan charts. The first isolario to contain a map of Cyprus was published in manuscript form by Bartolomeo dalli Sonetti in c.1480. The island of Cyprus is presented by itself with the most up-to-date shape and contains a multitude of new medieval place names (62 to be exact), including some inland ones. Soon after (c.1485) printed editions of the same work appeared. Although we have no direct evidence that dalli Sonetti himself charted Cyprus, we do have a great deal of circumstantial evidence to suggest that he was actually on board the Venetian trireme Loredana which, in 1458, on one of its regular pilgrimages to Jerusalem, stopped in Cyprus where several of its passengers met members of the High Court in Nicosia, the capital. Bartolomeo dalli Sonetti's map of 1480 signified the renaissance of Cyprus cartography and was the crowning achievement of the gradual development of the sea-chart over several centuries during the Middle Ages. [ more: source ]