{{Short description|Nautical charts in Catalan}} '''Catalan charts''' or '''Catalan portolans''' are [[portolan chart]]s in the [[Catalan language]]. Portolan charts are a type of medieval and early modern map that focuses on maritime geography and includes a [[Rhumbline network|network of rhumb lines]].<ref name="crone">Maps and their Makers, J.C.C Crone, Hutchinson & Co, London, W.I (1964)</ref> Most medieval portolan charts were made in Italian-speaking cities (mainly [[Genoa]] and [[Venice]]), with a substantial minority made in Catalan-speaking [[Palma de Mallorca|Majorca]]. In the 19th century, historians of cartography emphasized the differences of style and content between Italian and Catalan charts, but other authors have nuanced this distinction since then.
== Common properties of all portolan charts ==
[[Image:El mar Mediterráneo en el Atlas catalán de Cresques Abraham.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A part of the Majorcan map called "Catalan Atlas".]]
Portolan charts all share the characteristic [[windrose network]]s, which emanate out from [[compass rose]]s located at various points on the map. These better called [[windrose line]]s, are generated by observation and the compass, and designated lines of [[bearing (navigation)|bearing]] (though not to be confused with modern [[rhumb line]]s, [[meridian (geography)|meridian]]s or [[isoazimuthal]]s).
Portolan charts are also characterized by the accuracy of inland features, sometimes for the lines of [[latitude]]/[[longitude]] and specially for the lack of [[map projection]],<ref name="Bagrow2010"/> for cartometric investigation has revealed that no projection was used in portolans. To understand that the straight lines drawn on the map should be better called "[[windrose line]]s", one has to know that they can be [[loxodrome]]s (modern rhumblines) only if the chart was is on a suitable projection.<ref name="Bagrow2010">{{cite book|first=Leo|last=Bagrow|title=History of Cartography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBeB4tDmJv8C&dq=portolans+only+when+the+chart+is+drawn+on+a+suitable+projection+projection&pg=PA65|year=2010|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-2518-4|pages=65–}}</ref>
As Leo Bagrow states:''"..the word ("Rhumbline") is wrongly applied to the sea-charts of this period, since a loxodrome gives an accurate course only when the chart is drawn on a suitable projection. Cartometric investigation has revealed that no projection was used in the early charts, for which we therefore retain the name 'portolan'."''<ref name="Bagrow2010"/>
== Differences between Italian and Catalan Portolans == Italian portolan charts tend to focus exclusively on coast lines, harbors and the open sea, whereas Catalan ones often shows information about the interior such as rivers. Catalan charts also tend to have richer decoration, with illustrations of cities, monarchs and animals.<ref name="bagrow">History of Cartography, Second Edition, Bagrow and Skelton, Transaction Books, New Brunswick (US) (1985)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Tony |url=https://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V1/HOC_VOLUME1_chapter19.pdf |title=Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean |date=1987 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-31633-8 |editor-first1=John Brian |editor-last1=Harley |editor-first2=David |editor-last2=Woodward |series=The History of Cartography |location=Chicago |pages=392–395 |chapter=Portolan Charts from the Late Thirteenth Century to 1500}}</ref>
==Catalan maps milestones== === Major Catalan maps in history === * [[Catalan Atlas]]
=== Sites of Major Catalan Schools === * [[Majorca]] ([[Majorcan cartographic school]]) * [[Barcelona]]
=== Major Catalan Mapmakers === * [[Angelino Dulcert]] * [[Abraham Cresques]]
== See also == * [[Nautical chart]] * [[Països Catalans]] * [[Rhumbline network]] * [[Història de la Marina Catalana]] * [[La Cartografía Mallorquina]]
== References == {{Commons category|Catalan charts}} {{reflist}}
[[Category:Types of map]]