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Explanatory Notes

to the

"Listing and analysis of portolan chart toponyms along the continuous coastline from Dunkirk to Mogador
(early 14th to late 17th century)
including the transcribed names from the
'Liber de existencia riveriarum' and 'Lo compasso' as well as the Carte Pisane and Cortona chart"


see the Full Listing (the constantly updated master table of toponyms)
(NB that is an Excel table which opens separately)

Portolan Charts Main Menu  |  Toponymy Menu

See the Methodology page for detailed explanation of how the various research phases were carried out

For the full details of the reference works mentioned below see the Bibliography

This spreadsheet was published on 6 September 2013. In January 2014, this was replaced by an expanded and amended version. Besides the minor corrections or additional information that have been silently added from time to time the main change is the addition of columns (W & X) for the Lucca and Riccardiana charts [see below for more details]. These relate to a continuing examination of the Carte Pisane and other supposedly pre-1311 charts whose early dating has been challenged. The other main updating results from examination of the recently rediscovered 1570 Giorgio Sideri (Callapoda) chart in Central St Martins Library, London. This is later than any other known Sideri chart and has moved on by five years the final sighting of around 100 names, among them eight written in red.

It is expected that in some cases these changes (which will no doubt continue) may affect the various tables and commentaries that are derived from this spreadsheet. It is not anticipated that it will be feasible to update those pages as well, unless the revisions are sufficiently widespread

Explanation of the table columns

A. Geog[raphical] Sort Number. This enables the table to be re-sorted into the original geographical sequence. To make sure that the 'a, b, c' letters are also in order, select that column as the second sorting option.


B. 'a, b, c'. These are mostly names that have been added to the earlier, Microsoft table of 'Significant Names' (2012). They have therefore not been systematically checked. Some were added only as a result of the 'Red Names' analysis, which means that earlier instances in black might have been missed. A few names came to light during the later stages of that exercise and are indicated as such by having their number in green.

The sequence of the added names is arbitrary, both in relation to one another and to the full numbers. Unless a group was found together on a single chart, their sequence has had to be guessed at. Determining their correct position will depend on a wider project to identify their current equivalent location.


C. Modern name. This column is very incomplete and should be used with considerable caution, see the separate note on 'Modern identifications'.


D. Name on chart. The chartmaker was not a toponymic editor but a copyist. Thus, when two names, even if they apparently represent the same place, look very different, they have been separated out in this listing. The concern here is with medieval reality, and models used by copyists, not modern local history scholarship. When there is a range of variations, apparently referring to a single name, examples are given to reflect that. Major places are given in capitals, to assist in navigating through the list.

(*) indicates a footnote to the Tables of Red Names


E. Coastal section. The coastline has been divided into 31 coastal sections. Given the uncertain identity of some names, one or more boundaries may have been placed at the wrong point


F. Date first seen in Black and/or Red. Noting the first dated (or reliably datable) work where that name was observed (which might have been red on its first appearance). However, this evidence might be distorted if earlier works were incomplete or illegible at that point.

Dates up to 1469 will be generally reliable, and particularly where there is a 'P' (for Pujades) in the 'F, P' column. For 1470 onwards the dates depended on the availability of published transcriptions and adequate scans. Future research will certainly adjust some of those.

To distinguish the toponymic innovations of the various periods, the dates are shown in different colours, for each of the half centuries up to 1600 and for the 17th century as a whole. This should make it easier when assessing an undated chart, since only certain colours are likely to be relevant.

Italicised dates indicate that an earlier work by that chartmaker was incomplete or illegible at that point. Thus 1313 Vesconte dates can be one of three forms: (a) in ordinary roman black for places in the Atlantic and western Mediterranean, which were not covered on the 1311 chart, (b) in italics for those which might be present, illegibly, on the 1311 chart, and (c) in green for those which had definitely not been present in 1311. The green Vesconte names are treated as the first toponymic additions to the chart corpus.


G. Chartmaker (black name), i.e. the first chartmaker noted as including that name (though it might have been in red on first appearance):
i. Up to 1469
See the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet A complete chronological listing of works assigned to the period pre-1501 (and its Explanation) for brief details of each atlas or chart.

ii. 1470 onwards
See the Excel spreadsheet above for the period up to 1500. For details of those and other later charts examined see the Microsoft Office Word 3 listing of Post-1469 charts.


H. First seen in Red. The first dated (or reliably datable) work on which that name was observed. However, this evidence might be distorted if earlier works were incomplete or illegible at that point.

Dates up to 1469 will be generally reliable, and particularly where there is a 'P' (for Pujades) in the 'F, P' column. For 1470 onwards the dates depended on the availability of published transcriptions and adequate scans. Future research will certainly adjust some of those.

The convention '1339+' is used to denote the latest (though undated) of the three charts by Dalorto/Dulceti. '1403*' indicates that the name was seen on the undated Francesco Beccari copy in the Cornaro Atlas (but not on his dated chart of 1403 which is thought to be earlier than that). N.B. Dates with a suffix will sort in a separate sequence further down.


I. Chartmaker (red name), i.e. the first chartmaker noted as including that name in red (though it might have been in red on first appearance anyway):
i. Up to 1469
See the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet A complete chronological listing of works assigned to the period pre-1501 (and its Explanation) for the details of each atlas or chart.

ii. 1470 onwards
See the Excel spreadsheet above for the period up to 1500. For details of those and other later charts examined see the Microsoft Office Word 3 listing of Post-1469 charts.

For listings and the detailed analysis of red names see the Red Names Menu.


J. Last seen in Red, i.e. the date. [See notes to the following column, most of which apply here.]


K. Disappears altogether after ...? Those dates up to 1469 will be generally reliable, and particularly where there is a 'P' (for Pujades) in the 'F, P' column. For 1470 onwards the dates depended on the availability of published transcriptions and adequate scans. Future research will certainly adjust some of those.

In three instances last appearances have been found on charts of the same year by different chartmakers. These are indicated thus: 1449r (Roselli) & 1448v (Vallseca); 1462f (Fiorino) & 1462r (Roselli); 1563o (J. Oliva) & 1563s (Sideri/Callapoda). N.B. Dates with a suffix will sort in a separate sequence further down, i.e. after the right arrow.

The Freducci family and Sideri (Callapoda) preserved the style and toponymy of the Benincasas long after other chartmakers had abandoned them. The '+' added to some dates between 1537 and 1565 serve to highlight names that would not normally be found on other 16th-century works. This device guards against a distorted picture of the general longevity of such names The '1563s' convention allows the standard names last seen on the 1563 Sideri atlas to be distinguished from those that had been kept alive by Benincasa's successors alone - marked with a +.

The symbol  →   indicates that the name was still seen after 1600.


L. Kretschmer page number. The numbers are page references to Konrad Kretschmer's still very useful name list of 1909. About 40% of the names in the current list are not in Kretschmer's.


M. Puj[ades] Number. These are taken from the comprehensive list (with modern identifications) of the 1,854 place-names on the 1437 Vallseca chart, see La carta de Gabriel de Vallseca de 1439 (Barcelona: Lumenartis, 2009) pp. 151-81 (though only the 1,161 covering the continuous coastline between Dunkirk and Mogador are treated here). Nearly 60% of the names in the current list do not appear on the 1439 chart.


N. F P . These provide references to, respectively:


O. Red name. Selecting and sorting on this column is the easiest way to isolate those names observed at least once in red. For the detailed analysis of red names see the Red Names Menu.


P. R, U. A non-rigorous classification of names considered Rare (R) or Unique (U).


Q. 'Liber' & 'Lo compasso'. A means of jointly selecting those names found on either or both of the 'Liber de existencia riveriarum' and 'Lo compasso de navegare', the two 13th-century written portolani.


R. Pisane & Cortona charts. A means of jointly selecting those names found on either or both of the Carte Pisane (BnF, Cartes et Plans, B 1118) and the chart preserved in the Biblioteca dell'Accademia Etrusca, Cortona. Anonymous and undated, they have until recently been generally accepted as the earliest survivors. Whether dated to the late 13th century or just into the 14th, they have been considered to pre-date the first chart that carries a date, Vesconte's of 1311. However, Ramon Pujades (2013(b)) has recently argued, partly on the basis of some toponyms not otherwise noted before the late 14th century (or even later), that those two charts (and the recently discovered and closely related Lucca chart) should be relegated to that period or even into the 15th century. Further discussion is certainly needed on this important point and it is hoped that including the full list of their mainland toponyms (insofar as they can be read) will assist the debate.


In the four name listings that follow, colouring (specific to each column) is used to indicate names that are not seen
until after the earliest productions of Vesconte or that do not appear at all on portolan charts. In each case, a vertical line indicates where that area was not covered on the chart in question
. If you decide to 'hide' ['Format - Column'] those four columns, a note in the final 'Comments' column will alert you to the coloured instances

S. 'Liber de existencia riveriarum'. Based on the published edition: Patrick Gautier Dalché, Carte marine et portulan au XIIe siècle: le "Liber de existencia riveriarum et forma maris nostri Mediterranei" (Pise, circa 1200) (Rome: École française de Rome: distributed by Paris: Boccard, 1995). His geographical index was an invaluable tool, often providing modern name, country, former name and alternative name(s).


T. 'Lo compasso de navegare'. The standard authority has long been the 1947 edition by Bacchisio Raimondo Motzo, though the Gautier Dalché 'Liber' edition of 1995 included some corrections to Motzo's readings. Now an entirely new edition has appeared: Alessandra Debanne, Lo Compasso de navegare. Edizione del codice Hamilton 396 con commento linguistico e glossario (Brussels, etc.: Peter Lang for the Gruppo degli italianisti delle Università francofone del Belgio, 2011). This text, and the 'Indice toponomastico', have been used here for the transcriptions. For a list of corrections and additions to that index see here (a Microsoft Word table). The author clearly did not have access to a geographically-sequenced name list and left as 'unidentified' a number of names whose general position was already known from charts or other portolani. This applies particularly to the Black Sea. A few names were omitted from Debanne's index and in some cases a single entry combined two different places. When investigated, some names proved to refer to islands not the mainland, and so were left out.


U. Carte Pisane. C1 on the DVD accompanying Pujades (2007).


V. Cortona chart. Vera Armignacco, 'Una carta nautica della Biblioteca dell'Accademia Etrusca di Cortona', Rivista Geografica Italiana 64 (1957): 185-223, provided a detailed study of this work, including a comparison of its toponymy with the Carte Pisane. This is C2 on the Pujades DVD. Where possible Armignacco's readings were checked. However, having access to the original, which might possibly have been in better condition half a century ago, led her to propose some readings that cannot be corroborated on the DVD.


W. Comments. Abbreviations:
K - e.g. (K.581) = Kretschmer (1909), with page number
m. = millara (portolan mile), in references to the 'Liber de existencia riveriarum' and 'Lo compasso de navegare'
Pujades, e.g. 'A13' or 'C6', refers to the atlas or chart number respectively of the scan in the DVD accompanying Les Cartes Portulanes (2007)

For the full details of the reference works mentioned above see the Bibliography


SORTING THE EXCEL TABLE

The following suggestion may be helpful. It is possible, for example, to sort [click top left to highlight the whole spreadsheete, Select 'Data' and 'Sort'] on three fields simultaneously, e.g. (1) 'Date first seen', (2) 'Chartmaker (black name)', (3) 'Geog[raphical] Sort'. This will display the innovative names, by date and chartmaker, and then in geographical order. Alternatively, changing the default on the Date search to 'Descending' will allow the focus to concentrate on names apparently added later.

Some sorts prompt the following 'Soft Warning'. 'The following sort key may not sort as expected because it contains numbers formatted as text'. Simply select the 'Sort numbers and numbers stored as text separately' option and click OK (twice if necessary)

Top of page

see the full Listing
(NB that is an Excel table which opens separately)

Portolan Charts Main Menu  |  Toponymy Menu

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