Portolan Map Possibilities

[Linda]

Obviously I'm being flippant here, but is this Remainer Britain?


On a different note, I'd point out that a portolan map usually has rhumb lines, and cannot be used without them. How would these supposed maps work without a precise navigational aid to link them to geographical reality?

This would be something like an illustrated portolan, being the precursor to a portolan chart, or map with lines drawn from windroses. The type of thing they made the maps from, but instead of a poem it would be a list of places, wind directions, and distances. I think this is somewhat analogous to quire 13, which illustrates a tour similar to that shown here, which follows coast lines.

You cant actually follow the rhumblines on a portolan as the coordinates are drawn from local observations, and is not set to any projection, although they are still amazingly accurate. I feel the lines should be called windlines on a portolan, the confusion is in people having used the same term for two different things as time went by, but have since diverged. On a map with a projection, the rhumblines or loxodromes do set the course, they are a straightened depiction of a curve which represents the shortest distance between two points on a sphere. On a portolan it is just a straight line, but which works well enough for shorter distances.

My guess as to what is shown here is noahs ark on mount ararat, attached as it seems to the entire atlas mountain range. You can see the euphrates and tigris coming from the mountain, going to the persian gulf on the right. The red sea is below that, the river below that in the right corner would be the nile.

The boston public library one in the post above, that is drawn without colour, is similarly laid out, you can see where the red sea crossing is indicated in that one, and mount sinai is indicated with a box at the top, i think likely indicating the ark of the covenant.