Portolan Map Possibilities

[R. Sale]

That's a really poor representation of the Black Sea, and that might be just what we should expect. Historically, early in the reign of Philip the Good of Burgundy, an emissary was sent from the Netherlands, up to the Hanseatic League. He traveled on to Russia, then down river to the Black Sea, into the Mediterranean and back to Dijon. He was mentioned in Richard Vaughan's Philip the Good. Imagine making that journey and mapping that terrain when so much was second-hand information. That's why the boundaries are drawn with nebuly lines, because it was known and needed to be indicated that these boundaries were very imprecise. If all he did was sail from Kaffa to Constantinople, what would he know of the shape of the shoreline? Only what he was told.

Any indication that the nymphs are personifications of the major cities? Weren't they mostly on the southern shore?