A Story To Tell: Seeing Through the Minds of Two Admirals
- Eda Ozyesilpinar -
Style of the Reis Map
The map is drawn as a portolan-style map which was the common style in the field of cartography during the time period. Soucek (1992) explains porotlans as nautical charts and sailing directions and indicates that “modern historians use the terms “portolan” and portolan chart” rather than simply calling them nautical charts and sailing directions because of their special character. When they first appeared in the 13th century they differed from any tools of similar purpose made earlier, and they also differed markedly from those that were introduced in the early modern period with the advent of celestial navigation” (p. 21) The portolan charts have specific elements which make these charts unique. The most important identifying elements of portolan charts are rhumb lines, wind roses, and scale bars, and the Reis map, as a portolan chart, includes all these elements.
Figure 14. Scale bars and wind roses from the Reis map
Figure 13. Rhumb lines and compass roses of the Reis map
As Soucek (1992) indicates, the Reis map’s “portolan character is immediately apparent from the five concentric focal points of rhumb lines (two lines in the form of fully fledged windroses), the mesh of rhumb lines themselves and two scale-bar ribbons -- as well as from the characteristic absence of projection or latitude and longitude grading” (p. 50). The wind roses, two scale bar ribbons, and rhumb lines take a central place on the map; they function to provide a correct direction to follow for Reis in measuring the distance between spaces, their surface area, and their correct locations. These wind-roses, rhumb-lines, and bar ribbons also serve to provide correct directions for the seamen of the16th century.