Portolan map mediteranian sea
original manuscriptmap on vellum by the Oliva family
Type of object:
Maps and globes
Time period:
Portugal & Spanje
Place:
not known, probably Messina
Date:
1620
Maker / Author:
Oliva Family+ /_ 1650 vellum of Perkament
Publisher / Printer:
Oliva Family
Dimensions:
70 x 41 cm
Material:
Vellum of goat
Graduation:
many loxodromes and compassroses, no scale
Inscription:
Provenance:
Luis a robles Macias 15/10/2021:
'This portolan chart looks familiar but I have not been able to identify it among those I already have in my records. The style indeed reminds me of the Oliva family, and in particular of Placido Caloiro e Oliva. (Placidus Caloiro et Oliva)
He was from Messina 1617–57. A thirty portulanes are still known from him. From a quantitative point of view, cartography in seventeenth-century Messina was dominated by Placido Caloiro e Oliva, who has left us some thirty-odd works, mainly charts and three-sheet or four-sheet atlases, produced
between 1617 and 1665'
References:
Oude Kaarten lezen, handboek voor historische cartografie. Bram Vannieuwenhuyze , Marissa Griffoen en Anne-Rieke van Schaik, pg 99
Portulane, Seekartenvom 13.bis zum 17.Jahrhundert , Monique de la Ronciére und Michel Molat du Jourdin , Switserland 1984; p27 + 243
Description
Pen, ink, and wash colour on vellum, extending west to east from Cape Finisterre to the Holy Land, and north to south from the Adriatic to the north coast of Africa, islands in green and red, rivers in blue, numerous coastal place-names in red and sepia in semi-italic lettering, 16 large and small compass roses the majority with fleur-de-lys north points, 2 half compass roses, the whole chart divided by red, green, and sepia, rhumblines extending from the compass roses, sepia-ruled borders, scale upper right, two horizontal creases indicate that the chart was folded, some dampstaining to left hand portion of chart, remnants of paper backing to verso. The simplicity of the decoration could be an indication that the chart was produced for a ship’s captain or for the office of a mercantile clientele.
The chart bears some stylistic similarities with the those produced by the later members of the Oliva family of mapmakers; for example in the depiction of Malta and Rhodes in red with white cross, and in the placement of a compass rose in upon Sicily. The Olivas, a family of Catalan chartmakers, produced their first chart in Majorca before 1550. Charts signed by at least 16 members of the Oliva family are recorded, with dates between 1538 and 1673. The charts were produced in a number of ports, including Majorca, Messina, Livorno, Florence, Venice, Malta, Palermo and Marseilles.
Additional information