Sea Charts
Navigators have long communicated information about the
seas and coasts by a variety of means: word of mouth; the
written word; graphic images and profiles of the coast; and,
charts. Today, most sailors use a combination of charts and
written guides. The charts in this section were made for
sailing along Spain's coast and for negotiating her harbors.
These activities entail different conceptions of scale and
therefore require different types of maps. (Sailing across the
high seas requires yet another set of information and
navigational forms).
Dutch, 1533-1606
Die Carte vande Zeekusten van biscaien, zeer guade hauens voer groote schepen tußche Rio de Sella e Auiles. Biscanæ descriptio littoralis: portus magnis incommodißimos nauibus, inter fluuium sellam et Auilam continens
From: Speculum nauticum super nauigatione maris Occidentalis confectum . . ., Spieghel der Zeevaerdt, vande nauigatie der Westersche zee Innehoudende alle de Custen van Franckrijck . . .
Antwerp, Plantin press by FRANSISCUS RAPHELENGIUS, 1586
Engraving, hand colored, 32.6 x 51.1 cm.
Pilots of the mid-16th century had at their disposal a wide
variety of coastal sea charts ("portolans"), textual
descriptions of sailing directions ("rutters"), and orally
transmitted instructions. The Dutch navigator and
hydrographer Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer brought this
information into a uniform or systematic form in 1584,
when he compiled De Spieghel der Zeevaerdt. This concise
atlas of sea charts was made at a standard scale; its maps
used the same symbols throughout and were accompanied
by commentaries on the quality of Waghenaer's sources.
This chart (9), showing part of the northern coast, is one of
ten covering Spain's Atlantic coast. With soundings,
detailed insets of harbors, and sailing directions,
Waghenaer's work prefigured the modern sea chart and was
often copied, as by Willem Blaeu in his Het Licht der
Zeevaert (1608).
10
12
13
Dutch, 1588-1664
Pascaart Vande CUSTEN Van Andaluzia, Portugal, Gallißiem, Biscajen . . .
From: Cinquiesme Partie Du Grand Atlas . . .
Amsterdam, 1650 or 1657
Engraving, hand colored, 43.2 x 54.5 cm.
12. FREDERICK de WIT
Dutch, 1630-1706
HISPANIÆ, et PORTUGALLIÆ Maritimi Tractus, à
S.Andero, ad Malagam. Pascaert van SPANGIE, en
PORTUGAL.
From: Orbis Maritimus ofte Zee Atlas . . .
Amsterdam, ca. 1680
Engraving, hand colored, 49.0 x 56.7 cm.
13. JOHN SELLER
English, fl. 1664, d. 1697
A Chart of SPAINE Perticularly Discribing the Coasts
of Biscaia Gallissia Portugal Andaluzia Granada . . .
From: Atlas maritimus or a book of charts . . .
London, ca. 1671
Engraving, hand colored, 43.6 x 54.4 cm. With insets of
harbors.
Waghenaer's works were popular, but they did not supplant all other forms of coastal mapping. Each of Waghenaer's images focused only on small areas of coastline so that they could not be used for planning long journeys. Smaller scale charts therefore continued to be constructed. Such charts possessed a geometrical structure formed from lines of latitude and compass-lines; because of the difficulties involved in measuring time, the charts did not show longitude. The charts of Spain's Atlantic coast by Johannes Janssonius and Frederick de Wit, both reputable Dutch publishers, were clearly derived from the same sources, but they differ slightly in the detailed representation of the coast (10 and 12). The chart by John Seller, an English hydrographer known for copying Dutch sources, is in fact a direct copy of Janssonius's (13).
Please note that these three maps all have North to the left;
East lies at the top. The Straits of Gibraltar, to the south of
Spain, are on the right; France, to the north of Spain, lies on
the left. The habit of putting North at the top of maps
became established only because of aesthetic considerations
when lines of longitude were shown; these maps do not
show longitude and were oriented in a manner conducive to
their easy use by mariners who sought to align themselves
with the landmass.
English, 1574-1649
Carta Particolare del mare Mediterraneo che cominca conil capo S:Matino e finisce con il capo Dragone in Ispagnae . . .
From: Arcano del Mare
Florence, 1646
Engraving, 46.7 x 72.1 cm.
Sir Robert Dudley, a political exile from England, compiled
a new type of sea atlas, breaking completely with the
contemporary style of charts. Dudley showed lines of
latitude and longitude, arranged according to Mercator's
projection, and omitted all compass lines. In doing so, his
purpose was more intellectual than practical: techniques for
determining longitude at sea were not refined until more
than two centuries later. It is difficult to imagine any
mariner of his day using his charts at sea; certainly, they
were not copied by commercial publishers, such as
Janssonius, de Wit, and Seller, who made many of the
charts that were then in use. Note that Dudley oriented his
map with North at the top.
14
15
Dutch, ca. 1654-1715
Nieuwe Paskaart Van de Kust van HISPANIA. Vant't Klif tot aan Valaz Malaga. Als mede de Kust van BARBARIA. . . .
From: De Groote Nieuwe Vermeerderde ZEE-ATLAS ofte WATERWERELT. . . .
Amsterdam, 1694
Engraving, hand colored, 50.4 x 57.8 cm.
15. NICOLAS de FER
French, 1646-1720
CADIS son Port, sa Rade, et ses environs. . . . 1702
From: L'ATLAS CURIEUX OU LE MONDE RÉPRÉSENTÉ
DANS DES CARTES . . .
Paris, ca. 1725
Engraving, 24.1 x 34.0 cm.
Negotiating harbors and dangerous waters requires a wealth of detailed information about highly localized variations in tides, shoals, and shifting sands. Most of this information has always been held in the minds of the pilots who bring ships in and out of ports, but some of the basic configurations of ports were being mapped in the sixteenth centuries. Seller includes three insets of harbors--top-to-bottom: Bordeaux (France), Cádiz, and Lisbon (Portugal)--on his coasting chart (13). The chart of the Straits of Gibraltar by the Dutch hydrographer Johannes van Keulen is an example of a large-scale chart dedicated to an area of dangerous waters; the map is oriented with east at the top; Cádiz is therefore located in the left hand portion of the map (14). As the major naval port of Spain, Cádiz was the frequent subject of detailed maps, as for example by the Frenchman Nicolas de Fer, géographe du roi ("geographer to the King") (15).
Osher Map Library
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