2 sheets joined. Col. ms. Medium: Vellum. Scale: [ca. 1:6.500 000]. Additional Places: Norway, Iceland, Cape Verde. Contents Note: This portolan chart is exuberantly decorated with compass roses, towns, rulers, tents, mountains, animals and ships. This is a portolan chart. These charts originated in the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century and take their name from the written sailing directions, 'portolani', which they supplemented and superseded. They were drawn and painted on vellum, using a network of intersecting rhumb (direction) lines radiating out from compass roses. Characteristic features include place names tightly packed onto the coast, together with flags and banners and vignettes of cities.