c. 1270 CE–c. 1500 CE
Portolan charts for Mediterranean coasts and bearings
Oceans, navigation & cartography · Nautical cartography · Ocean navigation
From the late thirteenth century, manuscript charts represented ports and coastlines with bearing networks useful for Mediterranean voyages. They did not account for Earth’s curvature or solve ocean navigation by themselves, but turned accumulated pilots’ experience into a reusable graphic medium.
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · approximate
- End
- year · approximate
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
- The scale goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE without year zero. Changing era names changes labels only.
- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: duration of a process.
Sources
- 1. guides.loc.gov (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Not identified in metadata; document review pending
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
The correspondence between this reference and individual claims has not yet been itemized.
- 2. www.loc.gov (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Not identified in metadata; document review pending
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
The correspondence between this reference and individual claims has not yet been itemized.
This record is an editorial synthesis. Consult the sources to check claims and their limits. Chronological relationships alone do not establish causation.