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The Origin of Portolan Charts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

H. C. Freiesleben
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Extract

In the course of a summary of established views about the still unknown origins of portolan charts (this Journal, 36, 124, 1983) the hypothesis was advanced that they originated as a result of the maritime interests of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. It should perhaps be made clear straight away that this is no mere attempt by a German author to further German pretensions in this matter. In fact, of course, Frederick II (1194–1250) was the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and, according to the excellent biography by Kantorowicz, felt himself more and more the spokesman for cosmopolitan thought as his years advanced. He spent his youth in Sicily and was known as ‘The Sicilian’, and learned to speak German only during the third decade of his life during his first visit to Germany; by then he was fluent in half a dozen other languages. Sicily of course, where he spent most of his life, meant not simply the island but the kingdom of the two Sicilies which, since the Norse conquests, comprised extensive parts of southern Italy and notably Apulia, where Frederick had his court at Foggia. His dominions bordered papal territory, which accounts for the hostility to him of several popes.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , May 1984 , pp. 194 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1984

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References

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