Bianco world map

The Bianco map (1436)

The Bianco World Map was created by Andreas Bianco, a 15th-century Italian sailor and cartographer. This 1436 nautical atlas, or "Atlante Nautico", contains ten leaves of vellum (each measuring 26 × 38 cm), each depicting different diagrams and maps. These vellum leaves were previously held in an 18th-century binding, but the current owners at the Venetian library Biblioteca Marciana had the leaves separated so that each could be viewed individually.

To confirm his authorship of the atlas, Bianco added a flag to the first leaf bearing the text, "Andreas Biancho de Veneciis me fecit M cccc xxx vj". Roughly translated, this reads as "Andreas Biancho. I was made in Venice, 1436." Andreas Biancho also collaborated with Fra Mauro on the Fra Mauro world map of 1459.

Contents

The first leaf, or Tavola 1, is a diagram of the Raxon or Toleta of Marteloio, a navigational technique which enabled sailors to calculate how to return to their intended course after being blown off-course. The next eight leaves contain seven local and one Europe-wide "Portolan Charts" (navigation charts). The ninth leaf contains a circular world map measuring 24 cm in circumference. The final leaf illustrates a Ptolemaic world map based upon Ptolemy's first projection with a graduation of the latitudes. The map also contains two differing estimates of the size of the world sphere^[1].

See also

• Ancient world maps

References

"Andreas. biancho. de venciis.me fecit. M.cccc.xxx.vj".(1436) a cura di Piero Falchetta, Arsenale Editrice srl, Venezia. ISBN 88-7743-135-0 This book is an Edizione Speciale per il Banco San Marco and was a limited edition of 1500 exemplars. The Biblioteca Marciana has made the text and 10 Tavola's available at; http://geoweb.venezia.sbn.it as ARCHIweb-Risultati Ricerca::Family 029110.