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Description
Black and red ink for nomenclature in a minuscule script with area names in square capitals; land masses outlined in color with islands painted in blue or red, gold or silver; 12 compass roses with the usual 32 rhumb line network in black, red, and green ink for principal directions; double latitude scales (numbered 5° higher on right than on left) and double equator (to compensate for magnetic variation), no longitude; distance is indicated by a series of small circles in lower right corner; decorated with a few figures and vignettes (very faded). Unbound: originally a rolled chart, now flattened.
Parchment, f. 1 (full skin); 585 x 942 including left extension (map size, 530 x 772) mm. Top and bottom border decorated with gold in trellis pattern, latitude scales form borders at left and right.
Also widely known as the "King-Hamy Portolan chart". Title from printed catalog. World chart, including America (portions of West Indies, Venezuela, Brazil and Newfoundland). Unbound: originally a rolled chart, now flattened. HM 45. The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Early maps Nautical charts--Early works to 1800 World maps--Early works to 1800 Manuscripts (documents) Italy 16th century. (aat) Maps (documents) 16th century. (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Possibly made in Italy after a Portuguese prototype early in the sixteenth century. A. Magnaghi in Il planisfero del 1523 della Biblioteca del Re in Torino (Florence 1929) 27 and G. Caraci in Tabulae geographicae vetustiores in Italia adservatae (Florence 1932) 3:62 attribute this chart to Amerigo Vespucci. It belonged to arctic traveller Richard King (1811?-76) and was bought in London by Alphonse Pinart (1832-1911); not in his 1884 sale. Obtained from him in Paris in 1885 by Dr. Jules Théodore Ernest Hamy (1842-1908). His sale by Anderson, New York, 19 November 1912, n. 3, with reproductions on pls. 4 and 5. Bought by James William Ellsworth. His library purchased by A. S. W. Rosenbach who sold this chart to Henry E. Huntington in 1923.
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