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Portolan letter from Guillem Soler

Date
1375
Archive
Municipal Archive of Barcelona
Document type
Mapes i plànols
Reference code
CAT-AHCB-AHCB4-201-27640
Link to the online document
Description

Fragment of a Portolan chart with the wind network of double epicenter and tricolor (black, green, red) and graphic scale, which maps part of the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. It is one of the few surviving examples of medieval nautical cartography in Catalan lands and one of the only ten surviving examples worldwide of Catalan cartographic production from the 14th century. In Catalonia, no other portola from this century is preserved, only a nautical chart by Gabriel de Vallseca from the 15th century (property of the BC on loan to the MMB).
It is a fragment of great peculiarity and relevance which, due to its characteristics, is attributed to the Mallorcan Christian cartographer Gabriel Soler. Soler was the founder of a line of five generations of Christian cartographers who competed in the workshop of Cresques Abraham, author of the famous Catalan Atlas. Unlike luxury works such as the Catalan Atlas or those of Gabriel de Vallseca, this is a utilitarian chart, created for the practice of navigation. Precisely because of this utilitarian function, their price was relatively cheap and they achieved extraordinary diffusion. Despite this, they have rarely managed to survive, even if in a fragmented way as in this case.