In 1311, Pietro Vesconte, perhaps the first professional maker of sea charts known to history, created the oldest surviving sea chart, a manuscript portolan chart. Today these charts may appear as quaint and beautiful artifacts of an earlier age but in their day, they represented the trade secrets of successful sea voyages, and the seamen who used them entrusted their fortunes, and even their lives, to these rolled sheets of vellum.
Local author and scholar Richard Pflederer will discuss the history of sea charts at Swem Library on Tuesday, April 9. The event will be held in the library’s Botetourt Theatre, ground floor, at 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served, and Pflederer will be available for book signings following the program. RSVP to swemrsvp@wm.edu by April 5.
The story of sea charts is intimately intertwined with the history of the western world during some of the most significant and eventful periods of recorded history. Pflederer will discuss how through these charts, we can trace developments in trade and warfare, exploration and colonial domination from the late medieval period through the Renaissance and into the Age of European Enlightenment.
Pflederer is the author of Finding Their Way At Sea: The Story of the Portolan Charts, the Cartographers Who Drew Them and the Mariners Who Sailed By Them and an independent scholar who has focused his study over the last 12 years on portolan charts and atlases. He has personally examined charts and atlases in dozens of institutions world-wide and is the author of six reference books and numerous articles on the subject. He lectures extensively on cartographic subjects at international venues including Verona, Italy; London, England; Vienna, Austria; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Sydney, Australia. He is also the founder of the Williamsburg Map Circle, and is a resident of Williamsburg.