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Rare Italian copy of a portolan chart of Europe or the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa, drawn by Andrea Bianco in 1436. The chart is the fourth chart in Bianci's atlas of ten leaves, with nine charts or maps, dated 1436 and preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice.
The chart illustrates the Iberian Peninsula and the West African coastline from Cape Spartel to Cape Bojador and includes the Atlantic Islands of the Azores, Madeira and the Canaries as well as “Antillia” and another fragment of land “Y (sol) to de la satanaxio man”. The map includes compass roses and loxodromes.
The map also shows Atlantic islands, including the mythical Antillia island. The legend of Antillia (or Antilia), also known as the Isle of Seven Cities, originated in an old Iberian legend about seven bishops from the eighth century who fled Muslim conquerors by fleeing westward to the island. Andrea Bianco included the island in his map of 1436, but it was omitted in his later map of 1448. The existence of the island on maps has been used for theories of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and some say may represent the American landmass.
The work appeared one volume of 32 volume Italian text, entitled Compendio della Storia generale dei viaggi by M. de la Harpe, Academico parigino, adorna di carte geografiche e figure, annotazioni arricchita published in Venice in 1782. The map is a part essay on the ancient nautical art of the Venetians.
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