Museo Galileo
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Virtual Museum
Sea charts
    • Setting:
      Room V
    • Author:
      Bartolomeu Velho
    • Date:
      1561
    • Materials:
      parchment
    • Dimensions:
      800x1130, 813x1207, 810x1200, 830x1206 mm
    • Inventory:
      Dep. ABA, Firenze
    • Sea charts (Dep. ABA, Firenze)
    • Sea charts (Dep. ABA, Firenze)

These four sea charts, made of colored parchment, cover the Pacific, the New World, Europe and Africa, and Asia. The Pacific chart gives a highly detailed outline of the coasts, with a wealth of information. The "New World" chart uses the expression to denote North America only. South America is called the "Fourth part of the World." The author, Bartolomeu Velho, also shows the southern passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520. The map of Asia depicts, among other things, the 1497 voyage of Vasco da Gama.