portolano
noun
a descriptive atlas of the Middle Ages, giving sailing directions and providing charts showing rhumb lines and the location of ports and various coastal features.
portolani
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pluralof portolano.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nor do the earliest portolani contain any compass-roses or wind-roses.
From The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea Vol. II by Gomes Eannes de Zurara
The makers of the better class of portolani evidently had the use of the compass in drawing their charts.
From American Nation: a history — Volume 1: European Background of American History, 1300-1600 by Edward Potts Cheyney
Strictly scientific map-making begins with the Mediterranean portolani.
From The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea Vol. II by Gomes Eannes de Zurara
Just at the beginning of the fourteenth century, however, a new line was struck out in map-making by the construction and steady development of sailing charts, or "portolani."
From American Nation: a history — Volume 1: European Background of American History, 1300-1600 by Edward Potts Cheyney
