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Navigation: Portolan for Salonika (p. 192b)


Navigation: Portolan for Salonika (p. 192b)


Michael's manuscript contains portolans for the Coast of Apulia and the Gulf of Salonika. They reflect the local details that an officer needed to know to navigate safely. It was on the coast of Apulia that Michael first signed on to a Venetian galley. As a senior officer, Michael fought in defense of Salonika several times between 1423 and 1430, when the town fell to the Ottoman Turks.

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+ Ihesus + di fuor de quelo et è secho. Non t'achostar. A un mio può truoverì un schoio grando, el qual non se può passar dentro. E truoverì an- chuor schoietti 4, d'i quali achostate al chodier dever l'ixola de Sancto Andrea e parti el freo e vane inver la tera. Non t'a- chostar ala punta de Sancto Andrea perché è secho vardando inver la tera, ma fali honor un bon prodixe. Brandizo ala ture de San Chataldo mia 40, e per tutto è secho per la via. Non t'achostar in tera a mio un inchina Otronto. San Chataldo a Otronto mia 20. Non achostar in tera a un mio perché l'è aque basse. E in mia 10 vui truoverì una tera chiamatta Rocha sovra alguny grebany, e de là a Brandizo mia 10. Chognossanza da Otronto: in una punta bassa biancha ave una ture, per antigo tenpo era fanò. E vane inver la tera. Truoverì uno schoietto, vane per mezo el schoietto e la ponta sottil da man senestra, armizatti fero e prodixe, e fatte forte per maistro e tramontana. Questo è portolan per lo golfo de Salonychi. Intro Schiatti San Zorzi una secha, e quando fa mar ronpe su, e quanto non fa mar non par. E voyando andar netto achostatte ben ala teraferma, a un mio o al'ixola di Schiatti per simille muodo per la ditta secha. San Zorzi chon el chavo di Posidi, zoè del golfo de Salonychi, quarta de tramon-

+ Jesus + outside of it, and a shoal. Don't approach it. At one mile you will find a large reef, which you can't pass inside of. And then you will find 4 small reefs, at which you can approach alongside toward the island of Sant'Andrea and leave the strait and go inland. Don't approach the point of Sant'Andrea because there is shoal facing landwards, but give it the honor of a good mooring cable. Brindisi to the tower of San Cataldo 40 miles, and it is dry the whole route. Don't approach the land by a mile until Otronto. San Cataldo to Otronto 20 miles. Don't approach land by one mile because of the shallow waters, and in 10 miles you will find a land called Rocca above some cliffs, and from there to Brindisi it's 10 miles. How to recognize Otronto: On a low white point there is a tower; in old times it was a lighthouse. And go toward the land, you will find a reef, go in the middle of the reef and the small point on the left hand; arm yourself with iron and mooring cables, and go sharply toward the northwest and north. Here is a portolan for the gulf of Salonika. Between Skathos and Hagios Georgios is a shoal, and when the sea is high it breaks over it, and when the sea is calm it doesn't appear. And if you want to go forward, approach the land at a mile or at the island of Skathos and similarly from the shoal. Hagios Georgios with the cape of Plessidhi, that is the gulf of Salonika, north