Richard Pflederer (Historian and author), “Using Portolan Charts in Beinecke to Understand Portugal’s Territorial and Economic Expansion” (Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

Richard Pflederer will speak on “Using Portolan Charts in Beinecke to Understand Portugal’s Territorial and Economic Expansion” in this talk in conjunction with the current building-wide exhibition, The World in Maps, 1400-1600.

 

Zoom webinar registration link: https://bit.ly/3r8870y

 

Dick Pflederer began his detailed study of portolan charts in the year 2000 when he was invited to produce a detailed digital catalogue of the collection of the British Library. In the years that followed he has completed similar catalogues of six other important collections: NMM (Greenwich), Bodleian Library (Oxford), Huntington Library, Library of Congress, the Newberry Library and Archivio di Stato di Firenze. He has also assembled and published a detailed census of all known portolan charts, including as many in private hands as are known (published in 2009 and updated annually). His book, Finding their Way at Sea (HES & DE GRAAF 2013), is a heavily illustrated work intended to introduce the subject to a general audience. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and has completed programs at Columbia University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management (Arizona). He is the founder of the Williamsburg Map Circle and the on the Steering Committee of the Phillips Society of the Library of Congress.