Abstract :
In 2013 the year dedicated by UNESCO to the 500th anniversary of the Ottoman cartographer and naval officer Muhyī al-Dīn Pîrî Reis’s completion of his world map in h.919 (1513), the publication in English of a version of a beautifully executed copy of Pîrî Reis Kitâb-ı Bahriye, today in the Istanbul University’s rare book collection, No. T. 6605, has much to recommend it, not least in terms of making the detail of the superb quality of the cartography and tezhip of this nakkaşhane copy of Pirī Reis’s work available today in colour at a extremely low price to members of the general public in comparison to its original cost as a unique handmade illuminated manuscript and copies thereof, or its considerable cost today as a modern facsimile at about 800 TL. When looking at these charts drawn early in the 16th c, recording the coastline, ports, islets and islands of the Mediterranean and comparing them with modern maps or those from google. earth.com, it is evident that all the places are not drawn to the same scale, the relative scale of important features on these charts is drawn to a different larger scale from those areas of less importance for the mariner, as the work was specifically designed to be of service to a 16th c. mariner on a galley or sailing ship, while places inland except for those of an elevation to serve as navigational markers are usually not recorded.
