Oliva (Franciscus) Circle of.  Manuscript Portolan Chart on Vellum of the Eastern Mediterranean, a double-page chart from a portolan atlas, centred just off the north east coast of Crete, extending from the southern tip of Italy, Greece and islands, to the Levant, with the Red Sea and the North African coast as far as Libya, 'Asia' and 'Africa' title banderoles upper right and lower centre, respectively, with vestiges of a corresponding 'Europa' banderole upper left, numerous coastal place names, 1 and a half large and 14 variously smaller compass roses, rhum lines, 3 large floral urn motifs, 2 large crowned shields with the Ottoman crescent moon in Turkey and North Africa, a long-legged and -necked, crested bird, probably a bustard, in Asia Minor, with a camel and a palm tree in North Africa, the shields and creatures oriented to the left, Rhodes coloured with the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, ink, watercolour and gouache, extensively heightened in gold, 540 x 670mm., a central vertical fold, dampstained at the right sheet edge, affecting the Levant coast and half of Cyprus, uneven loss at the upper sheet edge including all but the ends of the 'Europa' banderole, the sheet lined with Japan tissue, [?Marseilles], [c.1650].  This portolan chart bears fair comparison with an anonymous example held in the library of the University of California at Berkeley (ref:HM 34), in the style of crowned armorial shields bearing a crescent moon, and the particular foliate decoration elsewhere, identified only as French, and again to the same stylistic features, including an identically posed camel, in the portolan charts of an atlas in the library of Edinburgh University (ref:0002080), gifted as early as 1690, and more firmly attributed to Franciscus Oliva, of the famous Catalan family of chart-makers, who was known to be settled in Marseilles in the mid 17th century. Although the island of Rhodes fell to the Ottoman invaders in 1522, it continued to be identified with the cross of the Knights Hospitallers for the next century and more, as here, despite them having relocated to Malta. Originating in Italy as early as the 13th century, such charts sprang from the growing appetite for voyaging by sea, becoming known as 'portolani' because of their concentration on coasts and ports. The growing value of trade, with the commensurate rise in national rivalries, made them commercially sensitive documents, often jealously guarded. As such, despite being exquisitely decorative to our eyes, they had a very practical purpose as working navigational aids, hence the preference for vellum as the material of choice, for its greater durability and resistance to moisture compared to paper.