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Albertinus de Virga

Venetian cartographer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ4711897 ↗
Source-derived summary

Albertinus de Virga (or Albertin de Virga) was a 15th-century Venetian cartographer.

Practically nothing is known of his life, save that he was probably Venetian. Virga is the author of two famous maps:

1409 portolan chart, 43 x 68 cm, covering the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Atlantic coast, and signed "A 1409 Alber...Virga me fezit in Vinexia". Currently held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, France. (D.7900)

The De Virga world map, a mappa mundi 69.6 x 44 cm, signed "A. 141.. Albertin diuirga me fecit in vinexia", where the date has been read as between 1411 and 1415, that was once in the private collection of Albrecht Frigdor of Vienna, but has since gone missing.

It has been tentatively suggested that Virga might also have been the author of a third map, an anonymous portolan chart dating from the beginning of the 15th century currently held (Port.40) by the Museo Correr in Venice, Italy.

References

External links

De Virga's world map Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine

Related story from the Economist.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Albertinus de Virga” is venetian cartographer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Albertinus, Virga and Venetian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1409, 1411, 1415, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1350. For this dossier, Albertinus, Virga and Venetian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “venetian cartographer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4711897. VIAF identifies the subject as 138995379. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1409, 1411, 1415 and 2011.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Albertinus de Virga”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Albertinus de Virga primary sources, Albertinus de Virga archive and Albertinus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Albertinus de Virga”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Albertinus de Virga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.