Fernão Vaz Dourado
Illustration — Nautical chart of the 1571 atlas, depicting the northwestern coast of Africa (Portuguese National Archives of Torre do Tombo, Lisbon). The text in the border reads: On this sheet is drawn all the coast of Africa and Guinea up to São Tomé Island • Illustration — Japan (Iapam) and Korea, in the 1568 Portuguese map of the cartographer João Vaz Dourado Fernão Vaz Dourado (c. 1520 in Goa – c.
Fernão Vaz Dourado

Fernão Vaz Dourado · Atlas Universal. 1576 · CC0
- Born
- Fernão Vaz Dourado was born in 1520.
- Died
- Fernão Vaz Dourado died in 1580.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Portugal.
- Occupation
- cartographer.
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Illustration — Nautical chart of the 1571 atlas, depicting the northwestern coast of Africa (Portuguese National Archives of Torre do Tombo, Lisbon). The text in the border reads: On this sheet is drawn all the coast of Africa and Guinea up to São Tomé Island • Illustration — Japan (Iapam) and Korea, in the 1568 Portuguese map of the cartographer João Vaz Dourado Fernão Vaz Dourado (c. 1520 in Goa – c.
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wikidata · Q2349261 · wikipedia · Fernão Vaz Dourado
In this article
Works
Works
1580 in Portuguese India) was a Portuguese cartographer. He belonged to the third period of the old Portuguese nautical cartography, which is characterised by the abandonment of Ptolemaic influence in the representation of the Orient and better accuracy in the depiction of lands and continents. Little is known about this historical figure.
His known works are of an extraordinary quality and beauty. He is considered one of the best cartographers of the time. Most of his charts are of relatively large scale and are included in nautical atlases. The following six atlases survive: • 1568 - 20 manuscript sheets on parchment, dedicated to D. Luís de Ataíde (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid) • 1570 - 20 manuscript sheets on parchment (Huntington Library, San Marino, USA) • 1571 - 20 manuscript sheets on parchment, from which 2 (the frontispiece and the Eastern Mediterranean) were stolen in 1851 (Torre do Tombo, Lisbon). • c. 1576 - 20 manuscript sheets on parchment (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon) • 1575 - 21 manuscript sheets on parchment (British Library, London) • 1580 - 20 manuscript sheets on parchment (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon) The plates of all the atlases are reproduced, mainly in monochrome in Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica. The 1571 atlas was reproduced in colour, with a reconstructed frontispiece, and, inexplicably, with the Eastern Mediterranean plate from the 1576 atlas included without any explanation, in Atlas de Fernao Vaz Dourado: reprodcao fidelissima do exemplar do Torre do Tombo, datado de Goa, 1571", Porto: Livraria Civilizacao, 1948. The 1571 atlas was again reproduced in colour, in a boxed set of 18 loose sheets, as Universal Atlas of Fernão Vaz Dourado, Barcelona: M. Moleiro Editor, S.A., 2012. The 1568 atlas contains the first large-scale charts of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Japan, later copied by many other cartographers. His chart of the northwestern coast of Africa is executed using the so-called "plain chart model", where observed latitudes and magnetic directions were plotted directly into the plane, with a constant scale, as if the Earth were flat. Until the adoption of the Mercator projection charting method, this was Europe's most advanced charting method.
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Atlas of 1570 (Huntington Library, San Marino, USA) • Illustration — Atlas of 1575 (British Library, London) • Illustration — Atlas of 1576

Map of Newfoundland and Labrador made by the Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado in 1576.
Fernão Vaz Dourado · Atlas Universal. 1576.

Map of Newfoundland and Labrador made by the Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado in 1570.
Fernão Vaz Dourado · Atlas Universal. 1570
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1520
Fernão Vaz Dourado was born on 1 January 1520.
1580
Fernão Vaz Dourado died on 1 January 1580.
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2349261: Fernão Vaz Dourado
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Fernão Vaz Dourado”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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