Drinago – Belgrade in Medieval Portolan Maps

Abstract

The strange name of the city of Drinago first appeared on Angelino Dalorto’s “portolan” map from 1325. In later “portolans” made by other cartographers, the name continues to be used. In terms of its geographical location, the city of Drinago in question corresponds to Belgrade. The name Drinago itself is a distorted variant of the Latin-Hungarian name of the city “Alba de Nander” > “Denader” > “Drinago”. It is especially interesting that Dalorto placed above the city an image of a flag with the monogram “Ш” of the ruling Bulgarian dynasty of the Shishmanids. This shows that, around 1325 when the map was drawn, Belgrade was under the rule of Tsar Michael Shishman. This is indirectly confirmed by a letter of Pope John XXII from 1329 to the Bishop of Belgrade, in which he mentions that the city is under the rule of the Bulgarian Empire. Thus, the information on the map is confirmed by the Pope’s letter.