Current Postgraduate Students
Mr Kevin Sheehan
PhD Research Student in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Extended Hours Supervisor in the Library
Biography
PhD research: Portolan charts are medieval navigation maps dating from c. 1290 AD to the sixteenth century and were created by Italian, Catalan and Mallorcan cartographers for their merchant clients. In form they are quite accurate outlines of the Mediterranean, Black Sea, northwest African coast and Western European coasts with hundreds of port names (toponyms) in accurate locations. My PhD concerns the palaeographic, linguistic, historic, and cultural investigation and analysis of these toponyms with regards to the development of medieval navigation.