Enjoy our educational map series every Sunday night! Eighteenth and 19th century technologies transformed the way the night sky was observed and led to the discovery of celestial wonders, from stars, galaxies, meteors, moons, planets and comets, to nebulae. The result was, in part, the creation of celestial maps that showed an exponential number of […]
Archive | Ancient Maps
RSS feed for this sectionEducational Map Series: More to discover from an Ortelius Classic
22
Apr
Enjoy our educational map series every Sunday night! According to Philip D. Burden, in his book entitled, The Mapping of North America: 1671-1700, Peruuiae avriferae regions typus, “is one of the very few maps printed in the sixteenth century that was based upon original Spanish sources…. The first regional map of the south-eastern portion of […]
Educational Map Series: The Brave Map Depicting the new Continent
08
Apr
Did you know that before this map Europeans believed that the world was divided into only three parts? They knew a world divided into Europe, Asia, and Africa. This ambitious project served to document and update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries of explorers in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and in […]
Educational Map Series: Manhattan 1638- the first true map of Manhattan Island!
18
Feb
This beautiful manuscript map is the work of Dutch cartographer and watercolorist Joan Vinckeboons, published in 1639. Vinckeboons came from a family of artists and started out drawing for his father. Around 1640, he got into map-making and is known for his beautiful watercolor manuscript maps of the East and West Indies. His stunning works […]
EDUCATIONAL MAP FEATURE : THE LOST MAP OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE
04
Feb
Originally produced by Dutch cartographer and engraver Nicola van Sype, and perhaps published in Antwerp in 1581, La herdike enterprise faict par le Signeur Draeck D’Avoir cirquit toute la Terre is believed to be drawn from a copy of the Queen’s map, also known as the “Whitehall Map,” a large scale map that Francis […]
Catalan Atlas: Portolan Meets Mappa Mundi
20
Jun
Referred to as one of the last great mappa mundis before the emergence of ptolemic maps in the 15th century, the Catalan Atlas was produced in 1375, with the originals in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library of France) in Paris today. The creator of the Catalan Atlas is believed to be the Majorcan […]
The story of old maps
13
Jun
Mapmaking or cartography has been a part of our world’s history since ancient times. In truth, many specialists agree that map making had its beginning with cave paintings. However, the oldest known maps are carved on Babylonian clay tablets dating to about 2300 B.C. These maps were considered extremely advanced in Old World Greece. In […]
Hereford Mappa Mundi
06
Jun
This great, detailed, and elaborately decorated mappa mundi is believed to be the only surviving complete example of a medieval wall map of the world. It is housed in Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England. The precise date and creator of this mappa mundi is unknown, but speculations have filled that void. Some scholars believe that […]
The Portolan Mystery: Carte Pisane Antique Map
30
May
The Portolan Mystery: Carte Pisane The mystery that is Carte Pisane Antique Map is one of the most important documents in the history of navigation. The Carte Pisane is the earliest surviving portolan chart that is speculated to have been drawn between 1290 and 1300, and is now located in the Bibliothèque Nationale Library […]
The Sawley Mappa Mundi c.1190 Antiquarian Map
11
Mar
The Sawley Mappa Mundi c.1190 Modern eyes look for maps to be topographical with large-scale detail, contour lines, and accurate graphic representation of natural and cultural features of a region. They tend to serve as significant points of reference and as a navigation tool. These are the types of maps that generally make sense […]
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