The Enigma of the Origin of Portolan Charts

The Enigma of the Origin of Portolan Charts PDF Author: Roel Nicolai
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004285121
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 570

Get Book Here

Book Description
The sudden appearance of portolan charts, realistic nautical charts of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, at the end of the thirteenth century is one of the most significant occurrences in the history of cartography. Using geodetic and statistical analysis techniques these charts are shown to be mosaics of partial charts that are considerably more accurate than has been assumed. Their accuracy exceeds medieval mapping capabilities. These sub-charts show a remarkably good agreement with the Mercator map projection. It is demonstrated that this map projection can only have been an intentional feature of the charts’ construction. Through geodetic analysis the author eliminates the possibility that the charts are original products of a medieval Mediterranean nautical culture, which until now they have been widely believed to be.

The Enigma of the Origin of Portolan Charts

The Enigma of the Origin of Portolan Charts PDF Author: Roel Nicolai
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004285121
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 570

Get Book Here

Book Description
The sudden appearance of portolan charts, realistic nautical charts of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, at the end of the thirteenth century is one of the most significant occurrences in the history of cartography. Using geodetic and statistical analysis techniques these charts are shown to be mosaics of partial charts that are considerably more accurate than has been assumed. Their accuracy exceeds medieval mapping capabilities. These sub-charts show a remarkably good agreement with the Mercator map projection. It is demonstrated that this map projection can only have been an intentional feature of the charts’ construction. Through geodetic analysis the author eliminates the possibility that the charts are original products of a medieval Mediterranean nautical culture, which until now they have been widely believed to be.

The Luso-Hispanic World in Maps

The Luso-Hispanic World in Maps PDF Author: Library of Congress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Caribbean Area
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Charting of the Oceans

The Charting of the Oceans PDF Author: Peter Whitfield
Publisher: Pomegranate Communications
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book from the Peter Whitfield cartographic series traces the history of humankind's relation to the sea as revealed in ten centuries of maritime maps. Presenting sixty maps reproduced in color over double-page spreads, and commentary describing their special features and their significance in the history of navigation, the book explores ancient navigation; the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery; the printed sea chart, 1600-1800; and the modern sea chart.

The Story of Maps

The Story of Maps PDF Author: Lloyd Arnold Brown
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486238733
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 463

Get Book Here

Book Description
"An important and scholarly work; bringing together much information available heretofore only in scattered sources. Easily readable." — Gerald I. Alexander, F.R.G.S. Cartographer, Map Division, New York Public Library. The first authoritative history of maps and the men who made them. The historical coverage of this volume is immense: from the first two centuries A.D. — Strabo and Ptolemy — through the end of the 19th century, with some discussion of 20th-century developments. 86 illustrations. Extensive notes and bibliography. "Mr. Brown felicitously marries scholarship to narrative and dramatic skill." — Henry Steele Commager.

Atlas of Portolan Charts

Atlas of Portolan Charts PDF Author: Visconte de Maggiolo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Atlases, Italian
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Get Book Here

Book Description


Medieval Maps

Medieval Maps PDF Author: P. D. A. Harvey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cartography
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Get Book Here

Book Description
Professor Harvey traces the development of western mapmaking from the early Middle Ages to the first printed maps of the late 15th century, discussing their traditions, artistic and technical aspects, and uses.

Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings

Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings PDF Author: Charles H. Hapgood
Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press
ISBN: 9780932813428
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
Hapgood utilizes ancient maps as concrete evidence of an advanced worldwide civilization existing many thousands of years before ancient Egypt. Hapgood concluded that these ancient mapmakers were in some ways much more advanced in mapmaking than any people prior to the 18th century. Hapgood believes that they mapped all the continents. This would mean that the Americas were mapped thousands of years before Columbus. Antarctica would have been mapped when its coasts were free of ice. Hapgood supposes that there is evidence that these people must have lived when the Ice Age had not yet ended in the Northern Hemisphere and when Alaska was still connected with Siberia by the Pleistocene, Ice Age 'land bridge'.

The Golden Age of Maritime Maps

The Golden Age of Maritime Maps PDF Author: Catherine Hofmann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781770852389
Category : Cartography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Portolan charts, so called from the Italian adjective portolano, meaning 'related to ports or harbours', were born during the 12th century in the maritime community. These charts, drawn on parchment and crisscrossed with lines referring to the compass directions, indicated the succession of ports and anchorages along the shores, and were used by European sailors exploring the world up until the 18th century. Not only used as navigational instruments on boats, they were also produced for wealthy sponsors in the form of illuminated images of the world, to illustrate the economic and political interests of the major European sea powers. This book takes stock of the state of knowledge on these maps, bringing together contributions from a dozen European specialists, who trace the history and diversity of styles and places of production of these charts. This type of mapping is approached from three angles. The first part, 'The Mediterranean', refers to the manufacture and use of the first charts, centred on the Mediterranean, and the persistence of this tradition in the Mediterranean basin until the 18th century. The second part, 'The Open Sea', shows how these regional charts have evolved from a technical and iconographical point of view at the time of the great European voyages, in order to include the oceans and new worlds. The third part, 'The Indian Ocean', shows how these charts, in a maritime area where ancient civilizations coexisted, were dependent on other cartographic traditions (ancient, Arab, Asian) before joining the information reported by Portuguese sailors and European trading companies in the modern era. AUTHORS: Catherine Hofmann, a palaeographic archivist, is chief curator in the Department of Maps and Plans of the National Library of France. She is a board member of the journal Imago Mundi, and has published fifteen articles on the history of cartography in the modern era. Helene Richard, a palaeographic archivist, is a former director of the Department of Maps and Plans at the National Library of France. In addition to her research on the history of books and libraries, she has published works on the history of maritime exploration in the 18th and 19th centuries and the associated nautical science. Emmanuelle Vagnon holds a PhD in history, specialising in maps of the Middle Ages. She is senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Paris. ILLUSTRATIONS: 300 colour illustrations

Fifty Maps and the Stories They Tell

Fifty Maps and the Stories They Tell PDF Author: Jerry Brotton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781851245239
Category : Cartography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
From medieval maps to digital cartograms, this book features highlights from the Bodleian Library's extraordinary map collection together with rare artefacts and some stunning examples from twenty-first-century map-makers. Each map is accompanied by a narrative revealing the story behind how it came to be made and the significance of what it shows. The chronological arrangement highlights how cartography has evolved over the centuries and how it reflects political and social change. Showcasing a twelfth-century Arabic map of the Mediterranean, highly decorated portolan charts, military maps, trade maps, a Siberian sealskin map, maps of heaven and hell, C.S. Lewis's map of Narnia, J.R.R. Tolkien's cosmology of Middle-earth and Grayson Perry's tapestry map, this book is a treasure-trove of cartographical delights spanning over a thousand years.

Mapping Time and Space

Mapping Time and Space PDF Author: Evelyn Edson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
Until recently, medieval maps were often looked upon as quaint, amusing, and quite simply wrong. By comparison the best examples of modern cartography appear to offer a much more accurate record of the world. However, as Professor Edson makes clear in this stimulating book, when seeking the meaning and purpose of maps in the Middle Ages, one cannot assume that they were used for the same purposes or had the same meaning as they do today. In fact, the differences in structure and content give us an intriguing insight into how medieval mapmakers and readers saw their world. By a close study of the context in which the mapmakers produced their work, it can be shown that they were often striving to present -- and make sense of -- a world picture that naturally incorporated key 'events' from the past, at the same time showing a narrative of human spiritual development from the Creation to the Last Judgment. -- From publisher's description.