Items13The creator’s order
  1. 1PtolemyPtolemyPtolemy’s Geography gave readers coordinates for places and instructions for drawing the known world. Later mapmakers could redraw his world from those numbers. Comparing the maps produced from the same text shows what a system of coordinates makes possible and what happens when the underlying…0
  2. 2Muhammad al-IdrisiMuhammad al-IdrisiAl-Idrisi assembled geographical reports for the Norman court in Sicily. The world map associated with his Book of Roger puts south at the top. Turn it around and try locating the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The exercise makes a familiar convention, north at the top, feel…0
  3. 3Fra MauroFra MauroFra Mauro used nautical charts, including one by his collaborator Andrea Bianco, to compile his world map in Venice. He disagreed with Ptolemy’s depiction of the Indian Ocean as enclosed. Look for the notes around Africa: the map lets you read some of the evidence behind a claim about the shape of…0
  4. 4Martin WaldseemüllerMartin WaldseemüllerWaldseemüller’s 1507 world map used the name America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. It grew out of a group project in Saint-Dié that drew on published accounts of Atlantic voyages. The map is worth looking at as a record of who had the means to turn travelers’ reports into names other people would…0
  5. 5Gerardus MercatorGerardus MercatorMercator’s 1569 projection lets a navigator draw a constant compass course as a straight line. Look at how the spacing between parallels grows toward the poles. That change makes the chart useful for plotting a bearing and explains why land near the poles looks so large.0
  6. 6Abraham OrteliusAbraham OrteliusOrtelius brought maps together in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum and included a catalog of his sources. Read the credits alongside the maps. The book makes visible a part of mapmaking that is easy to miss on a single sheet: finding other people’s maps and getting them into a form readers can use…0
  7. 7César-François Cassini de ThuryCésar-François Cassini de ThuryBorn Jun 17, 1714Cassini de Thury presented a map of the triangles used to measure France to Louis XV in 1744. The network gave surveyors a common framework to work from. It also shows how much coordination a national map took, even before its makers could begin to fit the local detail onto separate sheets.0
  8. 8Tupaia (navigator)Tupaia (navigator)The Ra‘iatean navigator Tupaia made a map of Pacific islands with members of the Endeavour expedition. Researchers reconstructing its drafts argue that its directions need to be read from the island a voyage begins at. It is a good map to spend time with if you want to see what changes when…0
  9. 9Inō TadatakaInō TadatakaBorn Feb 11, 1745Inō Tadataka led surveys that became the basis of a detailed map of Japan. The full map appeared in 1821, after his death, through the work of his team. Look at the arrangement of its sheets to see how much walking, measurement, and assembly went into making a coastline legible at that scale.0
  10. 10Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von HumboldtBorn Sep 14, 1769Humboldt proposed connecting places with equal temperatures by drawing lines across a map. An isotherm can cross borders or bend away from a line of latitude. It makes a pattern visible that would be difficult to spot in a table of individual readings.0