Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
washingtonpost.com
Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#2John Hessler's blog, where he actually discusses methods for the cartographic analysis mentioned in the article, can be found here: http://warpinghistory.blogspot.com/
Here's a sample map made by the mapmaker Mateo Prunes (3200x1800): http://fglorente.org/zen/albums/mapas/Mateo%20Prunes.gif
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#3The article speculates about Roman or Phoenician maps that might have been lost, but makes no mention of the more probable Arab influence. This is just my naive guess, but wasn't Arab mathematics and astronomy the state-of-the-art of the time and also probably Arabs had the most detailed information about the mediteranean region at that time.
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#4The article speculates about Roman or Phoenician maps that might have been lost, but makes no mention of the more probable Arab influence. This is just my naive guess, but wasn't Arab mathematics and astronomy the state-of-the-art of the time and also probably Arabs had the most detailed information about the mediteranean region at that time.
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Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#5John Hessler's blog, where he actually discusses methods for the cartographic analysis mentioned in the article, can be found here: http://warpinghistory.blogspot.com/ Here's a sample map made by the mapmaker Mateo Prunes (3200x1800): http://fglorente.org/zen/albums/mapas/Mateo%20Prunes.gif
thanks for the great link!
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#6The map most discussed in the submitted article was about contemporaneous with Marco Polo, who was preceded as a traveler to China by John of Plano Carpini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_da_Pian_del_Carpine
(ca. 1180 - August 1, 1252). Early Chinese cartography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Chinese_cartography
was sufficiently good to serve as models for the maps mentioned in the submitted article, although the time sequence of interchange between China and the West alone does not prove any Chinese influence on the European maps.
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#7The article speculates about Roman or Phoenician maps that might have been lost, but makes no mention of the more probable Arab influence. This is just my naive guess, but wasn't Arab mathematics and astronomy the state-of-the-art of the time and also probably Arabs had the most detailed information about the mediteranean region at that time.
Not to mention all the other societies in that part of the world going back about 4000 years before that map.
It hardly seems surprising that earlier maps aren't around - by their very nature they tend to get used by people doing things, often quite risky things, so they are bound to get damaged and/or lost.
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#8John Hessler's blog, where he actually discusses methods for the cartographic analysis mentioned in the article, can be found here: http://warpinghistory.blogspot.com/ Here's a sample map made by the mapmaker Mateo Prunes (3200x1800): http://fglorente.org/zen/albums/mapas/Mateo%20Prunes.gif
Thanks for this. It's really quite astounding how good ancient cartography was, given the limitations. For all that we live in very exciting times today - and can communicate in almost real time to discuss such subjects - how thrilling, and slightly scary, it must have been to live in those times and be among the few to have a firm grasp on the fundamentals of science and the natural world.
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#9The map most discussed in the submitted article was about contemporaneous with Marco Polo, who was preceded as a traveler to China by John of Plano Carpini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_da_Pian_del_Carpine (ca. 1180 - August 1, 1252). Early Chinese cartography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Chinese_cartography was sufficiently good to serve as models for the maps mentioned in the submitted article, althou…
Byzantine Empire sends several ambassadors to Tang China, what map did they use?
Re: Library of Congress holds conference on origins of portolan charts
#10The map most discussed in the submitted article was about contemporaneous with Marco Polo, who was preceded as a traveler to China by John of Plano Carpini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_da_Pian_del_Carpine (ca. 1180 - August 1, 1252). Early Chinese cartography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Chinese_cartography was sufficiently good to serve as models for the maps mentioned in the submitted article, althou…
Byzantine Empire sends several ambassadors to Tang China, what map did they use?
They would have likely used a collection of East-is-Up maps to get from destination to destination. The medieval maps were maps, however they were designed to allow you to navigate from natural markings as there was no such thing as a compass, you only had the sun to tell you was going in the right direction. Similarly many of these maps were point A to point B maps, with the destination at the top, you found the path it was describing and simply followed the route.
Notable objects were used to navigate, for instance the Tree of Ténéré is still frequently drawn on maps as it was the only tree for 200km (now it's simply a statue to where the tree once was). It was a key marker for trade caravans.
They would also have likely used a great many of local navigators, as explorers still do today. Our great explorers were merely bumbling idiots who got incredibly lucky in finding amazing local explorers who had lived the land for decades.