Cartography: An Overview

The treatise, lost save for Ptolemy's critique of it, was the first Roman geographical treatise to include China in its consideration and asserted that the Fortune Islands were the extent of the known world. Ptolemy acknowledged that Marinus's work was a huge source to the Geographica and references him often.

Encompassed known world with place names and longitudinal coordinates estimated from the Fortunate Islands, the westernmost known area of the world. During Ptolemy's time, Roman military power and Roman economy made Europe aware of tracts of land in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Ptolemy's map goes from the British Isles and Denmark in the north (including Sarmatia, modern day Poland and the Ukraine); south of the Horn of Africa (in the east); a mythological source of the Nile in the south; with a confused idea of West Africa, containing misplaced islands and no real sources.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/PtolemyWorldMap.jpg/800px-PtolemyWorldMap.jpg

Roman road map that incorporated parts of Africa and Asia (mostly India). Discovered in the 16th century by German scholars.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/TabulaPeutingeriana.jpg/792px-TabulaPeutingeriana.jpg

Written by Cosmas Indicopleustes, an Alexandrian merchant who sailed the Red and Indian Seas, and provided invaluable historic descriptions of India and Sri Lanka in the 6th century. He also seemed to have personally visited India, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sri Lanka. However, he attempted to refute previous cartographers, mathematicians, and scientists by asserting that the world is flat, not round, and that the sky takes the form of a curved lid over the world. He claimed the earth was modeled on the shape of the tabernacle, the house of worship as described to Moses by God.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/WorldMapCosmasIndicopleustes.jpg

Described initially by Isidore of Sevilla, the T and O map took a more christian representation of the world by drawing the seas as a "t"shape, and the three known continents as the spaces divided within the O by the T. This created a depiction of a cross. The map itself was round, but this could depict either an idea that the earth was disc shaped or an understanding of the earth's roundness. Places and their distances apart could be drawn on the continents themselves. However, this is a markedly symbolic map, and not an accurate geographic representation.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Diagrammatic_T-O_world_map_-_12th_c.jpg

Ibn Hawqal was a Muslim geographer, cartographer, and writer who traveled to many areas that the Greek cartographers had previously said were uninhabitable and chronicled the inhabitants there. His world map is more representative of his travels than it is geographically accurate; however, he appears to be one of the first major cartographers to travel south of the equator and to assert the existence of native people in areas the Greeks had written off.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Ibn_Howqal_World_map.jpg

The Latin version of the Periegesis by Priscian contains this world map. Similar to other maps of the time, particularly Christian ones, it is very symbolic with East at the top although it does not have Jerusalem near the center and there is no indication of any Garden of Eden.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Anglo-Saxon_World_Map_Corrected.png

Beatus of Liebana was an austrian monk and the author of the work Commentary on the Apocalypse. However, the world map is from a 1050 illustrated manuscript of Beatus's work, which no longer exists in its original but has been copied into other existing manuscripts.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Beatus_map.jpg

Central asian scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari, from the Kara-Khanid Khanate, drew a world map centering on the Turks as a part of his compilation "Compendium of the Languages of the Turks."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Kashgari_map.jpg

World map drawn by Islamic cartographer Muhamed al-Idrisi while in the court of Norman king Roger II. It was the most accurate map drawn to date and remained most accurate for some time. It was similar to Ptolemy's world map, with the exception of a greater knowledge of the east coast of China and the addition of the Indian Ocean as an open body of water and not cut off by land, like the Mediterranean. However, he still extended the east coast of Africa, which was odd given that he had knowledge of sailors sailing down past the coast and around the Saudi peninsula. This was another instance of intellectuals such as al-Idrisi preferring to trust the knowledge of their predecessors, such as Ptolemy, over colloquial knowledge of uneducated (although experienced) sailors. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/TabulaRogeriana_upside-down.jpg

One of the largest early world maps, the Ebstorf world map measures about 3 and a half meters squared. The map itself contains religious connotations and symbolism, with the format being an expanded version of the T and O map, with Jerusalem at the center and the east at the top. It was made by Gervase of Ebstorf, arguably the same person as Gervase of Tilbury, author of Otia Imperialia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Ebstorfer-stich2.jpg

Similar to the Ebstorf Mappa Mundi, this map was based on the T and O style and was designed by Richard of Haldingham.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Hereford_Mappa_Mundi_1300.jpg

Drawn by Italian geographer Pietro Vesconte, who was one o the first to map the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea accurately with his nautical charts. His mappa mundi was far more accurate than any of his predecessors', particularly regarding the shape and details of coastlines.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/World_map_pietro_vesconte.jpg

Drawn by Cresques Abraham, a Jewish cartographer and leading member of the Majorcan cartographic school. It was drawn with North at the bottom of the map, and was designed in a mix of styles between the medieval mappa mundi and depictions based on travelers accounts of the time, including Marco Polo's Book of Marvels and Sir John Mandeville's Travels and Voyage.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Catalan-Atlas_-_1.png

China never lost accurate mapping techniques that Europe did in the middle ages, and so once Europe caught up to China's techniques around 1300, the Chinese were able to use more accurate European maps of the Mediterranean to construct a world map. This world map placed China at the center and mapped the Cape of Good Hope before the Europeans would visit it. Earlier versions of the world map were made in the 1320s but the surviving copy is the elaborate one made for the first Ming emperor.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Da-ming-hun-yi-tu.jpg

The "Map of Integrated Lands and Regions in Historical Countries and Capitals" was made in Korea as a part of the Joseon Dynasty's cultural projects. It uses Chinese cartographic techniques combined with western knowledge from Islamic scholars in the Mongol Empire. It is better known to the West than Da Ming Hun Yi Tu, although both are very similar with the exception of Korea's enlargement in the Kangnido map. It also has improved information of Japan, although the islands themselves are not positioned or scaled correctly. According to some scholars, the map is superior to any found in Europe before the end of the 1400s, due to its accuracy and the land it encompasses.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/KangnidoMap.jpg

Part of the Atlas for Charles V of Spain, the Viladestes Chart depicts Africa in detail, and highlights what it refers to as a "River of Gold" crossing West Africa and joining the Nile (incorrectly).
http://images.bridgemanart.com/cgi-bin/bridgemanImage.cgi/400wm.XIR.929850.7055475/55750.jpg

Abertinus de Virga, a Venetian cartographer, made this map and a 1409 Mediterranean map. This world map contains the circular geographic representation, a calendar, and two tables.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/DeVirgaDetail.jpg

The map, said to be a 1763 copy of a 1418 map, has evidence both for and against it being proof of Zheng He's trip to the New World. It is surprisingly detailed, and shows the coast of California although it mistakes California to be an island and not a contiguous part of the new world. However, the fact that the map is not centered on China, and that it resembles a French 17th century world map in some of its other errors, have convinced some experts that the map is a fake. The map does match up very exactly with the accounts of his voyages that Zheng He wrote; however, a falsified map would make an effort to do the same. Essentially, the map is part of a controversy over the extent of China's exploration beyond their borders in the 15th century.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/images/060123_chinese_map_big.jpg

Part of Andrea Bianco's atlas of 1436. The atlas contained extensive navigation charts, other diagrams, and the circular world map. The map is potentially the first to portray Florida correctly, as there is a peninsula attached to an island labeled Antillia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Biancomap.jpg

Based on Niccolo da Conti's accounts of his travels (rather than Marco Polo's), the map is more reasonably proportioned than other European maps. The author is unknown. Interestingly enough, the map shows a three-masted ship (a European invention) in the Indian Ocean, an event that had not yet occurred.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Genoese_map.jpg
The ship in question:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Genoese_map_Indian_Ocean.jpg

Made in venice, the map is a circular planisphere meaning it is a projection of the earth, a sphere, onto a plane showing the sphere's appearance at a particular place/time. Made by Fra Mauro, a venetian monk, and his assistant Andrea Bianco who had previously made a world map in 1436.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/FraMauroMap.jpg

Heavily influenced by Ptolemy (despite later, more accurate maps and accounts that existed at this time) this map was similar to the terrestrial globe by Martin Behaim in 1492. It show's Dias's voyage around the Cape.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272921-093BA55C000005DC-175_634x426.jpg

The oldest surviving globe of the Earth, it was constructed by Martin Behaim in 1492. Erdapfel (meaning 'earth apple' or 'earth potato' in German) was made of a ball of linen, laminated and reinforced with wood before being overlaid by a map painted by Georg Glockendon. It is rife with inaccuracies, leaving out the Americas entirely and enlarging the Asian islands and Japan. It may depict the Caribbean islands under the name of Saint Brendan's Island, a mythical creation.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Behaims_Erdapfel.jpg

Centering circularly on China, with provincial names and markers written in Chinese. China is shown as the Middle Kingdom, and other continents and countries surround its edges with only simple illustrations and a name to denote them. It is doubtful that the map was made for accuracy, but rather it depicts important elements of China, including China's central nature to the world.

Juan de la Cosa was a Spanish cartographer and conquistador, as well as the owner and captain of the Santa María in Columbus's first and second voyage to the Americas. His map is the first known European map including the Americas.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/1500_map_by_Juan_de_la_Cosa-North_up.jpg

This is the earliest surviving map that includes Portuguese discoveries of the Americas and in the east. Although Portuguese, it is named after Alberto Cantino who smuggled it to Italy for the Duke of Ferrara. The map notably includes a partial record of the Brazilian coastline, discovered by Pedro Álvares Cabral who was not sure whether the land was connected to the land encountered farther north by Spanish explorers, or if it was an island. The map also includes Florida, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Cantino_Planisphere.jpg

Hand drawn by Nicolay de Caneri, it was probably copied by Nicolay in Genoa from a similar map, the Cantino map. It includes the east coast of North America with more detail than would be expected.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Caverio_map_medium_res.jpg

Although not as widely published as Ruysch world map, the Contarini-Rosselini map was the first to show the New World, though not in line with Columbus's ideas about his discoveries.
http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/Ren/Ren1/308B.jpeg

Johannes Ruysch, from the "Low Countries" of northwest Europe (the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium) made the second oldest map of the New World. It was also publicly published and distributed. The form of the map is in Ptolemy's coniform projection, which projects the world as seen from above onto a flattened cone. The map contains information from Spanish, Portuguese, along with the misconceptions accompanying those accounts (for example, connecting Cuba and Newfoundland to Asia.) It also contains information from Marco Polo's account, but fails to represent difference between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, and equates Japan and Hispaniola. However, it is generally a good amalgam of all known accounts of the time of unexplored or little explored areas.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Ruysch_map.jpg

After years of study and collecting data from various other maps, explorers, and historical accounts, cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann put together a collective work and world map. The map included the title "America" on the New World, suggesting that Amerigo Vespucci's discovery of the continent had more claim to its title than Columbus's encountering the West Indies. The map is rich in detail and as much accuracy as was generally available at the time.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Waldseemuller_map_2.jpg

Made by Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis, only a third of the map survives but shows the costs of Europe and North America with a degree of accuracy, as well as the coast of Brazil. The map extends the American continent south-eastward from what was definitively known at the time, which some have claimed suggests at least some awareness of Antarctica, though this is controversial. Others suggest that the extension depicts South America all the way to Cape Horn, which was secretly explored by Portuguese navigators before 1507. The land mass could have been bent south-east to fit the size of parchment Piri Reis was working with.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Piri_reis_world_map_01.jpg

Depicts Asia extended south, the last vestige of Ptolemy's idea of a landlocked Indian Ocean, 1500 years earlier.

First world map that used latitude observations to map locations more accurately. The map's layout is influenced by the Magellan-Elcano world trip. The map fails to include Australia or Antarctica, and the Indian subcontinent is too small; however, the coasts of central and south america are precise and accurate, and it shows the Pacific Ocean properly extended. It is considered the first scientific world map.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Worldmap_1529-Ribero.jpeg

Summarizes discoveries and cartographic innovations of past 75 years.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01624/map7_1624377i.jpg

Gerardus Mercator introduced this cylindrical map projection which would become the world standard known as the Mercator projection. The projection distorts the size and shape of large objects while keeping smaller ones preserved, as well as preserving angles. The map was created to be used for marine navigation.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Mercator_1569.png

Appeared in a world map of 1570, done by Jean Cossin of Diepe. The Sinusoidal projection is pseudo-cylindrical and is an equal-area projection, meaning the projection shows sizes correctly but angles and orientations can be distorted.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Usgs_map_sinousidal_equal_area.PNG

Made by Abraham Ortelius and printed in Antwerp, this was the first modern atlas to be produced. It is sometimes considered a summary of 16th century cartography, containing a source list and a series of maps that were based on sources that are rare or no longer existent.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/OrteliusWorldMap1570.jpg

Depicts China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula without much accuracy, but includes illustrations of traditionally "asian" architecutre (pagodas). The geography of China is less confused than Japan and Korea; however, the placement of the major rivers is incorrect. He also writes accurately about Central America, the Middle East, and other areas of the world.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Fern%C3%A3o_Vaz_Dourado_1571-1.jpg/781px-Fern%C3%A3o_Vaz_Dourado_1571-1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Fern%C3%A3o_Vaz_Dourado_1570-1.jpg/778px-Fern%C3%A3o_Vaz_Dourado_1570-1.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Fern%C3%A3o_Vaz_Dourado_1575-1.jpg/796px-Fern%C3%A3o_Vaz_Dourado_1575-1.jpg

http://www.1worldglobes.com/images/Globes/RV-17802.jpg

Created by Hendrik Hondius and published in Amsterdam, this map was a part of the atlas Atlantis Maioris. It was the first map to show Australia that was made publicly available.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Nova_totius_Terrarum_Orbis_geographica_ac_hydrographica_tabula_%28Hendrik_Hondius%29_balanced.jpg

Different aspect of the Mercator construction, focusing on the poles and not the equator in its accuracy.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/MercTranSph.png

Invented by Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill, the map allows all continents to be uninterrupted while remaining true to shape, size, and form. The butterfly projection can ideally be wrapped into a ball or flattened from a ball.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Cahill_Butterfly_Map.jpg

Developed as an alternative to the Mercator projection, the projection has equal-area properties and similar distortions to the Mercator projection, although the representation of distances between continents is somewhat clearer. Sometimes called the orange-peel projection.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Goode_homolosine_projection_SW.jpg

Created by Buckminster Fuller, this map projection treats the earth as an icosahedron, and preserves continental shape and size while disrupting the contiguity of the globe. Depending on the focus of the projection, the map can show the land masses as nearly contiguous or can focus on the expanse of ocean of the pacific and atlantic.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Dymaxion_map_unfolded.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Dymaxion_map_ocean2.png

Like the Cahill butterfly map, this projection can be folded into a sphere and is linked in one of the oceans, typically the north Pacific or north Atlantic. Waterman's design is based on his work with packing spheres
http://vis.berkeley.edu/courses/cs294-10-fa07/wiki/images/b/bd/800px-Waterman_Butterfly_Map_1996.jpg