Browsing by subject : Early Atlases, Maps & Images (18th Century & Earlier)

Waldseemuller's Carta Marina of 1516

This exhibit contains a single, but very important historical image, curated by Chet Van Duzer with four DOT stories. The Carta Marina of 1516, was created by Martin Waldseemuller, who is most famous for another map, published in 1507, called "America's Birth Certificate." Based on a talk by Chet Van Duzer from May 2020.Library of Congress images here.Watch Chet Van Duzer’s entire talk from May 2020 on YouTube here.Read the announcement about Chet Van Duzer’s talk here.Read Tom Paper’s summary of the talk here.Read about Martin Waldseemuller here.>>>Link here for a November 20, 2020 talk given by Van Duzer about an unstudied map of the world from 1535. Sponsored by NYU."My book about the Carta marina is actually in Open Access, though the publisher does not make the link easy to find for some strange reason. Here are the details and the link:Van Duzer, Chet, Martin Waldseemüller’s Carta marina of 1516: Study and Transcription of the Long Legends (New York: Springer, 2020) —available in Open Access at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-22703-6"Chet's legend (here) that goes with his book.See also E511 for more detailed maps.keywords: earlymaps

The Excursion of One Who Yearns to Penetrate the Horizons - al-Idrisi - 1250

Maps of the known world, by Arab cartographer, Al-Idrisi, made in 1154 for King Roger II of Sicily. Images from the Library of Congress.The Factum Foundation has an excellent article, referred to me by Sonja Brentjes, describing the maps.https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667394/https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_18418/?st=…From Perplexity: Al-Isidri, also known as ash-Sharif al-Idrisi, was a 12th-century Arab geographer and scientist who wrote one of the great medieval works of descriptive geography[1] He was born in 1100 in Sabtah, which is now Ceuta, and spent much of his early life traveling in North Africa and Spain[1] Al-Isidri's most famous work is the Nuzhat al-mushtāq, which includes a circular world map showing south at the top[2] Commissioned by Roger II, the Norman King of Sicily, in 1138, the manuscript was not completed until 1154[3] Al-Isidri's works contained remarkably precise depictions of Africa and the Nile River[4]keywords: earlymaps

Williams College Portolan Charts - 1660-61

12/10/23 - super excited to be headed back to Williams where I will get to see these maps for the second time. Here’s what I wrote about ten months ago: Portolan charts from around 1660. They were not intended for actual navigation but were instead likely used by a wealthy family either for display or for teaching their children. I put this together exhibit in January 2023 while I was teaching a class at Williams College. My thanks to Anne Peale and the Williams College Special Collections. They allowed me to shoot these images in the reading room of the Chapin Library.Image below is of me and Simon Kent, Williams class of '03, during our photoshoot.https://specialcollections.williams.edu/ keywords: earlymaps