Map Research

Mapping has been used for hundreds of years and has gradually become more and more accurate the more human beings travelled and discovered. The map we have today is the most accurate thanks to satellites, but I find it more interesting how people in the past thought the world looked like.

Some maps were drawn on animal skin, such as the map made by the Chukchi people which was made on sealskin. The symbols on the map were used to represent activities, for instance there are boats and people farming.

In medieval maps there is a depiction of spatial relationships between landmarks such as rivers, islands and mountains. This is an medieval map of the holy land by the Genoese Pietro Vesconte who also provided plans of Arce and Jerusalem. The map the map is circular suggesting that they just focused on a section. It is also decorated with writing and colour, making it aesthetically pleasing as well as informative to the reader of the time. The fictional map of The Lord of the Rings called Middle Earth holds a similar style to the medieval maps with how they include mountains and symbols that represent certain places.

Dating from the Tang dynasty era (618-906 BCE), this is a Chinese star chart of the night sky on the northern hemisphere. It is divided  into 12 sections according to the stations of Jupiter. Like the medieval map, as a drawing it is pleasing to look at.

This world map was made in 1459 by Fra Mauro who was commissioned by Alfonso V.King of Portugal. It's incredibly confusing and I can't really see what's meant to be what. However, it's extremely decorative and stunning to look at. It is probably because it's for the king why it is embellished with gold. Again there is a use of a circle - is it a good way of framing?

The Babylonian world map from around 600 BCE is very different to the last world map. Its only similarities is that it's drawn in a circle and is decorated. This map is carved in stone and has kept with very basic shapes to represent things. It shows the relationship between the Babylonion world and the legendary regions that are beyond the oceans - is it spiritual?

The Hereford Mappa Mundi was made in the 1290s. It includes the Holy Land in the centre and is highly decorative with small icons representing places, sentences and a circular border. Having the Holy Land in the centre shows that the map and the people who wanted the map are religiously focused.

In 1360, a map of Britain was made by Gough and was name the Gough map. The east of Britain was the most accurate, whereas the west was rather mis-shaped. Scotland on the other hand was completely inaccurate. The map might of been used for official use as it gave an effective route map. I think that the west and Scotland might of been hard to map as there are more fields and hills so it might of been hard to measure the distances between things - not enough spatial relations.

The Catalan Atlas from 1375 was the most accurate of it's time. It used information from Marco Polo who visited Africa and Asia. Like other maps of its time it still included lots of biblical references from the bible in its illustrations. The illustrations would follow the edges of the land, changing its direction. Even in the oceans it had illustrations.

Here's a map of America made in 1686. It's full of colour and different colours are used to separate countries. The illustrations are very strong as they used both reality and mythological subjects: ships, sea monsters and  Poseidon. Like the other maps it is very decorated. In this map it also charts the sea and includes lines coming from compasses and also a black and white line for the equator. Also, to add to the chaos there are small paragraphs of writing put all around the map. Is writing a decoration?

The map of Europe which was made in 1554 by Mercator however, it a lot more clearer to read as it is a lot less crowded compared to the 1686 American map. It does however include small illustrations such as mountains, trees and waves. I quite like the writing which labels the sea and countries, making it informative, which is its main purpose at the end of the day.

World Chart by Martin Waldeemüller made in 1516, is the only printed version of the world sea chart. The map is put on graph squares and there are formal blocks of writing. Compared to the other maps this has a limited amount of unnecessary illustrations, however it is still present but mainly on land. Could be to do with how this is a sea chart map, so it would need to be informative on the ocean. Features of this map that I like is the darker shade of blue that frames the land: seperates land and sea better.

A continuous thing I have come across in 'The Charting of the Oceans' will be the decorative compasses that are put on the oceans. Sometimes they use the same one across the map, but others would have different ones. The compasses would be used to start the lines across the oceans but not all lines have a compass. In the West Africa map by Linschoten in 1596 They use both examples of using compasses and not having compasses.

In the Atlantic Coast of Portugal map, made by Van Keulen in 1682, there are mainly no compasses. However I did find it interesting how the lines managed to create an optical illusion. I could maybe try and attempt this my self.

Another optical illusion style map is The Arctic by Blaeu in 1662. This time the lines are curved creating another kind of geometric design. This would indeed need a compass to recreate.

From doing my research on maps that already exist, I have many ideas for what I can now do for primary research. Such as using the modern day map but having the old map features like compasses, illustrations and colour. I'll also be trying to find ways to link symbols of extreme weather to the map aswell,so looking at the illustrations they use on maps have helped me get some idea.










Visions of the World: A History of Maps by Jeremy Black
The Charting of the Oceans: Ten Centuries of Maritime Maps by Peter Whitfield