You actually did have to sail a long way southwest to reach Madrid in those days, due to the currents and prevailing winds. It’s the same reason de Gama almost had to sail to South America to reach the Cape of Good Hope.
Those are rhumb lines (lines of constant bearing), I think. Loads of old maps had them, but I’ve never been quite sure what the point of them was. Presumably so that you could easily eyeball the bearing from one place to another, by comparing to the lines on the map?
The ones on this map look pretty arbitrary, though.
The more I look at it, the more I realize that it’s a pretty decent map for 1522. Not for a seafarer or general maybe, but it’s probably a major improvement over the average person’s idea of what the world looked like at the time.
I think you’d be surprised at how good maps could be by that time.
Not really. It’s pretty good regarding the shape of Africa, he has the Caspian sea, the Red Sea, etc…so it wasn’t drawn by an ignoramus. And then you have this absurdly bad depiction of Europe. As someone pointed out, the guy knows there’s an island called Madagascar south east of Africa, and another (Ceylon) south east of India but he has no clue how many islands there are in the British isles?. That’s just weird.
My best guess : someone began the drawing, depicting Africa, etc… and for some reason someone else had to finish the job and put his best guess at what Europe looked like or relied on another pretty bad map of Europe to do so.
It has a lot more detail, drawn with a more precise style, but it’s not incredibly more accurate. But I have to admit that aside from including America earlier maps could have been more accurate than those about the known world.
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Was this map a woodcut or pen & ink? I can’t imagine getting this kind of detail in a wood cut . . . which leads me to believe it’s a pen & ink copy of an older woodcut, complete with “America” and areas of faux wood grain.
I’ve been handed maps by tourist agencies that were less accurate than that one. It was probably not intended to be usable by navigators, but only as an artistic representation, or to show the approximate locations of geographical places that ordinary people might have been familiar with the names of. Just because a person had access to paper and cartographic tools, does not mean that he possessed the skills to use them, even though his work might have been the equivalent of what a school kid’s mom might stick onto the refrigerator, and somehow mysteriously survive for centuries.
The “Barry Lawrence” map is actually much more accurate than it appears at first because it uses an unfamiliar map projection, as well as some artistic license to deal with the distortion. A map projection is a way of portraying the spherical globe on a flat surface.
The North and South Poles are both shown flat in the plane of the map. The North pole is shown directly above the text “Mere congelitum”, and the South Pole beneath Madagascar. The lines of latitude, which curve around the earth, are shown perfectly straight, which causes more distortion.
Adding to the confusion, the map maker uses a different “Prime Meridian” than we commonly use today. Today’s meridian passes through Greenwich, England, whereas in this map, “zero degree longitude” passes through the “mare hirae”, which I think is the Black Sea. This is possibly an Ottoman/Turkish map centered on Istanbul.
Istanbul is at approximately 25 degrees latitude using today’s system. Thus the 30* degree west longitude line on the Lawrence map passing though Ireland and clipping Scotland would correspond to modern 5* degrees west longitude that actually passes though this area (“modern” descriptor being used only for convenience).
Maps are created for a purpose, and depending on the purpose, show different information. My guess is that this is a trade map of some sort, vaguely representing political jurisdictions rather than strict geographic features. The lines of latitude and longitude, projected as straight lines, can be used to estimate travel distances for merchants. The projection used would distort features even if they were drawn geometrically correctly.
I’d image it the map maker was looking at classical representations, such as England and Scotland as two distinct islands, while incorporating new information about America. It would be an attempt to make his map a work of classical grandeur. Ottoman merchants would want to feel connected to Istanbul’s Roman roots, and would use such a map for the most basic of reference. Specialized maps would be used by the actual navigators delivering products.
It is a beautiful map and I will get a reproduction for my collection eventually.
I like the calligraphy.
By all means get the reproduction. The Philadelphia Print Shop lists original print copies for $9,500, but that includes framing.
Oh my, that is a bit steep. But, nevertheless it is quite lovely.
I may have to change some of budgetary determinants for the year in order to afford this.