The History of Mapping
Some from of mapmaking-whether scrbbles in sand, measurements on chiseled stone, or sacred geography in songs and art-is common to all cultures, The earliest surviving maps and charts come from ancient Babylonia and Egypt. By the third millennium B, C., both possessed the necessary mathematical and mapping, Babylonian cartography was mostly peactical, whereas Egyptian maps rendered mythical lands and routes to the afterlife.
The Greeks laid the scientific foundation of Western cartography while investigating the nature of the Earth and the universe. The Romans mostly mapped properties, town plans, and roads. At the same time, the Chinese incorporated art and verbal narrative into their maps, yet they also were concerned with millitary planning and state security. japan and Korea tended to rely on china for their world maps, adding themselves to the fringes.
Religious cartography held sway in the middle Ages, although the Arabs maintained classical intellectual traditions and developed their own Islamic mapmaking traditions as well.
The invention of the printing press and the rediscovery of ptolemy's Guide to Geography sparked a revival in scientific cartography in western Europe. accelerated by voyages by the spanish and portuguese to Africa, the Americas, and the spice Islands. The French became the first to conduct an official national land survey, producing 182 map sheets by 1787. The British adapted Frenchtechniques to produce the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in the early 19th century.
- Ortelius & Mercator, Pioneering Mapmakers
As a young man, flemish scholar and geographer Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) was known for skillfully illuminating manuscripts and for his collection of books and coins. Once established as a cartographer, he revolutionized the Renaissance world with the publication in 1570 of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or Theater of the World. It is known as the first modern atlas.
The Theatrum proved a huge success and helped transfer the center of the European map trade from Rome and Venice to Antwerp, his home Some 7,300 copies were printed in 31 editions and seven languages and sold at a cost equivalent to about $ 1,630 today, making Ortelius very wealthy.
The Theatrum included a one-page reduction of the world projection drawn by Ortelius's friend and fellow flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594). first published in 1569, Mercator's projection was designed to aid navigation. With all lines of latitude and longitude depicted as staight lines, mariners could more easily plot a course over along distance.
Despite its original nautical purpose, the Mercator projection, with modifications, became a standard two-dimensional representation of the world until well into the 20th century. Generations of school childrens have studied Mercator's projection, which led them to believe that Greenland and africa were roughly the same size-although Africa is in fact some 14 times larger.
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