Antique Maps and Atlases

Cartography (from Greek χάρτης chartis, "map"; and γράφειν graphein, "write"

, or mapmaking, has been an integral part of the human story for a long time, possibly up to 8,000 years. From cave paintings to ancient maps of Babylon, Greece, and Asia, through the Age of Exploration, and on into the 21st century, people have created and used maps as the essential tools to help them define, explain, and navigate their way through the world.

Mapping represented a significant step forward in the intellectual development of human beings and it serves as a record of the advancement of knowledge of the human race, which could be passed from members of one generation to those that follow in the development of culture. Maps began as two dimensional drawings. Although that remains the nature of most maps, modern graphics have enabled projections beyond that.

1. Antique map of Southern Hemisphere by Habrecht

2. Antique map of America by Blaeu

3. Antique map of Guinea by Hondius

4. Antique map of America by Münster

Medieval maps and the Mappa Mundi

Medieval maps in Europe were mainly symbolic in form along the lines of the much earlier Babylonian World Map. Known as Mappa Mundi (cloth of the world) these maps were circular or symmetrical cosmological diagrams representing the Earth's single land mass as disk-shaped and surrounded by ocean.[5]

Roger Bacon's investigations of map projections and the appearance of portolano and then portolan charts for plying the European trade routes were rare innovations of the period. The Carta Pisana portolan chart, made at the end of the 13th century (1275–1300), is the oldest surviving nautical chart (that is, not simply a map but a document showing accurate navigational directions)

5. Antique map of Anemographica by Lotter

6. Antique map of South East Asia by Jansson

7. Antique map of World by van Schagen

8. Antique map of North Pole / Arctic by Mercator

Gerardus Mercator (1569)

Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594) was a Flemish cartographer who in his quest to make the world “look right” on the maps invented a new projection, called the Mercator projection. The projection was mathematically based and the Mercator maps gave much more accurate maps for world-wide navigation than any until that date. As in all cylindrical projections, parallels and meridians are straight and perpendicular to each other. In accomplishing this, the unavoidable east-west stretching of the map, is accompanied by a corresponding north-south stretching, so that at every point location, the east-west scale is the same as the north-south scale, making the projection conformal.

The development of the Mercator projection represented a major breakthrough in the nautical cartography of the 16th century. However, it was much ahead of its time, since the old navigational and surveying techniques were not compatible with its use in navigation.The Mercator projection would over time become the conventional view of the world that we are accustomed to today.

9. Antique map of Holland by Anonymous

10. Antique map of Magellanica by Janssonius

11. Antique map of Moluccas by Blaeu

12. Antique map of North Pole / Arctic by Mercator

Diogo Ribeiro map (1527)

World Map by Diogo Ribeiro.

Diogo Ribeiro, a Portuguese cartographer working for Spain, made what is considered the first scientific world map: the 1527 Padrón real [79] The layout of the map (Mapamundi) is strongly influenced by the information obtained during the Magellan-Elcano trip around the world. Diogo's map delineates very precisely the coasts of Central and South America. The map shows, for the first time, the real extension of the Pacific Ocean. It also shows, for the first time, the North American coast as a continuous one (probably influenced by the Esteban Gómez's exploration in 1525). It also shows the demarcation of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

13. Antique map of Virginia by Blaeu

14. Antique map of New Netherland by Allard

15. Antique map of North Atlantic by Ortelius

16. Antique map of America Allegory by Sadeler

First maps of the Americas

The Spanish cartographer and explorer Juan de la Cosa sailed with Christopher Columbus. He created the first known cartographic representations showing both the Americas as well as Africa and Eurasia.

1502: Unknown Portuguese cartographer made the Cantino planisphere, the first nautical chart to implicitly represent latitudes.
1504: Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel made the oldest known nautical chart with a scale of latitudes.
1507: Martin Waldseemüller's World Map was the first to use the term America for the Western continents (after explorer Amerigo Vespucci).[5]
1519 : Portuguese cartographers Lopo Homem, Pedro Reinel and Jorge Reinel made the group of maps known today as the Miller Atlas or Lopo Homem - Reinéis Atlas.

17. Antique map of South and West Africa by Linschoten