Nicole Koman

The Eastern Mediterranean, Bernhard Breydenbach

(Map dated prior to Colombus’s journeys in 1492)

The cartographer of this map was Bermhard Breydenbach who was from Mainz (Germany). He brought along an artist named Erhard Reuwich. This reason for this was because he made the map so that it had an artistic feel, with pictures throughout it. They traveled to the Eastern Mediterranean by going through Venice and then Rhodes. This map shows many regions (Lebanon, Alexandria, Egypt, Mecca, Arabia, Damascus, Syria, and the Holy Land). However the Holy Land is drawn completely out of scale and takes up one third of the map. Jerusalem is drawn with the most color and includes the most greenery compared to the places on the rest of the map. Also, Jerusalem is pictured in the direct center of the map. All of these observations help show and/or prove that the Holy Land is the main focus of the map. I found it interesting how it mentioned in the description that the map is drawn with west at the top instead of east. Our group thought that the possible audience could be religious people who wanted to see the ground view of the holy land but couldn’t get there to see it in person. This map was drawn with great details. It reminds one of a pretty painting. It looks as it was written from the perspective of a hill.

            This is an early try at depicting what the description refers to as “empirical geographic data on a printed map”. This means that the map was based on or verifiable by observation or experience instead of theory or pure logic. Overall, we found this map very interesting and an example of a beginning new map drawing technique.

Abraham Ortelius: Map of the Pacific and New Guinea

                                                            Niko Pellette

This map inscribed by Abraham Ortelius in 1589 has many noticeable unique traits that pertain to the era and thoughts of the time period. The map is centered on the western seaboard of the Americas as well as the Eastern seaboard of Asia and everything else in between. Several things struck me about this map, such as the Massive size of New Guinea. This is explainable considering the dense jungle would have taken an extended period of time to cross, thus creating the allusion that the island is in fact the size of a continent. Another aspect that struck me was the sprawling size of Australia, and its similarity to Antarctica in shape. This was probably due to the lack of exploration to this Continent as it is rather large. This rather inaccurate map was intended for personal use and some other European explorers, however it did not gain any prominence. Then in the 1760s European geographers discovered the map and it became very influential. The map also sheds light on the common cultural language of the time period as well as European perceptions of the area. For example, The Japanese isles were known as “Las Islas de Plata” in Spanish, translating into “ Silver Islands” and thus reflecting the global flow of silver during the time period and Japan’s influence in the Silver trade. One commonality throughout the map is that unexplored areas are often relatively enormous compared to the surrounding explored areas, due to the cartographer’s liberality with the map making.

Queen of the World                                                                        Bel Richey

The map we chose from the period of the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century does not even look like a map at first glance. It looks like a nicely drawn lady with a crown of some sort, but if it is turned sideways the onlooker realizes it is a map of Europe with different features of the lady being countries. Because she is wearing a crown, we can assume she is a queen of some sort. The cartographer of the map was Simon Petri, and it was drawn in 1580. This map, however, is not extremely accurate, so one can assume that it serves more of an artistic purpose than a practical, navigational one. The audience, in this case, would be people in the upper class who appreciate art and would understand the symbolism. The farther West in Europe the higher the countries become on the queen. This shows, quite literally, the West’s rise to power. It also shows the prominence of the Iberian Peninsula at the time, as it is so far North. In addition, in numerous psychological studies people have shown a preference to northern countries, regardless of ever hearing of the countries in question. This map is playing into the belief that the north is better and therefore putting farther west countries at the top of the queen. The common cultural language of this map is that Western Europe is the ruler of the world. However, Britain is not even part of the queen and is merely the flag on her scepter. At this point in history England wasn’t ruling as much of the world and Jamestown wasn’t established yet (it would be seventeen years later in 1607), so Britain was not viewed as prominent threat to Spain and Portugal’s spot in the West. Britain may even be viewed as irrelevant at that point in time. This map is a reflection of the West’s position of power and the audience is the aristocrats of Western Europe.