the holy alliance between cartography, technology and graphic design

never forget that the paper map is a representation of what was in the retinal representation of the man who made the map. got it?

push the question back and you find an infinite regress, an infinite series of maps!😁

the map above is by the venetian monk Fra Mauro (1450 ad), one of the greatest memorials of medieval cartography.

have you ever designed a map? you'll confront MANY PROBLEMS, as early geogrephers encountered.

Here are five points of modern cartography (the science of making maps)

1- map editing: set the map's agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as regions or political boundaries.

2- map projection: now try to represent the terrain of the mapped object on flat media (this is called geodesics, and projective geometries)

3- map generalization: eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the map's purpose; reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped.

4- map design: orchestrate all these elements to best convey the map's message to your audience.

Piris Reis map of the Mediterranean basin (17th century).

see that in Reis' map there are no toponyms (regions, political divides). you get PURE TOPOGRAPHY (topos and rivers). this map was geared to an audience interested in topography.
 

Henricus Hondius' World Map (1630)

exploration changed the image of the world. methods of circulating projection and projecting them on a flat surface with a minimum of distortion have been devised, notably by Gerard Merchator. 

see that you get the globe divided into two: equator, circumnavigation, etc. pretty good modern globe map!

Ptolemy's map may look weird but it is not! 

Ptolemy was aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of china southward suggests his sources did not reach all the way to the pacific ocean.