Researcher Warps Waldseemüller For Historical Insights

Library of Congress researcher blogs about scientific method, historical accuracy

John Hessler is a researcher whose interests run to the application of analytical methods to historcally significant cartography. In his new blog, Warping Waldseemüller, he discusses what he finds along the way.

In its most current entry, he applies cartometric principles to the Waldseemüller 1516 Carta Marina and seems to strongly suggest that this map was a portolan chart despite it being a printed document, citing two conclusions: the Mediterranean is rotated 7.6 degrees, and the tip of Brittany aligns with the location of Venice. These are two features which are common to portolans, which the layman knows as the antique maps with the network of lines crisscrossing the seas and limited land detail.

There are places where the layman may fall behind; this is, after all, the exploration of a researcher well versed in statistical and analytical science. But if one has an interest in the quantities of historical maps and what they may teach us, it may warrant follwing along.

The address is http://warpinghistory.blogspot.com.