Maps Archive

  • Poverty_map_old_nichol_1889

    Rookery

    Posted on May 23, 2010 | No Comments
    A rookery (also sometimes described as a stew) was the colloquial British English name historically given to a city slum occupied by poor people and frequently also by criminals and prostitutes. Such areas were overcrowded, with low quality housing and little or no sanitation; poorly constructed dwellings were often crammed into...

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  • hic sunt dracones

    hic sunt dracones

    Posted on January 31, 2010 | 2 Comments
    “Here be dragons” is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps. The only known historical use of this phrase is in the Latin form “HC SVNT DRACONES”...

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  • Henry the Navigator

    Henry the Navigator

    Posted on November 2, 2008 | No Comments
    The Infante Henrique, Duke of Viseu (Porto, March 4, 1394 – Sagres, November 13, 1460); pron. IPA: [ẽ'ʁik(ɨ)]), was an infante (prince) of the Portuguese House of Aviz and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire, being responsible for the beginning of...

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  • Christopher Columbus

    Christopher Columbus

    Posted on November 2, 2008 | No Comments
    Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo) (1451 – May 20, 1506) was an Italian navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean—funded by the Spanish crown—led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. Though not the first to reach...

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  • Dieppe Maps

    Dieppe Maps

    Posted on November 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
    131 The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s. They are large hand-produced maps, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England. The Dieppe school of...

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  • Library of Constantinople

    Library of Constantinople

    Posted on October 29, 2008 | No Comments
    The Library of Constantinople, in the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, was the last of the great libraries of the ancient world. Long after the destruction of the library of Alexandria and the other ancient libraries, it preserved the knowledge of the ancient Greeks...

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  • The 4th Crusade

    The 4th Crusade

    Posted on October 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
    There was something very odd about the 4th crusade (1202-1204). For one – they didn’t head for the Holy Land, choosing instead to go after Constantinople, then Capital of the Byzantine Empire. Which was virtually entirely christian at the time, it was seen as one...

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  • Piri Reis Map

    Piri Reis Map

    Posted on September 27, 2008 | No Comments
    In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin. Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century. His passion was cartography. His...

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