More Mapping!

Returning to this topic at last!

In the past, I blogged about sites themed around specific topics (women in cartography, for instance). This time, I have in front of me several index cards with questions I was looking into at one point. I’m not at all sure what I originally found, but with the aid of the modern internet, let’s see what I can dig up!

How did the invention of the printing press affect the accuracy of map copies?

Well, obviously it made production a lot easier than hand-drawing. According to “The Impact of the Printing Press on Map Distribution” over at Lost Cartography:

“Prior to the advent of the printing press, maps were considered valuable possessions, meticulously preserved in monasteries and royal collections. They were not easily accessible to the general public.”

I strongly suggest starting with this article to find out more answers to this question. It has a ton of fascinating information, including the effect on European cities like Venice and Paris, how printed maps affected exploration, and notes on specific presses such as the ones in Mexico City and Goa.

I wound up on a side trip down a rabbit hole around Doctor Fautus — take a look at this essay about how printing press technology is central to Marlowe’s famous tale of magic and necromancy (might be behind a library-access wall)

There’s an audio version of “The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe”, by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, here (definitely behind a library-access wall):

By the way, if “library-access wall” sounds scary — it’s really not! If you have a library card, or are a student anywhere, you have access — just log into your account and do a search for the title in the research area — not the same as the collection search. Most library sites have an FAQ or easy access to a librarian to help you figure out how to do this. Here’s a good place to start for general information.

Another book that looks like a good read on this topic is “Printing a Mediterranean World: Florence, Constantinople, and the renaissance of geography” by Sean E. Roberts. It’s available behind a college-library wall for free download. Harvard University Press offers it for $64 at the time of this post, and Amazon has it on Kindle at a slightly lower price. I’ve downloaded it already; I’ll let you know what I think of it!

So I haven’t answered that question, quite, but there’s a starting direction to work with. So for now — moving on to another question!

When was latitude/longitude developed?

Skipping right past Wikipedia, because anyone can look at that, brings me to The Royal Observatory of Greenwich and “The quest for longitude and the rise of Greenwich — a brief history”.

I’ll pause here to note that I officially Becoming Old. I have to increase the writing size on a lot of these web sites because it’s too hard to read. Alas! Alack! and so on. Ctrl+ is my friend.

Now, if anyone’s inclined to sideways into clock history and how it intersects with navigation, look no further: The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation has you covered with “Invention, Time, and Navigation.”

Side note: they actually tried pendulum clocks at sea. Look at “Huygen’s 1688 Report … on the Measurement of Longitude at Sea…”

Also, check your local library for the book “Einstein’s Clocks and Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time” by Peter Galison; that one looks like a really neat side trip.

Coming baaaack to the question…

Latitude came first, based on the location of the Pole Star (oh, there’s another rabbit hole, apparently the North Star is NOT always the Pole Star — no, no, stay on track, argh!).

Longitude was harder to find, according to the Greenwich link above, as well as “The Longitude Problem” on the Smithsonian. They tried using stars, they tried using clocks, and finally managed to combine the two for a workable answer. Behold: the chronometer!

The one part that really stands out to me is that all of this development was possible through huge grants thrown around by Britain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Venetian Republic. Of course it’s not the only time (sorry) that governments funded massive innovation, but it always reminds me of how critical such funding has been across history. In this age of uncertain scientific funding, I think that’s worth remarking on.

That’s enough for today. The stack of notes and questions on my desk doesn’t even show a dent yet, so I’ll be back with more posts on mapping. I hope you enjoyed this one. Feel free to post comments on what you liked, disliked, or found down the various rabbit holes!