This Newly Digitized 16th-Century Planisphere Is the Largest-Known Early Map
In 1587, a Milanese scholar named Urbano Monte created a huge map of the world, drawn with meticulous and colorful detail on 60 sheets of paper. Monte specified that the sheets should be assembled and displayed on a wooden board, but for the past four centuries, they have been bound inside an atlas.
Fortunately, we can now view Monte’s map in the way that he wanted it to be seen and explored. As Claire Voon reports for Hyperallergic, cartography David Rumsey of Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Center has scanned all 60 pages of the map and digitally pieced them together to reveal a vibrant, sophisticated depiction of the Earth’s geography—complete with the occasional unicorn and mermaid.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/explore-continents-islands-and-unicorns-largest-known-early-map-180967871/#IJEbVq630ZlRHvbY.99
