I was wondering this evening what sort of map Marco Polo might have used when he made his epic journeys in the late 1200s. Turns out, there's an entire blog (no longer active) devoted to medieval mapping, including many entries on Marco Polo. It seems he might well have used a portolan chart, perhaps one something like this:
Christopher Columbus, on the other hand, is now thought to have been guided by a map made in 1491 by the German cartographer Henricus Martellus—a map laughably unuseful by today's standards, based in part on the information that Marco Polo brought back from his travels and on tales told by merchants sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.
This got me curious about blogs out there that have to do with maps—because who isn't fascinated by maps—wayfinding, spatial visualization, the very makeup of our world? Of course, there are scores of blogs, dealing with everything from Google maps (the official blog) to every map of London ever made—and counting! Here is a list of a few that look especially interesting to me (culled in part from a list of 50).
The Map Room — Created in 2003 by science fiction writer and reviewer Jonathan Crowe, and still very active, this blog covers everything from antique maps to the latest in geospatial technology.
The Bodleian's Map Room Blog — "Items of interest from the wonderful world of maps," courtesy of Oxford's Bodleian Library.
The Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division Blog — Perhaps more about geography, ethnography, anthropology etc. than about maps per se, but it's all fascinating.
The Ordnance Survey — Including a recent compendium of the top 10 (map-related) blogs of 2020.
Maps and Views Blog — From the British Library.
Wired's Map Lab — Defunct, but still worth visiting.
Geoaweseomness — About geospatial technologies.Modern Cartographer — "A longtime armchair traveler's take on maps, map making, and other related news and information."
There. That's good for starters. Enjoy yourself a little mapoliciousness.
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