Since prehistoric times, maps have been part of the life of human beings.
How to reach the nearest village, or the most fertile lands and rivers with the most fish, a source of water, or what way to go to reach the mountains
As men later began trading, and traveling the world to sell / trade their products, maps became a fundamental tool.
And with maps, of course, their creators, the cartographers, have become famous, and absolutely necessary.
There were no satellites to tell what travelers would encounter, so maps were built on the basis of the travelers’ reliefs and stories. The more the information was, the more detailed the maps became
In the second half of the 13th century Marco Polo traveled between Venice and Asia.
The voyage was a long one, and in the late 15th century Christophorus Columbus hypothesized that he could make the same voyage by sea much faster, traveling west instead of east.
On October 14, 1492, reaching the east coast of the American continent, he thought he had managed to reach India. But that wasn’t the case, and the maps had to be updated again.
From the 16th century, even after the discovery of the American continent, cartography took a leap forward, and we started talking about “Mappamundi” (from the Latin Mappa (map) and Mundi (world)). The world is finally spherical, and cartographers are practicing as best they can to tell a sphere on a flat surface.
The history and evolution of these maps has been told in Treviso in recent months in a beautiful exhibition: Mind The Map - Drawing the world from the 11th to the 21st century
The exhibition took place in a recently renovated historic building in Treviso: Ca’ Scarpa. With the renovation, part of the historic building was transformed into a cultural space.
I learned about the exhibition directly from Google Maps, which in the “Explore” section offers updates relating to my interests and what is happening around me. Having always been a map lover (All I need is a Map), a Local Guide and an enthusiastic user of Google Earth, I couldn’t miss this exhibition (here in my review)
You can visit the entire exhibition by scrolling through the 360 ° images
Obviously, an exhibition on maps could not miss what is certainly the most recent representation of the world, the one that has completely changed the lives of all of us: Google Earth
The exhibition, developed on several levels, takes us through a path that begins with the most ancient maps, to gradually arrive at the most structured and rich in information.
Maps for traveling on land, but also and above all for traveling on the sea, and which therefore take into account winds and sea currents.
In the mid-16th century the representation of our planet appears to be already complete and extremely accurate, especially if we think that the tools of that time were immensely different from those we use today.
In more recent years, maps with different and allegorical functions began to appear. Here I show a few, which show the pre-eminent characteristics of each continent from a cultural point of view. Very interesting is that of China which represents the different ethnic groups that inhabit it.
Sometimes these allegorical maps also show completely wrong information, like the one below where the Antarctic continent is not represented, and the penguins are shown near the North Pole.
The world is spherical!
This is what maps are telling us even before satellites photographed our planet.
So I take a leap into space, and I show you this statue, sculpted at the end of the 16th century, which represents “Atlas supporting the world”. The statue is located at the entrance of the Doge’s Palace in Venice
For me, exploring the history of the Maps was an unmissable opportunity.
Have you ever explored the long path that allowed us to get to Google Maps?
What does it mean for you to be a living and active part of this story, through your contributions in Google Maps? Don’t you also feel a little part of the History?
Now we can look forward to the world in 3D Bravo!!!
