[HN Gopher] Zoomable, translated version of the 15th century Map...
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Zoomable, translated version of the 15th century Mappa Mundi
Author : gadtfly
Score : 132 points
Date : 2024-03-03 07:33 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mostre.museogalileo.it)
(TXT) w3m dump (mostre.museogalileo.it)
| earino wrote:
| This was a really enjoyable couple of minutes. I was able to find
| some of the more ancient cities I've visited (Ceuta, for
| example), and see how they're represented.
|
| Now that we've seen how quickly digitized information becomes un-
| usuable, it's interesting to reflect that the actual physical
| Mappa Mundi will far outlive (barring fires/disasters) any of
| it's digital reflections.
| imiric wrote:
| It's a shame that this kind of interesting and interactive
| learning experiences have been dispersed and relegated to obscure
| parts of the web, instead of being part of a central repository
| of knowledge.
|
| In my teens I used to spend hours marvelling at similar
| visualizations that were part of Encarta. Most of them were
| technically crude compared to what we can do today, so I feel
| that we lost a crucial opportunity to spread knowledge.
|
| While Wikipedia is great, it's mostly a static repository, and
| pales in comparison when it comes to engagement. I think there's
| still a chance for an organization to curate the content on
| Wikipedia, and make it interactive and engaging, since Wikimedia
| is clearly not interested.
| reddalo wrote:
| I agree. I spent countless of hours on Encarta. The interactive
| experiences, the 360deg maps, even the small quiz games were a
| beautiful way to learn and discover new things.
|
| Wikipedia has way more content, but not this kind of things. I
| wonder if there is a way to curate such content in a
| crowdsourced way, however.
| licnep wrote:
| That's a great idea, a version of wikipedia with iframe embeds
| could allow for this, though it would be even better if these
| small websites could be directly uploaded by editors as
| html/js/css so they wouldnt depend on external websites and
| could be versioned and preserved.
| wara23arish wrote:
| I also remember spending hours and hours on an old version of
| encarta. It had everything from geography to biology.
|
| Maybe the ipads they give to kids these days are similar but we
| haven't experienced them?
| tempodox wrote:
| Very nice work. And interesting to see that North isn't where I'd
| expected it to be on the map.
| gadtfly wrote:
| There's a rotate button in a set of controls on the right.
| tempodox wrote:
| Yes, but then the writing is upside down.
| gadtfly wrote:
| The click-to-translate part seems to have broken since I
| posted this, which is bizarre. That was half the fun.
|
| Wait nvm I used the wrong link. dang can you change it to
| https://mostre.museogalileo.it/framauro/en/interactive-
| explo...
| xtiansimon wrote:
| Brilliant bit of UX work. I especially like the rotate or
| orientation feature. Once rotated 180 I immediately
| recognized similarities to the modern map. Very thoughtful
| design work
| shzhdbi09gv8ioi wrote:
| In the baltic sea, the text translation reads "This sea is not
| navigated with map and compass but with a sounding-lead; and
| throughout here there are many inhabited islands"
|
| I wonder what a sounding-lead might be?
| rzmmm wrote:
| Maybe gauging the depth of the water with a lead weight.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_sounding
| narag wrote:
| It's weird that it mentions the Sea of Cadiz, but not Cadiz City.
| Instead: Vejer ("Beger") Tarifa ("Terifa") and Gibraltar
| ("Zibelter"). The cities far from the coast are randomly placed.
| Actually, Mediterranean Sea seems mostly accurate and anything
| else gets deformed, more so as distance increases. See Africa.
| riffraff wrote:
| portolan charts[0] were already common by the time this map was
| made, so coastal regions, especially in the mediterranean, were
| better documented.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portolan_chart
| azernik wrote:
| Interestingly varying levels of accuracy as you look at the
| Levant. The mapmakers have a very good idea of what cities lie on
| the coast and in which order, but the actual shape of the coast
| is completely unknown to them and the relation of inland sites to
| the known coastal ones is... rough.
|
| Interestingly: "Those who are expert, let them complete this
| Idumea and Palestina and Galilea with what I do not put - that
| is, the river Jordan, the Tiberian Sea, the Dead Sea and other
| places which it has not been possible to include"
| ricardobayes wrote:
| It's also interesting they didn't put themselves in the middle of
| the map, as was common at the time. It's also fascinating how
| slow the technical evolution was at the time. The author makes
| direct references to Ptolemy (works dating around 100 AD).
| Anduia wrote:
| I went to Venice in 2017 with a list of "must-sees," one of which
| was the Fra Mauro original map. I had previously seen a replica,
| and it was breathtaking. (That thing is eight feet tall, or 2.4
| meters, with gold lettering and all)
|
| The map was housed in the Marciana Library in Venice.
| Unfortunately, nowhere on the internet did it mention that the
| map had been removed for restoration. This prevented me from
| seeing it in person, and perhaps I never will.
|
| Naively, I thought that the library's website would inform
| visitors about such changes. However, the reality is that website
| updates often lag behind changes in exhibits. Lesson learned: I
| now call the places I want to visit to confirm their hours and
| current offerings.
| HowardStark wrote:
| Would you be willing to share your must-sees? I'm planning two
| trips to Italy this year and while I tend to make my own closer
| to the date of the trip (avoid pre-mature heartbreak if plans
| change) I think curated lists off the beaten path and with
| personality behind them are far more interesting.
| lolive wrote:
| Sorry to hear that. I visited the museum Correr without knowing
| that that map was at the end of the museum. Discovering it
| right in front of me is a high time of my life.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| For an even earlier world map, the Beatus map from the 8th
| century is also remarkable:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatus_map
|
| The layout is mostly geographic although bears traces of a
| conceptual map as well. (Note: north is to the left). It's part
| of the larger book the Commentary on the Apocalypse which
| contains a lot of gorgeous illustrations. The original is lost
| but exists in many hand copies, starting from the 9th century.
|
| If you're ever in Northern Spain there's a museum in the town of
| Potes near the Santo Toribio de Liebana monastery where Beatus
| worked. https://centros.culturadecantabria.com/tower-of-
| infantado/
| araes wrote:
| Having not seen the map before, and noting from
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Mauro_map it was apparently by
| a Venetian...
|
| Is it known why the Italia peninsula and most of the surrounding
| area has been rubbed away over time while most of the rest of the
| map looks fairly untouched? (Bulgaria might have a slight issue,
| yet nothing like the entire country being smeared) Did not see
| anything mentioned in the Europe or summary portion of the above
| article.
| fhars wrote:
| Look, we live here... [points on map]
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(page generated 2024-03-03 23:01 UTC)