With mapping apps like Google Maps, you can see what a street looked like ten or two years ago. But What if you could go back more than 400 years? This is what the new map included in Google Earth offers you: the application superimposes a historical map on the globe to see how our ancestors saw the world.
Sailors who sailed the oceans at the dawn of navigation had only the aid of their instruments and the observation of the sky to take their ships beyond overseas. They are the ones who mapped the coasts mile by mile in search of navigational charts and maps often overflowing with imagination more than certainty. And Urbano Monte, a famous Milanese scholar, produced a geocartographic work that wanted to accurately transfer the globe to paper: the “universal treaty. Description and location of all the Earth known to date
What was the world like in 1587?
Cartography has moved from in situ exploration to observation from space thanks to satellites placed in Earth orbit. With increasing accuracy over the years, The excellent level of detail reached by Urbano Monte in the 16th century is surprising.
The Planisphere, digitized from the original manuscript of 60 pages and almost three meters, has been transferred to a historical map of Google Earth in order to offer a global vision of the perception of the world in Antiquity. Not only that, the planisphere of Google Earth has links to other historical maps of very localized places
From the original map, we can explore all the old cartography with the Google Earth interface. Toboggan around the world, zoom in on a specific location to appreciate the details embodied by Urbano Monte and find out which geographical points have an expanded map, also historical. It’s a leap into the past that not only satisfies curiosity, but also helps to better understand how our ancestors saw the world.
To access the Google Earth Planisphere, simply have the application installed on your mobile and click on this link, directly on the historical map. Additionally, it also allows viewing from a web browser, at least on the desktop. A whole trip down memory lane without letting go of your mobile phone.
Through | Magnet
