A period or antique map is a document created during the Middle
Ages depicting the world (or part of it) as it was perceived at that
time. Period maps offer intriguing glimpses into the medieval
mindset. They can also be rather extraordinary works of art.
The sites below offer images of period maps created sometime in
the seventeenth century or earlier.
Bishop
Gudbrandur Thorláksson's map of Iceland
For more than three centuries mapmakers used the bishop's map (now
lost) to create representations of Icelandic geography. This table
at the Antique Maps of Iceland site provides images of dozens of
maps based on the Bishop's, all viewable at varying
resolutions.
Cartographic
Images: Early Medieval Maps
An extensive index of maps from 400 A.D. to 1300 A.D. link to
online versions; a bibliography, time chart, and monographs are
also available.
Cartographic
Images: Late Medieval Maps
An extensive index of maps from 1300 A.D. to 1500 A.D. link to
online images; a bibliography and monographs are also
available.
Cartographic
Images: Renaissance Maps
An extensive index of maps from 1500 A.D. to 1700 A.D. link to
online versions; a time chart, bibliography and monographs are
also available.
The
Catalan Atlas
Forty images of pages from the 14th-century world atlas, provided
by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Dutch
City Maps from the Blaeu Atlas
More than 30 images scanned by George M. Welling from Toonneel
der Steden, published in the mid-seventeenth-century. Full
color and available in gif or JPEG; brief histories in Dutch are
also given for some cities.
Finland
500 Years on the Map of Europe
Photographs and scans of period maps from the fifteenth to the
twentieth centuries, most from the medieval era, with the history
behind each map. Provided by Erkki Fredrikson at Virtual
Finland.
The
first maps of Iceland
Hyperlinked table of sixteenth-century maps provides info and
images of over a dozen maps at the Antique Maps of Iceland site,
all viewable at varying resolutions. Fun and informative.
Frisland
Pietro de Nobilis' sixteenth-century map of Iceland and the
Faeroes is reproduced from Antonio Lafreri's map at the Antique
Maps of Iceland site.
Islamic
World Map
Period map at the Crossroads of Culture site, from the Museum
for Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Berlin. No dates given.
The
New World
From the University of Georgia's Rare Map Collection come seven
images of maps of the New World from the sixteenth and seventeenth
century.
Psalter
Map
Thirteenth-century map from a medieval prayer book, at the British
Library.
Webmuseum:
Map
Two marvelous graphics are accompanied by a brief
explanation of the most popular geographical work to be produced
in the fifteenth century: Ptolemy's Cosmography.
World Map by Moroccan
Cartographer al-Idrisi
New!
A map of the world made by Moroccan cartographer al-Idrisi for
King Roger of Sicily in the year 1154, here at the Medieval
History site.
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