Martellus Map Spectral Imaging Project

2015, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Martellus’ map, which dates to about 1491, is a highly detailed map of the then known world – reputedly studied by Christopher Columbus. “Multispectral imaging recovered more information than we dared to hope for,” says Chet Van Duzer, a map historian who led the project. Van Duzer also commented that it is a seminal and tremendously important document of African mapping by the people of Africa, in this case preserved by a western source. The new images also have helped to determine how the Martellus map influenced later cartographers.
The new images will be made available to scholars and the public on the Beinecke Library’s website.

Text in the southern Asia portion of the map describes the “Panotii” people, who purportedly had ears that were so large they could use them as sleeping bags.
A text box in the Indian Ocean warns of the orca, “a sea monster that is like the sun when it shines, whose form can hardly be described, except that its skin is soft and its body huge.”

https://news.yale.edu/2015/06/11/hidden-secrets-yale-s-1491-world-map-revealed-multispectral-imaging

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2018/10/columbus-map-discovery-secrets-new-world

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-this-map-guide-columbus-180955295

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/202-1601/trenches/3948-trenches-martellus-map

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