
The Most Wonderful Map in the World: Urbano Monte's Planisphere of 1587 - benbreen
https://resobscura.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-most-wonderful-map-in-world.html
======
mvexel
I had a chance to visit David Rumsey and his map collection (which this map is
a part of) at his home in 2013. The breadth of that collection and this man's
dedication to maps is fantastic.

This is a picture of his 2013 digitizing setup:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhodes/9066129105](https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhodes/9066129105)
which he built in what was basically his garage. I don't remember much
technical detail about it.

I believe (part of?) the collection has since moved to Stanford.

The collection's web site is a great resource and fun to explore for anyone
interested in maps. There's even a link to view part of the collection in
Second Life.

~~~
sb057
My favorite map in his collection is the 1838 "Atlas von Central Europa", a
1:500,000(!) scale map of the entirety of northwestern Europe.

[1]
[https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~2...](https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~295714~90066389:Composite
--Atlas-von-Central-
Europa?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=w4s:/where%2FEurope;q:Europe;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=1820)

~~~
marton78
If it's a map of northwestern Europe, why do they call it "central"?

~~~
JetSpiegel
The title is in a Germanic language, it is centered on their home.

------
paganel
For those that are into maps and for one reason or another haven’t learned
about it yet I highly recommend the Mapire.eu website, which is basically
comprised of old Habsburg and Austrian-Hungarian maps. This late 1700s
Habsburg map [1] of almost half of Europe is a thing a beauty once you zoom
into the details.

[1] [https://mapire.eu/en/map/europe-18century-
firstsurvey/?layer...](https://mapire.eu/en/map/europe-18century-
firstsurvey/?layers=osm%2C163%2C165&bbox=524663.7621494494%2C4628262.667727999%2C3655524.440710269%2C7563444.553878767)

------
jashkenas
I whipped up a little interactive, high-rez version of the map for you all,
here: [https://observablehq.com/@jashkenas/urbano-montes-
planispher...](https://observablehq.com/@jashkenas/urbano-montes-
planisphere-1587)

~~~
benbreen
That's fantastic - thanks for making it. Mind if I add a link to it to the
original blog post?

~~~
jashkenas
Of course not! Go right ahead.

------
hhyndman
I downloaded a very high-resolution version of this map and created a 1m x 1m
"poster" in my office. Accompanied with an illuminated magnifying glass, I
often take a nice break from the computer monitor to examine the odd details
Monte provides in his pictures.

~~~
fosco
any case this high-res is available?

~~~
carlob
It's linked in the article
[https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~3...](https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303661~90074314:Composite
--Tavola-1-60---Map-of-
the;JSESSIONID=a7feac82-4865-4483-bf66-104b58836234?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3APub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No%3Blc%3ARUMSEY~8~1&sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&mi=0&trs=94)

I also had it printed, but as a 170x170 cm tablecloth :)

------
MayeulC
I initially thought the map was the one also available in Marble maps, the KDE
project. However, it turned out to be the behaim globe. This would probably
make a worthy addition.

------
gravy
This is by far one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Not only because
it's so detailed, but because we still have it 400 years later in such
pristine condition.

On that vein, as a 25-year-old it's so incredibly hard to imagine that this
was made just under 20 of my lifetimes ago.

------
abhinai
Fascinating! Would it be too much to hope that some day Stanford university
would make a hi-res version of this map available on the internet? I would
absolutely love to study it in detail!

~~~
elliotec
[https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~3...](https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303661~90074314:Composite
--Tavola-1-60---Map-of-
the;JSESSIONID=a7feac82-4865-4483-bf66-104b58836234?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3APub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No%3Blc%3ARUMSEY~8~1&sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&mi=0&trs=94)

~~~
lugg
Surprisingly the mobile zoom in works ok. Lots of amazing finds in there.

------
mbroncano
“Among other things, this map really demonstrates the degree to which the
Spanish state dominated the world in the 1580s.”

It’s worth mentioning it was the crown, and not the state, the actual ruler.

------
asimpletune
> There's even an interactive version of the map available to explore via
> Google Earth.

Does anyone have a link to this?

~~~
tantalor
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCiJ6BpN30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCiJ6BpN30)

------
KevanM
This is ripe for a illustrator to touch up and apply to a 3D model.

~~~
KevanM
Oh I see there is already a version. More fool me.

~~~
sanj
link?

------
SKILNER
Should make us all realize how little we know.

