
The Mystery of Extraordinarily Accurate Medieval Maps (2014) - Vigier
http://discovermagazine.com/2014/june/14-the-mapmakers-mystery
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tdumitrescu
Note that the map image at the top of that article is not at all medieval;
it's from the 18th century. The one the article talks about (13th century) is
farther down:
[http://discovermagazine.com/sitefiles/resources/image.aspx?i...](http://discovermagazine.com/sitefiles/resources/image.aspx?item={8D1F57A0-B157-4C9A-AF19-2D24F94CDA37}&mw=900&mh=600)

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kencausey
I just about flipped a table when I glanced at that image and then started
reading about a supposedly 13th century map. I find the use of that image at
the top suspicious, perhaps akin to link-bait.

~~~
KFW504
I'm with you - it's also extraordinarily obvious given the level of
detail/explored regions represented - relatively surprising that the author
did this given the level of detail the article goes into...but may not have
been her call though

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chockablock
This research doesn't seem to be published anywhere, but here's a 30-page
presentation at Hessler's academia.edu page, which contains some nice data
plots.

[https://www.academia.edu/1666460/Bi-
dimensional_Regression_R...](https://www.academia.edu/1666460/Bi-
dimensional_Regression_Revisited_Studying_the_Geometry_and_Form_of_the_Medieval_Portolan_Chart)

Hessler also seems to have a personal blog devoted to related topics:
www.warpinghistory.blogspot.com

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SSLy
I have found one editorial by Mr. Hessler, one review of his book, one review
made by himself and a paper ( _Warping Waldseemuller: A Phenomenological and
Computational Study of the 1507 World Map_ , printed in cartographica) but is
is about a different piece of cartography.

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Supersaiyan_IV
And the mystery of how northern Canada and Northern Pole had a common shore.
Now rethink the amount of ice that has melted.

~~~
phaemon
As others have pointed out, not much was known of that area at that time
(1746).

In James Boswell's "THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES WITH SAMUEL
JOHNSON", which occurred in 1773, he writes:

"Talking of Phipps's voyage to the North Pole, Dr Johnson observed, that it
'was conjectured that our former navigators have kept too near land, and so
have found the sea frozen far north, because the land hinders the free motion
of the tide; but, in the wide ocean, where the waves tumble at their full
convenience, it is imagined that the frost does not take effect'."

So there was certainly speculation about the Arctic at this time by educated
people, but clearly they didn't know a great deal about it.

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jordanb
Yeah the facts that 1) the arctic ocean is covered in ice even in open water
and 2) The north pole is in the arctic ocean (rather than on some potentially
undiscovered land) weren't conclusively proven until the Fram expedition by
Fridtjof Nansen in 1896.

There was enormous speculation in the papers and in the scientific communities
about what would come of Nansen and what he would find in the lead up to
during his expedition so practically speaking the extremely high northern
latitudes remained a "blank spot" until the turn of the 20th century.

