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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 19 Sep 2019

Taken: 19 Sep 2019

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Mind in Motion •
Barbara Tversky •
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Figure 8.4. T-O map, Leipzig, Eleventh century

Figure 8.4. T-O map, Leipzig, Eleventh century

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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
In the Middle Ages in Europe, cartography was schematic and vast majority of the population traveled only in a imagination, so maps seemed to serve spiritual, religious and political ends. Maps like the one in Figure 8.4 (above) were frequent, called T-O because of their form. The Holy Land, the birthplace of Jesus, is in the center. Note that ‘Oriens,’ east, is at the top. Oriens meaning ‘rising,’ as in the rising sun, and as in Orient and orient. The horizontal bar of the T is the Indian Ocean separating Asia from Europe and Africa, and the vertical bar in the Mediterranean Sea separating Europe and Africa. A single ocean surrounds the world as was then known in Europe. The spatial locations and sizes are vague and boundaries are missing. Don’t worry if you can’t read the small print. What is important to see is that spatial layout is highly schematic: the Holy Land is in the center of the world, and the three continents then known are separated by a bodies of water.

It is not clear why European maps were later turned 90 degrees so that north was and remains up, but that change is perspective happened around the time magnetic north was discovered. The even older maps attributed to Ptolemy was also north-up; some speculate that that was pragmatic because most of the land known at the time extended east-west. Maps don’t just map space, they map so much more. ~ Page 197/198
5 years ago. Edited 5 years ago.

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