attachment (jpeg)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Medieval 'projection'
Date:   Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:10:39 -0600
From:   Thornton, Jacob <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>



Hi all,

I have a unique request that I’m working on and thought the list might
be a great source. I’m the GIS guy in the Vanderbilt Library and am
giving an instruction session in a French Lit class that is studying
Mandeville’s travels in the 1300s. They want to map the locations he
went as part of a digital humanities section of the course. We’re going
to geocode modern place names that he was known to have traveled to, but
we’d like to be able to use a map from that time period. Naturally, the
modern projection didn’t exist.

Here’s a map they want to work with:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Europe_Mediterranean_Catalan_Atlas.jpeg

I’ve attached my shot at georeferencing that map. I used the Mercator
projection, which I eyeballed to be the closest fit, but it is certainly
not perfect. The blue areas are modern landmasses that I’m using and you
can see how the map does or doesn’t line up. I don’t expect to ever get
a perfect fit, but I wonder if I could get a better one at least.

Has anyone here done work in this realm? Creating “projections” for the
way maps were drawn in medieval times, or at least choosing a modern
projection that has a closest fit? The time period is 1357-1371. The
goal is to get our geocode of modern place names to line up as well as
possible with the Medieval map.

Thanks in advance!

-Jacob

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Jacob B. Thornton

GIS Coordinator

Vanderbilt University

Jean and Alexander Heard Library

419 21st Avenue South

Nashville, TN 37240

http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/gis

615.343.7542

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