Skywizard
22nd June 2013, 21:44
I thought this was interesting and strange enough to post. To read the whole story see source below (to long to post).
This rather sinister image is one of the biggest mysteries in the history of western cartography. Most often referred to simply as the Fool’s Cap Map of the World, it is unknown why, when, where and by whom it was made.
The only thing that can be said about it with some certainty is that it dates from ca. 1580-1590. But sources even differ as to the type of projection used, some referring to it as ptolemaic (i.e. equidistant conic), others claiming it owes more to the techniques of Mercator and/or Ortelius.
The map shows the world ‘dressed up’ in the traditional garb of a court jester: the double-peaked, bell-tipped cap and the jester’s staff. The face is hidden (or replaced) by the map, giving the whole image an ominous, threatening quality that feels anachronistically modern.
21826
But much remains conjecture, as indicated also by the last piece of this cartographic puzzle - the name written in its top left corner: Orontius Fineus. This name (the Latinised version of the French name Oronce Finé) is associated with a map dated 1531, purportedly showing an ice-free, river-rich Antarctica. Why would the name of this cartographer crop up on a map made decades later? Could he have been the mapmaker? Or is he the one being made fun of?
Source: http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/480-the-fools-cap-map-of-the-world
weird stuff...
skywizard
This rather sinister image is one of the biggest mysteries in the history of western cartography. Most often referred to simply as the Fool’s Cap Map of the World, it is unknown why, when, where and by whom it was made.
The only thing that can be said about it with some certainty is that it dates from ca. 1580-1590. But sources even differ as to the type of projection used, some referring to it as ptolemaic (i.e. equidistant conic), others claiming it owes more to the techniques of Mercator and/or Ortelius.
The map shows the world ‘dressed up’ in the traditional garb of a court jester: the double-peaked, bell-tipped cap and the jester’s staff. The face is hidden (or replaced) by the map, giving the whole image an ominous, threatening quality that feels anachronistically modern.
21826
But much remains conjecture, as indicated also by the last piece of this cartographic puzzle - the name written in its top left corner: Orontius Fineus. This name (the Latinised version of the French name Oronce Finé) is associated with a map dated 1531, purportedly showing an ice-free, river-rich Antarctica. Why would the name of this cartographer crop up on a map made decades later? Could he have been the mapmaker? Or is he the one being made fun of?
Source: http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/480-the-fools-cap-map-of-the-world
weird stuff...
skywizard