Revisiting sixteenth-century oval maps with a cartographic strain analysis

ABSTRACT

A recent research on Matteo Ricci’s 1602 Chinese World Map raised, among other issues, the question of the oval graticule used before as the projection reference of the map representation. Here, we go back to the origin of the oval graticules, which almost dominated the imaging of the sixteenth-century cartography from the Contarini-Rosselli’s map in the earliest of the century to the Ortelius and Ricci maps in its latest and the beginning of seventeenth century, inspiring again many map projection makers in the twentieth century. In this paper, the revisiting and overview of the oval graticule settings of some representative sixteenth-century maps of this category are followed by studying the relevant metrical and deformational properties, carried out on a family set of these ovals (the ‘Agnese set’ of ovals), involving tools from the cartographic strain analysis. The results give some further insights on this important category of maps, typical of a period in cartography marked by the transition from the Ptolemaean standards to the post- and meta-Ptolemaean era of map representations.

RÉSUMÉ

Une recherche récente sur la carte chinoise du monde de 1602 de Matteo Ricci a soulevé, entre autre, la question de la graticule ovale utilisée autrefois, en tant que projection de référence pour la représentation cartographique. Nous revenons aux origines des graticules ovales qui ont dominé la cartographie du XVI^ème siècle de la carte de Contarini-Rosselli au début du siècle jusqu’aux cartes d’Ortelius et de Ricci à la fin du XVI^ème et au début du XVII^ème, inspirant encore de nombreux concepteurs de projections cartographiques au XVII^ème siècle. Dans ce papier nous revisitons et proposons une vue d’ensemble sur la mise au point des graticules ovales de cartes représentatives du XVI^ème siècle, ainsi que des propriétés métriques et des déformations de ces types d’ovales (la famille des ovales d’Agnese) calculées à partir d’outils issus de l’analyse de déformations cartographiques. Les résultats apportent un éclairage supplémentaire sur l’importance de ces cartes, typiques d’une période de transition en cartographie entre les standards de Ptolémée et l’ère post et méta-ptoléméenne des représentations cartographiques.

KEYWORDS:

• Sixteenth-century maps
• oval projections
• strain cartographic analysis
• cartographic heritage

Acknowledgements

This research was carried out during the three months’ stay (March–May 2016) of Evangelos Livieratos as visiting professor in the Department of Architecture, Construction and Conservation (DACC), University Iuav of Venice, in the frame of the research project Analytical methods and digital tools for the study and implementation of historical cartography in cooperation with the IUAV’s ‘System of Laboratories’, namely the Laboratory of Cartography & GIS and the Laboratory of Photogrammetry.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Caterina Gottardi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5619-0566

Notes on contributors

Caterina Balletti is a researcher at the Iuav University of Venice, Italy. She holds a Ph.D. in Geomatics. Her research interests focus on digital technology applied to historical Cartography and, more generally, to Cultural Heritage. She is the Director of the Cartography & Gis Lab of the Iuav University.

Caterina Gottardi is a research fellow at the Photogrammetry Lab of the Iuav University of Venice (Italy). With a Ph.D. (2017) in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering-Geomatics from the Politecnico di Milano and a dissertation focused on a numerical and comparative analysis for the study of historical cartography, she is currently working on a research on new digital technologies applied to the Cultural Heritage surveying.

Francesco Guerra is an associate professor of Topography and Cartography at the Iuav University of Venice, Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Geomatics. His current scientific and research interests and activities deal with issues related to Cultural Heritage surveying, digital representation, and ICT. He is the Director of the Photogrammetry Lab of the Iuav University.

Evangelos Livieratos is Professor Emeritus of Geodesy and Cartography at the Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Chair of the ICA Commission on Cartographic Heritage into the Digital. Visiting Professor at the University Iuav of Venice in 2016.