From crazy cartouches, wonderful beasts or general carto-frippery, a site that highlights the non-map part of maps! From the Map team at the Bodleian Library
Saw this on a map
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A beautiful map of the World showing the 12 classical compass winds from a manuscript atlas by Battista Agnese c1553. Note Baja California joined to the mainland, and Magellan's route around the World. This beautifully illustrated atlas also has a zodiac at the beginning @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
OTD 1731 fire swept through the Dorset town of Blandford Forum. Starting at 2pm in a candle makers house (A on map) the fire soon spread and by 11pm had caused damage to the church (B), the fire engines having already been burnt in the blaze. Full map, extract and text shown @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Saw this on a map
Fishing Guinea-style on this map of the Atlantic around St. Helena, c1700. Fire, B, comes out of the holes, A, and the fire from the torches, C, attract the fish which are then speared, D, or caught in the net, E. The map also shows fishing boats from Brazil and fish-tailed putti @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
OTD 1667 Dutch ships sailed up the River Medway capturing and burning British naval ships. This map was part of a report made by one famous diarist, John Evelyn, to another, Samuel Pepys, who was a naval administrator at the time, more here blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2019/02... @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Flying 1950s style. Images of passenger flights from a B.O.A.C. map of Britain and the Commonwealth, c1951. 4 days to Sydney with multiple stop-overs doesn't sound like fun and people look wrapped up so probably not that warm either. Still, looks like a gin and tonic will help @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
It's World Bicycle Day today, here are two Ordnance Survey map covers from between the wars by OS in-house artist Ellis Martin (more examples of his work below). More free time after WWI led to an increase in walking and cycling maps, often with covers as attractive as these @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
The seasons represented around a World map in Atlas Maritimus, or the Sea-Atlas, being a book of maritime charts... by 'John Seller, Hydrographer to the King' (Charles II), printed 1675 and 'sold at his shop at the Hermitage in Wapping'. Includes the zodiac signs for each season @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Triangulation is a way of working out distances measuring angles of a triangle, from two known points of distance you can then measure the third, and so on. When on maps it also creates lovely patterns, as on this map of the States from 1940, Florida and across Chesapeake Bay @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
In the week of the Hajj, the holy pilgrimage to Mecca here's a Qibla compass map, from 1571. In the circle surrounding the Kaaba are 32 separate directions to help find the direction to pray towards Mecca. More on our amazing Islamic maps here storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0755... @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Pyramids a plenty on this map from a series covering Egypt, 1906. Giza and Saqqara shown at a time before Cairo had encroached too near their locations. The pyramids also appeared in a recent post below from the late 1500s @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
