<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=iso-8859-1"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear All:<div><br></div><div>It is always very difficult to respond to a press release, mostly because in my experience PR people routinely seek the "sexy" aspects that appeal to the lowest-common cultural denominator. (See the fourth of Luis's bullet points.)</div><div><br></div><div>The third of Luis's points exemplifies the problem: there, the reference to Mercator indicates a populist hook around which PR people can readily construct a narrative.</div><div><br></div><div>Overall, the press release suggests that the candidate undertook a numeric analysis of early portolan charts and concluded, in part, that such charts were based on some kind of projection similar to a Mercator projection. Yet one can fit a set of functions to any map; does that mean the creator actually used those functions in creating the map (especially when portolan charts lacked indications of latitude and longitude!)? A numeric analysis of an early map cannot stand by itself and I very much hope that the full dissertation provides the necessary contextual information to support such a conclusion.</div><div><br></div><div>Matthew</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div>On Mar 15, 2014, at 3:36 AM, Luis Robles <<a href="mailto:luis.a.robles.macias@gmail.com">luis.a.robles.macias@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">I received this news last Wednesday through from Frank Jacobs's "Strange Maps" blog in BigThink (<a href="http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/648-portolan-charts-too-accurate-to-be-medieval">http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/648-portolan-charts-too-accurate-to-be-medieval</a>). I assume that many of you must have received it too but just in case I thought I should post it here for general information.<br>
<br><b>Roel Nicolai</b>, a PhD student at the University of Utrecht, presented last March 3 his doctoral dissertation entitled <i>A critical review of the hypothesis of a medieval origin for portolan charts</i>. He reached several provocative conclusions that I expect will stir debate among the members of the list. The book is not available online yet, but in the University's website there is a <a href="http://press.uu.nl/origin-of-medieval-sea-charts-disproven/">press release</a> in English from which I have extracted the following statements:<br>
<ul><li>"A mathematical analysis of the oldest surviving portolan has revealed
that its source data must have been derived from a portolan chart -
instead of the other way round."</li><li>"it is unlikely that the nautical compass was available in time and that
navigational methods used at that time were sophisticated enough to
determine distances at such a degree of accuracy"</li><li>"Nicolai has also established that portolan charts were drawn on the Mercator projection, or a similar type of projection."</li><li>"they were much further advanced in terms of knowledge in the Middle Ages than we think"</li>
<li>"An Arabic-Islamic origin is highly unlikely, according to Nicolai."</li><li>"It therefore seems plausible that portolan charts originated from a
tradition that is now lost. It is an intriguing question from what
culture that tradition stemmed. Further research will be required to
establish whether or not Greco-Roman antiquity is a realistic option,
says Nicolai."</li></ul>The university does not say whether Mr Nicolai was awarded the doctorate or how to get access to his publication.<br><div><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Luis A. Robles Macías<div><br>
</div><div>Profile in <a href="http://independent.academia.edu/LuisRoblesMac%C3%ADas" target="_blank">Academia.edu</a><br></div><div>Blog: <a href="http://historiaymapas.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://historiaymapas.wordpress.com/</a></div>
</div>
</div></div>
_______________________________________________<br>ISHM mailing list<br><a href="mailto:ISHM@lazarus.elte.hu">ISHM@lazarus.elte.hu</a><br>http://lazarus.elte.hu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ishm<br></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">---------------------<br><br>Matthew Edney<br><br>Osher Professor in the History of Cartography (USM)<br><br>Director, History of Cartography Project (UW)<br><br>See <a href="http://www.maphistorydirectory.org/index.php/User:Edney.Matthew">http://www.maphistorydirectory.org/index.php/User:Edney.Matthew</a><br><br><br><br></div>
</div>
<br></div></body></html>