Cartography, Geography, & Navigation

An online class from the Bibliothè que Nationale de France discussing al-Idrisi, his atlas, and the Mediterran ean world of the 12th century.

An English translation of a work by Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer) published in 1556 on the metallurgy and art of mining, refining, and smelting metals.

Elsewhere, you can view the full text of the original 1556 edition or Bern Dibner's introduction and translation .

The BNF's online exposition on the history of cartography; how man has represented the earth and the heavens, and the conquest of the seas, demonstrated with maps from the BNF's collections.

The "electronic" edition of the scientific works of Francisco Maurolico (1494-1575).

An 1893 partial modernized translatio n of 'De Proprietat ibus rerum' by Bartholome w Anglicus.

Covers a wide range of topics, including the physical sciences, technology, and experimental archaeology in the SCA.

In 1434, Michael of Rhodes began to compile a manuscript that would demonstrate his personal mastery of the art of navigation. The text contains Michael's service record, over 200 pages of commercial and calendrical computations, a beautifully illustrated section on astrology, some of the earliest surviving portolan aids to navigation, and the world's first known treatise on shipbuilding.

The primary purpose, as the title suggests, is to expose three modern myths about medieval maps; another purpose of this article, however, is to talk about what medieval maps really are. I view this as an essential task, since I cannot convey to you the complexity of medieval cartography without defining the terms involved and showing you a few medieval maps. And I trust that I am not vain if I hope to spur your interest in the Middle Ages along the way.

The Museum, part of the University of Bologna's Department of Astronomy, houses a collection of astrolabes, gnomons & sundials, clocks, astronomical quadrants, telescopes, armillary spheres, globes, maps, and other mathematical, meteorologic, topographic and nautical instruments.

The Institute and Museum of the History of Science, in Florence, is one of the foremost internatio nal institutio ns in the history of science, combining a noted museum of scientific instrument s and an institute dedicated to the research, documentat ion and disseminat ion of the history of science in the broadest senses.

A series of engravings that bring to us the very clear representation of the crafts and technology of his time, and the relative importance which these discoveries and inventions had in the mind of a well-informed layman of the 16th century.

New Discoveries includes illustrations of: The Lodestone, The Magnet; The Astrolabe; America; Gunpowder; Printing Books; Iron Clocks; Guaiacum (a New World remedy for syphilis); Distillation; Silk, or the Silkworm; Stirrups, or Foot Rests; the Watermill; the Winged Mill (windmills); Olive Oil; Sugar; Oil Colors (oil-painting); Spectacles (eyeglasses); Longitudes of the Earth Found from the Deviation of the Magnet from the Pole; Polishing Armor; Engraving on Copper; and the travels & discoveries of Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Ferdinand Magellan.

A transcription and translation.

A translation of Pliny's Natural History.

Includes geographies of Antiquity as well as parts of al-Idrisi's 12th century geography.