To find 13th-century diagrams of Jerusalem, a map of unconquered Tenochtitlan, 16th-century Venetian and Arabic atlases and some of the first topographical renderings of the moon, navigate your way to the mezzanine level of the Beinecke Library.
sponsored by
To find the portolans—“large, colorful charts… used by sailors to navigate from port to port”—linger at ground level. Head to the long cases, where the centuries-old charts are laid flat and brimming with fine details, including the ones captured here using a macroscopic lens.
And be sure to do it soon. At 5 p.m. Sunday, the exhibition that unburied these treasures, The World in Maps, 1400-1600, reaches the edge of its map.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. For image captions, check out the email edition.
