My father has always loved maps. When I was growing up he would always show me his topographic maps of Europe. On these maps my dad had drawn lines of where he had been, and of the routes that he took up mountains. My dad passed his love of maps over to me. From a young age he taught me how to read a map and use them for navigation.
After a graduated from high school in 2003, I traveled around Europe for two month. As a going away present my dad brought me a map of Europe and told me i should draw my route around Europe on it. I took this map with me to Europe and did exactly as my dad had done many years before me and drew on my map.
Traveling through Europe, I went to many art galleries and museums. There was one particular museum that I loved the most, The Vatican Museum. This love wasn't formed because the famous Sistine chapel but because of the hall way I walked down to get to the Sistine chapel. This hallway is called the Gallery of Maps. This gallery has topographical maps of the whole of Italy. They are painted on 40 panels. In 1580, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Ignazio Danti to paint the maps. It took him 3 years to finish. The maps he painted are not only beautiful but are extremely accurate. This collection of maps is an important record of 16th century geography and cartography.
The map below is a map of Venice. The map below is the same map but zoomed in on St Marco square. These images show how accurate Danti was.
Today you can create a map in minutes and anyone can make a map. Most maps today are computer generated and are printer on papers. New maps are no longer works of art. They are still beautiful but they are different. They are more accurate and using computer technology makes them easy to see and make the colors clearer. But can you see the maps we make today still being around and on display in a museum in 500 years.
Gallery Of Maps, On a busy day
