Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
Fra Mauro, O.S.B. Cam., (c.1400–1464) was an Italian (Venetian) cartographer who lived in the Republic of Venice. He created the most detailed and accurate map of the world up until that time, the Fra Mauro map.
Arthur H. Robinson was an American geographer and cartographer, who was professor in the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1947 until he retired in 1980. He was a prolific writer and influential philosopher on cartography, and one of his most notable accomplishments is the Robinson projection of 1961.
Norumbega, or Nurembega, is a legendary settlement in northeastern North America which was featured on many early maps from the 16th century until European colonization of the region. It was alleged that the houses had pillars of gold and the inhabitants carried quarts of pearls on their heads.
Jorge Reinel born in Lisbon was a Portuguese cartographer and instructor in cartography, son of the well-known cartographer Pedro Reinel. In 1519 in Seville he participated in the maps designed for the trip of his countryman Ferdinand Magellan, and his depiction of the Maluku Islands served as a basis for Spanish claims to the islands. He had trained many pupils in the art of cartography such as Portuguese Diogo Ribeiro.
Pedro Reinel was a Portuguese cartographer. Between 1485 and 1519 Reinel served three Portuguese kings: João II, Manuel I and João III. He and his son, Jorge Reinel, were among the most renowned cartographers of their era, a period when European knowledge of geography and cartography were expanding rapidly. There is some evidence he was of African descent. Historian Rafael Moreira believes Reinel's father was an ivory carver brought from West Africa to serve in the royal workshops.
Achilles Pirmin Gasser was a German physician and astrologer. He is now known as a well-connected humanistic scholar, and supporter of both Copernicus and Rheticus.
The Padrón Real, known after 2 August 1527 as the Padrón General, was the official and secret Spanish master map used as a template for the maps present on all Spanish ships during the 16th century. It was kept in Seville, Spain by the Casa de Contratación. Ship pilots were required to use a copy of the official government chart, or risk the penalty of a 50 doblas fine. The map probably included a large-scale chart that hung on the wall of the old Alcázar of Seville. Well-known official cartographers and pilots who contributed to and used the map included Amerigo Vespucci, Diogo Ribeiro, Sebastian Cabot, Alonzo de Santa Cruz, and Juan Lopez de Velasco.
Nicolaus Germanus was a German cartographer who modernized Ptolemy's Geography by applying new projections, adding additional maps, and contributing other innovations that were influential in the development of Renaissance cartography.
Andreas Walsperger was a German cartographer of the 15th century. The son of a carpenter, he became a Benedictine monk at St. Peter's in Salzburg in 1434. He left the monastery in 1442. Little more is known about him except that in 1448/9 he created his map in Konstanz.
Imago Mundi, or in full Imago Mundi: International Journal for the History of Cartography, is a semiannual peer-reviewed academic journal about mapping, established in 1935 by Leo Bagrow. It covers the history of early maps, cartography, and map-related ideas. Articles are in English and have abstracts in French, German, Spanish, and English. Each volume also contains three reference sections that provide a summary of current developments in the field.
George Heriot Swanston was a Scottish map engraver, particularly noted for his engravings and vignettes illustrating Archibald Fullarton & Co's Royal Illustrated Atlas in the 1860s. He often collaborated with another Scot, the cartographer John Bartholomew. George Heriot was the son of George Swanston who had married Margaret Heriot on 2 November 1807 at Canongate in Edinburgh.
Harley MS 3686 is an early 15th-century Venetian hand-written re-creation of Claudius Ptolemy’s Geographia. It is part of the Harleian Collection at the British Library.
Pietro Coppo was an Italian geographer and cartographer who wrote a description of the entire world as known in the 16th century, accompanied by a set of systematically arranged maps, one of the first rutters and also a precise description of the Istrian Peninsula, accompanied by its first regional map.
Armando Cortesão was a Portuguese agronomic engineer, colonial administrator, cartographer, and historian of Portuguese cartography. He also competed in the men's 400 metres and men's 800 metres at the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Stefano Bonsignori or Buonsignori was an Italian Olivetan monk and cartographer to Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was born in Florence and is most notable for his eponymous Bonsignori Map of Florence.
Richard Edes Harrison was an American scientific illustrator and cartographer. He was the house cartographer of Fortune and a consultant at Life for almost two decades. He played a key role in "challenging cartographic perspectives and attempting to change spatial thinking on the everyday level during America’s rise to superpower status". Susan Schulten considers Harrison's maps "critical to the history of American cartography."
Kazimierz Kozica was a Polish historian of cartography, map expert, teacher, curator. President of the Friends of the Royal Castle in Warsaw Association
Salvatore de Pilestrina, also known as Salvat de Pilestrina, was a mapmaker in Mallorca in the early 16th century.
Kirsten A. Seaver is a Norwegian-American historian and author known for her writing about the exploration of North America. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and previously taught at Stanford University.
