This map by Venetian monk Fra Mauro (1450 ad) is one of the greatest memorials of medieval cartography.
Piris Reis map of the Mediterranean basin (17th century).
Above, Henricus Hondius' World Map (1630): Exploration has changed the image of the world. Methods of circulating projection and projecting them on a flat surface with a minimum of distortion have been devised, notably by Gerard Merchator.
Ptolemy's map (above) devised and provided instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world (oikoumenè) and of the Roman provinces. Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of China southward suggests his sources did not reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
