The atlas · meta-layer

Every essay, in space and time

A cross-essay meta-layer: the whole corpus of maps plotted on one interactive map, and every essay charted on one shared timeline (ancient centuries compressed).

Alongside the corpus you can draw reconstructed territories, routes, frontiers, places and historical networks. Every layer answers the timeline, and every layer carries notes explaining its sources, how it was interpreted and how much of it was reconstructed. Those notes live in the Atlas Handbook.

The corpus, mapped

Every historical map discussed across the essays, geolocated. Drag the slider to reveal them in chronological order; search or filter by essay.

AD 1972
Handbook

Layers

Map context

Framing geography. These layers make no claim about the past.

Physical geography

Modern reference

Present-day geometry, shown over historical material as a reading grid. It is an anachronism, not evidence.

  1. 600 BC Babylonian World Map Mesopotamia
  2. 220 BC Eratosthenes' World Alexandria
  3. AD 150 Ptolemy Geographia Alexandria
  4. AD 210 Forma Urbis Romae Rome
  5. AD 400 Tabula Peutingeriana Roman Empire
  6. AD 570 Madaba mosaic map, Jerusalem detail Madaba and the Holy Land
  7. AD 1050 Saint-Sever Beatus world map Saint-Sever
  8. AD 1154 Al-Idrisi's Tabula Rogeriana Sicily
  9. AD 1235 Ebstorf world map Ebstorf
  10. AD 1250 Psalter world map England
  11. AD 1255 Itinerary from London toward Jerusalem England to the Holy Land
  12. AD 1290 Carta Pisana Mediterranean
  13. AD 1295 Second Novgorod Schra, Riga copy Novgorod / Riga
  14. AD 1300 Hereford Mappa Mundi Hereford
  15. AD 1311 Eastern Mediterranean portolan Eastern Mediterranean
  16. AD 1321 Western Mediterranean from a portolan atlas Western Mediterranean
  17. AD 1335 Portolan chart of the Mediterranean and Black Seas Mediterranean and Black Seas
  18. AD 1436 Portolan leaves from the Andrea Bianco atlas Venice
  19. AD 1458 Bruges privilege charters, 1458–1502 Bruges
  20. AD 1459 Fra Mauro world map Venice
  21. AD 1466 Portolan chart of the Mediterranean Mediterranean
  22. AD 1472 T–O map in the first printed Etymologiae Augsburg
  23. AD 1475 World map in the Rudimentum Novitiorum Lübeck
  24. AD 1475 Rudimentum Novitiorum world map, Lübeck copy witness Lübeck
  25. AD 1493 Nuremberg in the Liber Chronicarum Nuremberg
  26. AD 1500 View of Venice Venice
  27. AD 1507 Waldseemüller World Map Saint-Dié
  28. AD 1532 Honterus' Transylvania Transylvania
  29. AD 1539 Carta Marina et descriptio septemtrionalium terrarum Northern Europe
  30. AD 1544 Portolan atlas of nine charts and a world map Venice
  31. AD 1551 Pianta di Roma Rome
  32. AD 1554 London Kontor by-laws, 1554 London
  33. AD 1561 Civitas Londinum (the Agas map) London
  34. AD 1569 Mercator Projection Duisburg
  35. AD 1570 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1, state 1.1 Antwerp
  36. AD 1570 Ortelius Theatrum Antwerp
  37. AD 1571 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1, early impression Antwerp
  38. AD 1572 Civitates Orbis Terrarum Cologne and a world of cities
  39. AD 1572 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1, 1572 impression Antwerp
  40. AD 1575 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1, state 1.3 Antwerp
  41. AD 1579 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1, state 1.4 Antwerp
  42. AD 1581 The world in a clover leaf Magdeburg
  43. AD 1584 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 1, state 1.5 Antwerp
  44. AD 1587 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 2, state 2.1 Antwerp
  45. AD 1588 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 2, state 2.3 Antwerp
  46. AD 1593 Lübeck, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum, volume I Lübeck
  47. AD 1593 Hamburg, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum, volume I Hamburg
  48. AD 1593 London and the Stilliards, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum London
  49. AD 1593 Bruges, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum, volume I Bruges
  50. AD 1593 Cologne, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum, volume I Cologne
  51. AD 1593 Bremen, from the four-city Civitates plate Bremen
  52. AD 1613 Typus Orbis Terrarum, plate 3, state 3.2 Antwerp
  53. AD 1633 Bergen Kontor court books, 1633–1759 Bergen
  54. AD 1739 Plan de Turgot Paris
  55. AD 1744 Carte de Cassini France
  56. AD 1748 Nuova Pianta di Roma Rome
  57. AD 1791 Specht Map of Dacia Romania
  58. AD 1899 Sanborn fire insurance map of Buffalo, volume 1 Buffalo
  59. AD 1972 The Blue Marble Global

Research reuse

Cite the Atlas data

Each citation identifies the exact content-addressed asset. The complete bundle is release geo-6119a6295e783783.

Natural Earth - Coastline geojson · 134 features · Public Domain

Source: Natural Earth

 
Natural Earth - Land outline geojson · 127 features · Public Domain

Source: Natural Earth

 
Natural Earth - Rivers geojson · 13 features · Public Domain

Source: Natural Earth

 
Modern national boundaries geojson · 331 features · Public Domain

Source: Natural Earth

 
Depicted extents (corpus) geojson · 15 features · CC BY

Source: Terra Chartarum (authored)

 
Roman Empire, AD 117 geojson · 112 features · ODbL 1.0

Source: Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC), UNC Chapel Hill - roman_empire_ce_117_extent

 
Venetian maritime ports, c.1200–1500 flatgeobuf · 86 features · CC BY

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Lane 1973; O'Connell 2009

 
Venetian galley routes (mude), c.1200–1500 flatgeobuf · 7 features · CC BY

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Lane 1973

 
Venetian possessions, c.1200–1500 flatgeobuf · 11 features · CC BY

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Lane 1973; O'Connell 2009

 
Hanseatic places and participation phases geojson · 60 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - HSE gazetteer KAN-306/307

 
Hanseatic trade corridors geojson · 7 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - HSE network KAN-308

 
Hanseatic institutional events geojson · 17 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - HSE events KAN-308

 
Dacia name attestations (reviewed) geojson · 0 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Corpus Nominum Daciae 0.1, KAN-337

 
Dacia name attestations (research tier, unreviewed) geojson · 130 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Corpus Nominum Daciae 1.0 release-candidate research tier, KAN-364

 
Roman Dacia · principal sites geojson · 14 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Roman Dacia baseline, KAN-341

 
Roman Dacia · roads and frontier corridors geojson · 9 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Roman Dacia baseline, KAN-341

 
Principalities and provinces, 1526-1859 geojson · 12 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - principality phases 1526-1859, KAN-342

 
Josephinian survey · sheet index geojson · 15 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Josephinian sheet index, KAN-343

 
Treaty frontiers, 1829-1947 geojson · 8 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - treaty frontier phases 1829-1947, KAN-352

 
Terra Australis, the conjectured south (unreviewed) geojson · 1 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Antarctic knowledge pilot ant-pilot-0.1, KAN-423

 
Antarctic expedition tracks (unreviewed) geojson · 5 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Antarctic knowledge pilot ant-pilot-0.1, KAN-428

 
Antarctic observations and fixes (unreviewed) geojson · 46 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Antarctic knowledge pilot ant-pilot-0.1, KAN-425

 
Ghost geographies (contract only, no positions located) geojson · 0 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Antarctic ghost geographies, KAN-426

 
Matthew Paris itinerary: stages at modern positions (unreviewed) geojson · 14 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Crusades pilot cru-pilot-0.1, KAN-386

 
Fourth Crusade: the routes travelled (unreviewed) geojson · 2 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Crusades pilot cru-pilot-0.1, KAN-387

 
Fourth Crusade: diversion and assaults (unreviewed) geojson · 3 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Crusades pilot cru-pilot-0.1, KAN-387

 
The Holy Land as a network: the ports (unreviewed) geojson · 4 features · CC BY 4.0

Source: Terra Chartarum (compiled) - Crusades pilot cru-pilot-0.1, KAN-438

 

Cross-essay radar

Compare arguments, then inspect their vocabularies

The six shared scores are editorial discovery aids normalized from 0–1. They make a visual comparison possible; they do not make different essays, sources, or native concepts naturally commensurable.

Measure Witness Use Cosmos Power Silence
Compare the silhouette, then switch to Native lenses to see the terms that were mapped into it.

One timeline, every essay

Note: the scale is deliberately non-linear - a critical atlas measures time the way its maps measured space, with its own compressions and silences.