Mapping out the world
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The Alexandrian scholar Ptolemy was born around 100 CE and is credited as being one of the first to use latitude and longitude to describe relative positions of places. No original maps survive from Ptolemy’s time but later scholars used his calculations, based on astronomical observations, to create atlases such as this one which was published in 1482 in Germany. Earlier map makers had used size and position to represent the relative importance in the world.
Reference: Ptolemy, Cosmographia (1482) AE093/1482/3
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