Multi-spectral Imaging of the World Map by Henricus Martellus (c. 1491) at the Beinecke Library, Yale University

FAIN: PW-51707-14

Early Manuscripts Electronic Library (Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274-4182)
Chet Adam Van Duzer (Project Director: July 2013 to April 2016)

Multi-spectral imaging and digitization of a 15th-century world map, drawn by Henricus Martellus, a German cartographer who worked in Florence, and documenting knowledge of cartography and the world's geography at the time.

This proposal seeks NEH funding to create and make available to scholars and the interested public world-wide multi-spectral images of one of the most important and influential maps of the fifteenth century, which was made by Henricus Martellus and resides in the Beinecke Library at Yale. This large and unique map probably influenced the geographical ideas of Christopher Columbus, but fading and scuffing of the map have rendered most of the texts on the maps illegible. Multispectral images of the map should render many of those texts legible, and thus make deep scholarly study of the map possible. The images would be made permanently and freely available to the public for use via the internet on the Beinecke Digital Library in both Jpeg2000 and TIFF formats.

Media Coverage

Multispectral Imaging Could Reveal Secrets Of Martellus Map (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Melissa Block (interviewer)
Publication: National Public Radio’s All Things Considered
Date: 9/17/2014
Abstract: Melissa Block's interview of Chet Van Duzer about the NEH-funded project to make multispectral images of the world map by Henricus Martellus at Yale.
URL: http://www.npr.org/2014/09/17/349329479/multispectral-imaging-could-reveal-secrets-of-martellus-map

Misterios del mapa de 1491 que guió a Colón (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Carolina Martín Adalid
Publication: El Mundo
Date: 6/21/2015
Abstract: Newspaper article about the NEH-funded project to make multispectral images of the world map by Henricus Martellus at Yale.
URL: http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2015/06/21/55854fc722601d5d638b457d.html

Is this the Map that took Christopher Columbus to the New World? (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Ishaan Tharoor
Publication: Washington Post
Date: 6/23/2015
Abstract: Newspaper article about the NEH-funded project to make multispectral images of the world map by Henricus Martellus at Yale.
URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/06/23/is-this-the-map-that-took-christopher-columbus-to-the-new-world/

Associated Products

Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging, Sources, Influence (Book)
Title: Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging, Sources, Influence
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Abstract: Provides the first transcriptions and translations to texts and place names on the Yale Martellus map, one of the most important of the fifteenth century Offers transcriptions and English translations of many of the previously-unstudied texts on Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map Highly illustrated and accompanied by online access to many more downloadable high-resolution multispectral images of the Martellus map, an essential resource for further study
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-76840-3
Publisher: Springer
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9783319768397
Copy sent to NEH?: No

“Multispectral Imaging for the Study of Historic Maps: The Example of Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale” (Article)
Title: “Multispectral Imaging for the Study of Historic Maps: The Example of Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale”
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Abstract: This article shows the benefits that can be brought to the study of historical maps through multispectral imaging by briefly examining its use on the large world map made by Henricus Martellus c. 1491, now in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Multispectral imaging can be used to recover text from manuscripts and maps damaged by fading, water, fire, over-painting, palimpsesting, and wrinkling. The Yale Martellus map was suspected to be of great historical importance, and to have served as a model for Martin Waldseemüller in the creation of his 1507 world map, but as most of the text on the map had faded to illegibility or invisibility, it was an almost unstudyable object. Pairs of natural light and multispectral images are used to show the success of the procedure.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085694.2016.1107378
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Imago Mundi 68.1 (2016), pp. 62-66

“Las imágenes multiespectrales para el estudio de los mapas históricos: El ejemplo del mapa del mundo de Henricus Martellus en Yale” (Book Section)
Title: “Las imágenes multiespectrales para el estudio de los mapas históricos: El ejemplo del mapa del mundo de Henricus Martellus en Yale”
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Editor: Diego Jiménez-Badillo
Abstract: Este artículo demuestra los beneficios que puede aportar el uso de imágenes multiespectrales para el estudio de los mapas históricos a partir por un análisis de su aplicación al estudio del gran mapa del mundo hecho por Henricus Martellus c. 1491, ahora en la Biblioteca Beinecke a la Universidad de Yale. Las imágenes multiespectrales pueden recuperar texto de los manuscritos y mapas dañados por la decoloración, el agua, el fuego, pintura por encima, deterioro, y las arrugas ocasionadas por el paso del tiempo. Ya se sospechaba que el mapa de Martellus de Yale tenía una gran importancia histórica (entre otras cosas por haber servido de modelo a Martin Waldseemüller para la creación de su mapa del mundo de 1507), pero como la mayor parte del texto del mapa se había desvanecido y resultaba ilegible o invisible, era un objeto casi imposible de estudiar. Aquí se expone pares de imágenes –una hecha en la luz natural y la otra multiespectral– para demostrar el éxito del procedimiento.
Year: 2018
Publisher: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
Book Title: Arqueología computacional: Nuevos enfoques para la documentación, análisis y difusión del patrimonio cultural

“New Light on Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging and Early Renaissance Cartography” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “New Light on Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging and Early Renaissance Cartography”
Abstract: In this talk I will give an account of a recent NEH-funded project to make multispectral images of a world map made by Henricus Martellus in about 1491, which is held by the Beinecke Library at Yale. This large map has long been thought to be one of the most important of the fifteenth century, and was thought to have influenced Martin Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507, but the many texts on the map were illegible due to fading and damage, and thus its exact place in Renaissance cartography was impossible to determine. The new multispectral images have rendered many of the previously illegible texts on the map legible. I will explain why the Martellus map was an excellent candidate for multispectral imaging, describe the process of making the images, show some of the results, and give an account of the place of the Martellus map in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century cartography.
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Date: 3/18/2015
Location: Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology
Primary URL: http://www.cis.rit.edu/event/new-light-henricus-martellus%E2%80%99s-world-map-yale-c-1491-multispectral-imaging-and-earlys

“Bringing to Life the World Map of Henricus Martellus (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging and Early Renaissance Cartography” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Bringing to Life the World Map of Henricus Martellus (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging and Early Renaissance Cartography”
Abstract: Delivered as part of the Yale Lectures in Medieval Studies-- In this talk I will give an account of a recent NEH-funded project to make multispectral images of a world map made by Henricus Martellus in about 1491, which is held by the Beinecke Library at Yale. This large map has long been thought to be one of the most important of the fifteenth century, and was thought to have influenced Martin Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507, but the many texts on the map were illegible due to fading and damage, and thus its exact place in Renaissance cartography was impossible to determine. The new multispectral images have rendered many of the previously illegible texts on the map legible. I will explain why the Martellus map was an excellent candidate for multispectral imaging, describe the process of making the images, show some of the results, and give an account of the place of the Martellus map in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century cartography.
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Date: 11/17/2015
Location: Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Yale University

“Rediscovering Text in the Yale Martellus Map: Spectral Imaging and the New Cartography” (Book Section)
Title: “Rediscovering Text in the Yale Martellus Map: Spectral Imaging and the New Cartography”
Author: Michael Phelps
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Author: Roger L. Easton
Author: Kevin Sacca
Author: Kenneth Boydston
Author: Gregory Heyworth
Abstract: A world map painted by Henricus Martellus c. 1491 is widely acknowledged to be of great importance in the history of cartography, but has been little studied since it came to the attention of scholars in 1959 because the pigments used to write the descriptive texts and place names has faded or flaked off of the surface. Spectral images of this map collected in August 2014 have been processed by several statistical methods, allowing much of the text to be recovered. The methods may be applied to other documents and for forensic applications.
Year: 2015
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc.
Book Title: 2015 IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), November 16-19, 2015, Rome, Italy, Proceedings

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