Columbus' map reveals more secrets: Scans uncover new locations and written passages on Martellus Atlas
- Martellus Map made in 1491 is faded so that place names are illegible
- US scientists have used multispectral imaging to uncover hidden details
- These so far include the location of Japan and passages from travellers
- Map - or a copy of it - is said to have been used by Christopher Columbus
In 1491, German cartographer Henricus Martellus created a map of the world that is thought to have helped Christopher Columbus navigate the Atlantic.
Today, the map is finally revealing its secrets including hundreds of place names and more than 60 written passages.
One example is information about Japan, which is marked in the wrong place on the 15th century map.
The Martellus Map (pictured brightened) which was created in 1491 and is said to have been used by Christopher Columbus to navigate the Atlantic, has started to reveal its secrets because faded passages and locations have started to be deciphered by scientists
The map, or a copy of it, is believed to have been used by Columbus to plan his first voyage across the Atlantic, which took place in 1492.
It depicts the Earth's surface from the Atlantic in the west to Japan in the east and is surrounded with descriptions in Latin of various regions and civilisations.
But until now, the six-by-four-foot map has given up few of its secrets, because of severe fading on its surface.
Now a team of researchers at Yale University is using a technique called multispectral imaging to uncover the hidden information that Columbus had at his fingertips.
Now a team of researchers in the US is using a technique called multispectral imaging to uncover the hidden information that Columbus had at his fingertips.This image shows some of the technology used
So far, experts have revealed hundreds of place names and more than 60 written passages on the faded map. One of them indicates that Japan (marked) is positioned 1,000 miles from the coast of Asia
They have used 12 frequencies of light, from ultraviolet to infrared, as well as imaging tools and layering techniques to decipher certain words and passages.
The images are digitally combined and processed in a way that uncovers information otherwise hidden to the naked eye.
For example, the Lazarus Project has revealed a passage about Japan, which on the map is shown 1,000 miles (1,609 km) from the coast of Asia.
When Columbus arrived on the Bahamas, he thought it was Japan - a mistake that would be in keeping with where the Asian country was located on Martellus' map.
Hidden text on the map says: 'This island is 1,000 miles from the continent of the province of Mangi [China]; the people have their own language and the circumference of the island is [illegible] miles,' Smithsonian reported.
Martellus’s descriptions for Asia are predominantly inspired by Marco Polo's 13th century writings, while other passages are borrowed from Ptolemy, a Greco-Egyptian writer and polymath born in around 90AD.
For example, a description of the Sahara reads: 'Sachara, a region of nomads, for it has no cities or towns, but they live in the woods and caves'.
One passage of writing included on the map is taken from the 'Hortus Sanitatis,' an illustrated encyclopedia penned in 1491, and hints that smoking serpents live in Africa.
When Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, he thought it was Japan - a mistake in keeping with where the country was located on Martellus' map. The map bears similarities with Waldseemüller's world map (pictured) of 1507
Christopher Columbus took a work of fiction called ‘The Travels of Sir John Mandeville’ with him, which was a 14th century account of the travels of an English knight throughout Ethiopia, India, China and the Holy Land. The book featured monsters including Pygmies with no mouths (pictured)
A clearer text box over northern Asia describes the 'Balor' people who 'live without wine or wheat and get their nutrients from deer meat'. But much of the other text is illegible.
Columbus (above) used a copy of the Maretllus Atlas to plan his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492
The map was scanned at Yale University last year, and is currently being held at the university's Beinecke Library.
As well as uncovering hidden details about civilisations depicted in the map, multispectral imaging could shed light on the history of map building.
For instance, the Martellus map has similarities to Martin Waldseemüller's world map of 1507 – the first map to apply the name 'America' to the New World.
In 2012, Chet Van Duzer, a map historian and the team leader for the project had infrared and ultraviolet images taken of the Martellus map, which revealed enough of the hidden text to show that the map was a key source for Waldseemüller's 1507 map.
'One of the most exciting images I've ever seen of a map is an ultraviolet image of the Martellus map taken in the early '60s,' Professor Van Duzer told Wired.
'If you look at eastern Asia with natural light, if you look closely, you get a hint that there's text there, but if you look in ultraviolet light suddenly you see that there's text everywhere.'
He said at the time that extracting legible text from all those images will take a lot of imaging processing and analysis.
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