{"id":1837820,"date":"2025-03-12T18:13:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T22:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1837820"},"modified":"2025-03-12T18:15:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T22:15:35","slug":"multispectral-imaging-comes-to-a-15th-century-mappamundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/03\/multispectral-imaging-comes-to-a-15th-century-mappamundi\/","title":{"rendered":"Multispectral Imaging Comes to a 15th-Century Mappamundi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee is bringing in the Lazarus Project<\/a> to carry out multispectral imaging on a 1452 mappamundi by Giovanni Leardo<\/a>. This is the oldest map in the collection of the American Geographical Society Library, which is housed at UWM. The Lazarus Project<\/a> is a portable laboratory that brings multispectral imaging to the artifact, rather than the other way around (artifacts being fragile and all, and the Leardo mappamundi is no exception).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fascinating to watch for the first 10 minutes,\u201d [Lazarus Project board member Chet] Van Duzer said. \u201cAfter that, it\u2019s like watching paint dry.\u201d The map will be scanned with at least a dozen frequencies of light, and probably more, ranging from infrared through visible light up to ultraviolet. But in the months after taking the original images, \u201cthe real magic is in processing,\u201d Van Duzer said. Different combinations of images at different strengths may reveal faded writing that used various pigments of ink.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Previously: Multispectral Analysis Reveals Lost Details on a 16th-Century Portolan Chart<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee is bringing in the Lazarus Project to carry out multispectral imaging on a 1452 mappamundi by Giovanni Leardo. This is the oldest map in the collection of the American Geographical Society… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[472,1326,276],"class_list":["post-1837820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-antique-maps","tag-1400s","tag-map-preservation","tag-mappae-mundi","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1833772,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/08\/multispectral-analysis-reveals-lost-details-on-a-16th-century-portolan-chart\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837820,"position":0},"title":"Multispectral Analysis Reveals Lost Details on a 16th-Century Portolan Chart","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 August 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Excerpt from an enhanced version of Bartolomeu Velho\u2019s portolan chart of the east coast of North America, ca. 1560. Compare with the original. Library of Congress. The Library of Congress reports on how its Preservation Research and Testing Division used multispectral imaging to bring out previously illegible place names on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loc-portolan-multispectral.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loc-portolan-multispectral.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loc-portolan-multispectral.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loc-portolan-multispectral.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loc-portolan-multispectral.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/loc-portolan-multispectral.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1785808,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/06\/new-books-for-june-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837820,"position":1},"title":"New Books for June 2018","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 June 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Cartography. The big book coming out this month, in all senses of the word, is Cartography. by our friend Kenneth Field (Esri Press, 28 June). \"This sage compendium for contemporary mapmakers distills the essence of cartography into useful topics, organized for convenience in finding the specific idea or method you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cartography-kenneth-field-244x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1814017,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/04\/virginia-norwood-1927-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837820,"position":2},"title":"Virginia Norwood, 1927-2023","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 April 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"Virginia Norwood, called \u201cthe mother of Landsat\u201d for her invention of Landsat 1\u2019s multispectral scanner system, died on March 26th at the age of 96. See also Landsat\u2019s memorial. [Lat \u00d7 Long] Previously: The Mother of Landsat.","rel":"","context":"In "Obituaries"","block_context":{"text":"Obituaries","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/obituaries\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1785996,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/new-maps-of-pluto-and-charon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837820,"position":3},"title":"New Maps of Pluto and Charon","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 July 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"New global and topographic maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, have been published. The Icarus articles\u2014this one for Pluto, this one for Charon\u2014are behind a paywall, however, though I expect the maps themselves to be freely available at some point. To create the maps, New Horizons researchers, led\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tenzing-montes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tenzing-montes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tenzing-montes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/tenzing-montes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1791397,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/07\/the-mother-of-landsat\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837820,"position":4},"title":"The Mother of Landsat","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 July 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"Virginia Tower Northwood is sometimes called \u201cthe mother of Landsat\u201d for her invention of the multispectral scanner that was launched aboard Landsat 1. An alumna of MIT, she is the subject of this long profile by Alice Dragoon in the MIT Technology Review, which looks her entire career, which prior\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Industry"","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5539,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/earliest-known-astrolabe-confirmed-by-3d-imaging\/","url_meta":{"origin":1837820,"position":5},"title":"Earliest Known Astrolabe Confirmed by 3D Imaging","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"An artifact recovered in 2014 from the wreck of one of Vasco da Gama's exploring ships, the Esmerelda,\u00a0which sank in the Indian Ocean 1503, was believed to be an astrolabe, a navigation tool used to measure the inclination of celestial objects, but the 17.5-cm bronze disc appeared to lack any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Navigation"","block_context":{"text":"Navigation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/navigation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/astrolabe-warwick-277x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1837820"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837825,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837820\/revisions\/1837825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1837820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1837820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1837820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}