The founder of mapping is believed to be Claudius Ptolemaeus, who wrote, in the first century, a work on geography which provided the coordinates of 6,000 places in what was then the “known” world. The work also stated methods to transfer the curved surface of the Earth to a flat surface.The first known maps are Arabian and Greek copies from around the 1200s. However, it was not until the 1400s that Ptolemaeus’ work was translated into Latin and the first printed maps appeared in 1472.

Likewise, nautical charts were also produced in the Mediterranean region, although without the use of projections. They were based solely on the dead reckoning of distances, directions, etc. of the so-called  “portolan” maps (Medieval sea charts). 

In the 1500s, cartography was a thriving business and many new maps and atlases saw the light of day made necessary by a dramatic increase in travel activities in connection with trade, study trips and exploration.

After the highly symbolic language of the Middle Ages, the more concrete science became the dominating force in cartography.