Discussion Questions

The following are questions for use in relation to this online exhibit.

Required Questions  

  • What role do received earlier views of the world play in the transition to new views?
  • Do revolutions in worldview happen suddenly or do they take a long time?

History of Mapping (Cartography) Questions

Choose TWO to answer:

1. What changes do you see in these books in the geographical understanding of the world over time?

2. What was a “portolan” map? In what book(s) did you see portolan mapping used in world maps? (See 150 Waldseemuller and 1561 Ruscelli parts of the exhibit.

3. Look at the map projections that you see in the exhibit.

Compare two of them on  their strengths and weaknesses for representing the world accurately, or even just aesthetically.

Projections appear here:

  • 1511 Sylvanus figure 3 for cordiform projection
  • 1520 Apian figure 2 for cordiform projection
  • 1545 Munster figures 3 and 4  for Ptolemaic projections 
  • 1571 Ortelius figure 2 and 3 for oval projection
  • 1597-98 Cenoti figure 3 for oval projection and figures 5 and 6 for Mercator-like projection
  • 1621 Mercator figure 2 for double-hemisphere projection.

4. How late into the 16th century was Ptolemy’s book Geography still being used as a framework or way of introducing results of global exploration?

History of Astronomy Questions 

Choose TWO to answer:

1. Look at page 181 (Figure 4) of Tycho Brahe’s Epistolarum Astronomicarum. What information do you think is contained in the chart on this page? What might it have been used for?

2. Look at the diagrams starting on page 59 (Figures 2, 3, and 4) of Galileo’s work. What do they show? What instruments might Galileo have needed to make these observations?

3. Look at page 132 (Figure 2) of Kepler’s Astronomia Nova. Which individuals are referenced in the diagram?

4. Look at the diagram on pages 464-465 (Figure 4) of Newton’s Principia. What does it show? Why might this have been important in demonstrating the theory of universal gravitation?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion Questions