Maps and Macedonia

[Ptolemy]

1. Map of 1581

http://img204.imagevenue.com/img.php...1_122_26lo.jpg

The Belgian geographer Abraham Ortelius was appointed Geographer to the king of Spain in 1580. At the time the Low Countries were under Spanish control. This map of Greece was printed in 1581. It shows Macedonia, of course, as a part of Greece. It also shows that Greece existed then at least in the minds of geographers, even as it was subjugated to the Ottoman empire. The word Macedonia (MA - CE - DONIA) is written in three lines over the area of Mt Olympus). The map is clearly labelled as a map of “Graeciae Universae”, the “whole of Greece”.

It also shows Thessaloniki as “Salonichi”, the Gulf of Thessalonica as Golfo de Salonichi and modern FYROM as TOPLIZA.

2. Map between 1600-1630


http://img130.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_790lo.jpg

Jodocus Hondius was a Dutch mapmaker and engraver from Amsterdam. This is a map of his published sometime between 1600-1630 and based on the Gerard Mercator Atlas, an earlier standard, contemporary to the Ortelius maps. The maps became known as the Mercator-Hondius maps. The map is clearly labelled GRAECIA. It shows Macedonia as a part of Greece, at the time subjugated to the Ottoman empire. The word Macedonia in four lines (MA-CE-DO-NIA) is written over the area of Pieria and Mt Olympus. It also shows Thessalonica (and not the wishful thinking of FYROM nationalists) and its location.

3. Map of 1599

http://img231.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_501lo.jpg


Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) founded one of history’s greatest cartographic publishing firms in 1599. Using skills learned from the celebrated Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, Blaeu set up a shop in Amsterdam as a globe and scientific instrument maker. He soon expanded the business to include map, chart and book publishing.

This map, published by his company after his death, shows Greece at the time subjugated to the Ottoman empire, as indicated also by the Turks in the bottom left hand corner, around the label. The word Macedonia is written in three lines (MACE-DO-NIA) over the western part of modern Macedonia (in Greece). The words Castoria and Thessalonica are also just visible, as well as G. de Thessalonica, the Gulf of Thessalonica. The Slavonic words Kostur and Solun are absent from the European maps. These maps also ridicule the claim that Greece did not exist until 1830.

4. Map of 1707

http://img126.imagevenue.com/img.php...122_1136lo.jpg

French map of Greece by Guillaune de L’Isle published originally for the Royal Academy of Science in Paris. This copy is from 1707, published by Covens et Mortier in Amsterdam. Macedonia is of course a part of Greece.

Detail of the map above showing Macedonia

http://img129.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_997lo.jpg

[Dr. House]

nice but not goot enough ...

[Victor]

Bye-bye DR.SErboman!

[rtgs]

the maps are very very unreadable. from what i see on the last one, they are not exactly accurate (the rivers - vardar, struma, bistrica, ...) and lakes, have very unusual position. So, I would like to see where is "macedonia". But from what i see - Skopje is IN Macedonia, or at least there is NO other name of the region surrounded with mountains, except: Mace - do - nia".

Would you like to send me BIGGER pictures, if you do not hide anything?

[Victor]

I can read them just fine.MAybe if you had a better job you could afford a good computer.