Ryhiner maps collection
July 11, 2008 12:29 PM   Subscribe

The Ryhiner Collection of maps has over 16000 images of world maps from 16th through 19th century. There are maps of every part of the world as well as sky maps, historical maps and optical views, caricatures & other drawings. All are viewable in high detail.
posted by Kattullus (16 comments total) 48 users marked this as a favorite
 
Huzzah! Old maps + high detail are a winning recipe for my affections.
posted by redsparkler at 1:02 PM on July 11, 2008


Some of the maps are oversharpened to the extreme; other images are okay. Nice find, though I don't like Zoomify much.
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:03 PM on July 11, 2008


This is me favoriting this post. Thanks for the link.
posted by vito90 at 1:12 PM on July 11, 2008


Beautiful maps. Too bad about the crappy viewer.

However in the case of, for example, the map at:

http://www.zb.unibe.ch/maps/ryhiner/sammlung/index.php?group=volume&dir=1001&pic=Ryh_1001_10.jpg

the component jpegs' are located at:

http://www.zb.unibe.ch/maps/ryhiner/images/zoomify/1001/Ryh_1001_10/TileGroup0/
&
http://www.zb.unibe.ch/maps/ryhiner/images/zoomify/1001/Ryh_1001_10/TileGroup1/

so it shouldn't be too hard to write a script to download and composite together a whole map.
posted by signal at 1:54 PM on July 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


If someone would write such a script, that would be amazing.
posted by Kattullus at 2:03 PM on July 11, 2008


Doing a test run, the first number is the zoom level, and second the x coordinate and the 3rd the y coordinate, so 0-0-0.jpg is the whole map at thumbnail size, 1-0-0.jpg is the top left corner at the first zoom in level, etc.
posted by signal at 2:04 PM on July 11, 2008


Oh, and you can see the available TileGroup folders one level up:

http://www.zb.unibe.ch/maps/ryhiner/images/zoomify/1001/Ryh_1001_10/

If I have time, Kattullus, I'll write something tonight. If not, isn't it time you learnt Python already?
posted by signal at 2:05 PM on July 11, 2008


Very nice post! I've got a couple of those maps of Ukraine.
posted by Kabanos at 2:09 PM on July 11, 2008


signal: If not, isn't it time you learnt Python already?

I'll get right on that once I've learned Latin, Parsi, HTML and how to make a proper moo shu tofu.
posted by Kattullus at 2:15 PM on July 11, 2008


Oh, and how to say Farsi.
posted by Kattullus at 2:19 PM on July 11, 2008


Holy crap, this is wonderful. Here's Moscow in 1771, before they created the artificial island in the river across from the Kremlin that separates the central city from Zamoskvorechye (and, of course, before the place burned down in 1812). I don't find the interface that big a problem, but it annoys me that I have to click on "Bibliographic record" to find out what the image is; couldn't they have put that information on the same page? But the hell with the quibbles—thanks for the post!

And to show my appreciation: in English it's FAR-see, in Farsi it's pretty much for-SEE, with a Spanish/Italian-style r. (It's the adjective from Fārs, which is the modern form of older Pārs, from Old Persian Pārsa, which gave rise to Greek Persis, hence Latin Persia, hence the older English name for Iran.)
posted by languagehat at 2:53 PM on July 11, 2008


Oops, you were just correcting your typo. Ah well, erudition wasted once again, like my never-finished dissertation.
posted by languagehat at 2:54 PM on July 11, 2008


Goodbye productivity.
posted by ruwan at 3:47 PM on July 11, 2008


Mmmm, maps.
posted by desjardins at 2:14 PM on July 16, 2008


Here's a python script I found to create a stitched picture... too bad I can't get it to work.
http://www.staremapy.cz/zoomify-analyza/
posted by senterstyle at 12:53 AM on July 17, 2008




« Older I am a stranger in your land, a wandering man...   |   I'm not here... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments