imagine the deadlines on these kinds of maps. or the amount of time spent at sea, anchored simply for the sake of charting a coastline or earthly feature. besides monks, who were educated enough to map during this time period, let alone spell? imagine the effort involved and the financiers expectations. and further, imagine that financiers risk of footing the money to have a relatively inexperienced person be sent off to sea to return at an unknown time with an ‘accurate’ image of the lands beyond sight. not only were these people figuring out how to chart the maps, they were applying a level of art to their work which was so technical. the borders were glorified, lettering styles were developed, family crests were painstakingly detailed and little sketches of unique ethnicity and kingly creatures were used to occupy the areas unknown. only the imagination of the unknown or challenges of the sea could have sparked that kind of effort and attention. why don’t we see this kind of effort and attention, or at least a basic application of art, in today’s technical drawings? why aren’t today’s requests for technical drawings to be held to this standard?
