******Note: From time to time old posts are resurfaced on this blog. This one is from Jan 5, 2011. A relative recently saw these maps in person but unfortunately said it was too dark in the hall to take good pictures.******

I’ve been doing a little thinking about map disclaimers lately. This led me to the creative exercise of trying to imagine what the disclaimers on historic maps, if there had been disclaimers, would have said. Perhaps something like, “Beware the dragons in the western seas, the producers of this map are not responsible in the event of your death by a dragon or any other related water beast.”

In the Gallery of Maps in Vatican City, Rome, there are 40 huge maps on the walls created by the 16th century cartographer Ignazio Danti*. If the commissioner of the maps, Pope Gregory XIII, had required Danti to include map disclaimers I imagine they might have said something like this:

Pope Gregory XIII provides these data as is. The Vatican Palace, Rome, is not responsible for any adverse outcomes associated with using these maps for the administration of the state, merchandise freight calculations, voyaging or other such uses. The locations of episcopal and archiepiscopal seats, cypress trees, castles, and battlements are not at a survey scale and are not complete.

*These maps are extremely accurate given the limitations of the instruments at the time and the sheer scope of the project. At that time, the tools used to determine geographic location were: compasses, Astrolabes, and gnomons (the part of a sundial that sticks up and creates a shadow).