Lovely, if not exactly accurate, view of the Pyramids and Sphinx set in a very green Cairo, from the celebrated atlas Civitates Orbis Terrarum, published between 1572 and 1617 by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg. This famous atlas has maps of all the major towns and cities @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Late in the evening OTD 1912 RMS Titanic hits one of the icebergs shown on this June 1912 chart of the North Atlantic. The Bodleian holds the Marconi archive and before the ship sank telegrams were sent both from the ship and to others in the area like this one, calling for help. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

What a brilliant map, thanks for linking it

OTD 1912 RMS Titanic is midway on it's journey to New York. This comprehensive 1914 map by George Philip & Son shows shipping routes across the Atlantic, with the Titanic on one of the red lines south of Newfoundland. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

OTD 1912 RMS Titanic leaves berth 44, White Star Dock Southampton after taking on passengers, most of whom arrive at the Ocean Terminal train station. Ordnance Survey map from 1919, plan of Southampton Docks 1962. On route hundreds of nautical miles away the icebergs lie in wait @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

OTD 1727 this French map was made showing British Naval ships off Gibraltar to help end a siege started by the Spanish in February. he map shows English ships under Vice Admiral Wager and the bombardment of Spanish forces in what is know called the Thirteenth siege of Gibraltar @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

OTD 1912 RMS Titanic leaves the Thompson Gravity Dock in Belfast to sail to Southampton, at the same time icebergs were mapped in the Atlantic. Dock plan from 1922 Ordnance Survey map, Icebergs from Atlantic Pilot map May 1912, warnings from 1864 map. More Titanic posts to follow @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

A gloriously colourful frontispiece from this English printing, 1606 of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 'set forth by that excellent geographer Abraham Ortelius'. The 4 known continents shown, with Europe at top. The riot of colour continues on the next page with the crest of King James @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

OTD 1834, Easter Sunday, Anne Lister of Gentleman Jack fame 'took sacrament here to seal her union with Ann Walker'. Here being Holy Trinity Church, York, seen on a 1748 map and Ordnance Survey maps from 1852, with roof off, and in pink from 1891 @annelistersociety.bsky.social @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

According to the venerable Bede 18th March was the 1st day of Creation. In sequence Adam was created on the 23rd. Here's Eden from Edward Quin's historical atlas of 1830, clouds part to reveal more of the World as we move through historical time, finishing with the peace of 1828 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Lovely representations of lighthouses in French nautical charts of Algeria and the north African coast from maps from the 180s and 1870s. The yellow shows the area the light is directed and the figures with the main lights giving distance of observed light out to sea @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Did you know that your discarded orange peel takes longer to break down then your sweaty woollen walking socks? Information on the back of a beautiful trekking map of the Huayhuash cordillera in Peru, 2004. Also includes detailed instructions on building a campfire toilet @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Today is World Book Day. Surveyor and cartographer Mark Pierce has included himself in his famous map of Laxton, 1635, writing and reading the book he has made to go with his map. Read more and see this remarkable map here storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/32b7... @bodleian.ox.ac.uk @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Perfect cartographic recycling! Paper supply shortages towards the end of World War II led to resourceful British Army mapmakers printing a map in a series for the invasion of Germany on the back of a captured German map made 4 years before for the planned invasion of Britain @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Dark and atmospheric covers for Romanian mountain guides, late 1940s and early 1950s. Each guide has a map, and the title means 'Our mountains'. Guides for the Bucegi, Retezat and Piatra Craiului mountains. Happy climbing... @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

A fiery Sun and icy Moon from 'Atlas Minor' by Nicolaus Visscher, printed in Amsterdam circa 1650. These both appear on a page showing the constellations of the zodiac, where there's also a pictorial representation of a solar eclipse. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Captain Greenville Collins, 'Hydrographer in Ordinary to the Kings and Queens most excellent Majasties' produced a coasting pilot in 1693 which included cartouches with Viking ships, a dedication to Samuel Pepys and a wonderful frontispiece with water nymphs, gods and Britannia @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

OTD 1740 this map was printed, possibly on one of the printing presses shown on the map, to celebrate a 'Frost Fayre' on the Thames, which had been frozen all winter. The ice was thick enough for games such as nine pins to be played or an ox to be roasted. Cold indeed. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

In Speed's atlas, 1611, is this image, with text 'But success of warr altering Maud the Emperese to save her owne life adventured to throwe the host her enimie, layde in a coffin fayned to be dead, and soe was carryed in a horse litter from Winchester'. Maud's escape was in 1141 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

'Birdstrikes can ruin your whole day and most of your aircraft'. Probably not much fun for the bird either. These warnings from Falkland Island maps made during and after the 1982 war show how the war and post-war reconstruction had to coexist with the animal life on the islands @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

It's Penguin Appreciation day today, here's one of the earliest we can find on a map, from John Senex's 'South America corrected from the observations comunicated to the Royal Society’s of London & Paris', 1710. More on the map here blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2019/02... @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

In the natural history section of an 1849 atlas of natural phenomena, 'made with the co-operation of men eminent in the different departments of science', are wonderful pictures of animals of the old and new worlds, including an unusual 'perpendicular' map of wildlife habitat @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Willem Jansz Blaeu

In a section in a 1639 Dutch navigational manual is a dial showing how to use a mariner's astrolabe to measure altitude at sea to find latitude. From the same volume this lovely diagram on the use of a back-staff to measure the sun's altitude @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

A ploughing scene also appears on this 1941 map by the artist Eric Gill to mark the signing of the Atlantic Charter between Britain and the U.S. in 1941, with a quote from the Book of Isiah, 'They shall beat their swords into plowshares...' blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2019/07... @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Today is Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany, when agricultural labourers would start to plough the fields in preparation for sowing and planting crops. Hopefully the end result would be as beautiful as these fields, from a manuscript map of Hunsdon House, Herts, c1820 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

"Who is the man who appears unexpectedly in an OS map..?"

Where better to live at this time of year than Christmas Common? One of many Christmas locations in the World this is the one nearest to us here at the Bodleian on a map. Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, is probably the most famous, first seen on Christmas Day, 1643 @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Today is International Mountain Day. Here are covers for Snowdon (1,085 metres), for a Soviet map of the Teberda region of the Caucasus mountains (over 4000 m in places) and of the Zermatt region of Switzerland with the Matterhorn, 4,478 m, on the cover. Happy climbing everyone. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

A grim 'X marks the spot'. Wilson is Major Allan Wilson, who led a small unit of British South African soldiers in the 1st Matabele War. On the 3rd and 4th of December 1893 they came up against a much larger force of Matabele warriors along the Shangani River, in modern Zimbabwe. @bodleian.ox.ac.uk