De Islanda Insvla

August 12, 2014 12:27 PM

Íslandskort is a digital collection of historical maps of Iceland put online in high quality pdf-files and jpegs by the National Library of Iceland. Here are a few of my favorites: 1, 2, 3. You can either browse a timeline of all the maps or browse categories such as first maps of Iceland, Iceland on sea charts in the 17th and 18th centuries and other maps, which includes maps of Frisland (1, 2), a phantom island that bedeviled cartographers for centuries.
posted by Kattullus (3 comments total)

Nice! I can see some details on some of the early 20th century maps that seem like some of the fishing booths I helped excavated over near Snaefellsjokull. Going to send this to my buddy who's part of the crew involved in that project.
posted by ursus_comiter at 12:58 PM on August 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thanks, Kattullus! Missing my time their already!
posted by JauntyFedora at 3:59 PM on August 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

I love the ones from the #3 link. I have a slightly different version of that (not as good, damn!) framed and up on the wall.

If I were an evil archvillain, I would definitely have a whole bunch of old maps up on the walls, especially ones with crazy sea creatures in them.
posted by dogwalker at 10:10 PM on August 12, 2014 [1 favorite]