Antique Cartography vs Heraldry
Antique Cartography is the cross-discipline counterpart of Heraldry.
Antique Cartography
The ornate maps of the great age of exploration, where geography shares the sheet with elaborate cartouches, compass roses, and sea monsters. Information and decoration intertwine, turning each map into a printed argument about the world.
- Ornamental strapwork title cartouches
- Compass roses and radiating rhumb lines
- Sea monsters and ships filling open water
- Engraved copperplate line with hand coloring
- Allegorical figures and heraldry in the margins
Heraldry
A rigorous medieval system of identity-by-emblem, in which shields are divided and charged according to strict rules and described in a specialized verbal language called blazon. It is design as grammar: a finite vocabulary of tinctures and charges combined into endless unique marks.
- Limited tincture palette of metals and colors
- Rule of tincture forbidding color-on-color
- Stylized charges (lions, eagles, fleurs-de-lis)
- Geometric field divisions and ordinaries
- Verbal blazon that fully specifies each design
At a glance
| Antique Cartography | Heraldry | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 16th–18th century | c. 1150–present |
| Discipline | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Region | Netherlands, Italy, Western Europe | Western Europe, British Isles |
| Family | Pre-modern, Cartographic | Pre-modern, Symbolic |
| Formal traits | engraved, ornamental, hand-colored, illustrated | flat-color, emblematic, ornamental, high-contrast |
More comparisons
Advertisement