Erythraei Sive, Rubri Maris Periplus

Voyages and search for a direct route to India was a major incentive for the advancement of cartography and ship building. Maps are illustrations not only of geography and history but provide glimpses of the development of maritime technology. This world map by the cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1597), referencing Periplus of the Erythrean Sea from the 1st century AD, shows trading cities from the Mediterranean sea and Egypt to India and the East end of the Asian continent.

The inset from the map, enlarged on the right, shows sailing ships of the period as inferred from the Periplus text. Because of the extraordinary dangers of the Indian Ocean voyages and the valuable cargoes they carried, trading ships often travelled in groups.