Evaluating Map Projections for Globe Production

Cartographic globes have been in production since for more than 2100 years, though the oldest surviving example is from 1490’s. Though no longer used as a navigational aid, globes remain in high demand as scientific and artistic artefacts. However, the cartographic quality of most modern globes is poor, in part due to a lack of detailed evaluation of the mathematical approach to their creation. This work provides the first detailed evaluation of map projection for manuscript globe production, (those in which paper maps are attached to a sphere) and quantitatively demonstrates the most suitable projection.