A map says to you, ‘Read me carefully,
follow me closely, doubt me not.’
It says, ‘I am the earth in the palm of your hand.
Without me, you are alone and lost.’
– Beryl Markham, West with the Night /via
Time travel with old books
Chronoscope World provides access to millions of old books. It is a viewer app for cultural heritage documents provided by dozens of libraries and archives around the world.
Learn how to browse IIIF books.
Time travel on old maps
Chronoscope World is a time machine to explore the history of the world by browsing maps dating back to 14th century B.C. More than 7,700 high-resolution maps can be displayed in a maps application on their correct geo location.
The search command finds the best fitting maps for the current view port. Results are presented as previews on a map table.
All outlines can be displayed at once for a fast overview. Filters can be applied for a time interval, the map scale or the library’s signature.
Power tip: Use the dark mode to improve the contrast of the outlines.
Watch the demo to get a quick introduction.
Want more? Chronoscope Webinar (37 minutes)
Check the Time Traveler’s Guide to learn more about Chronoscope World
Chronoscope World supports IIIF [triple aye eff]. IIIF is an open standard to deliver high resolution images for deep zooming from galleries, libraries, archives, and museums world wide.
Import any IIIF manifest to inspect old books.
Read more on IIIF books
Once upon a time… there was a cultural hackathon Coding Da Vinci in 2016. Since then the Chronoscope Hamburg is under continous development.
In 2018 the ChronoAtlas with 1,200 old maps was integrated into the Chronoscope.
In the following years maps from more than 80 institutions have been georeferenced.
August 2023: Chronoscope World 2.14 Highlights
January 2024: Release Notes v2.15
June 2024: Release Notes v2.16
The historic time rides provided by the Chrono Research Lab are a free service by Matthias Müller-Prove. On the other hand this means that I do have some expenses on traveling across centuries. You can support this trip by donating a little tip:
In addition to collecting your coins, I do also collect your Feedback.
cover BY-NC-SA Novus Atlas Sinensis a Martino Martinio | ChronoLink