[World map] - Vintage map, Norman B. Leventhal Collection

The winds, known collectively as Venti, have long been viewed as both bringers of good fortune and sources of chaos. In ancient Greece and Rome, the winds were seen as personas; gods who brought favorable or difficult weather. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (4th cent. BCE) named twelve winds, which are illustrated on this world map in the 1511 edition of Claudius Ptolemy’s (2nd cent. CE) Geographia. The map also features climate zones, shown here as horizontal bands that correspond to latitudinal lines across the globe. Marked with "CLI[MA]" in red, these zones number seven north of the equator and five south.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library