Introduction | Contents | Download as PDF (132mb)
<< Previous Next >>
Part II
MAP MAKERS
INTRODUCTION
In the following chapters, a short account is given of the development of map making in the major countries, followed by notes on the work of prominent cartographers, engravers and publishers in each country. In our preface we have already stressed that map listings in this section have generally been restricted to complete atlases although details of individual maps are included where these are of special importance. Manuscript maps are frequently mentioned hut as far as our average collector is concerned, unless he is extraordinarily lucky, they must remain a matter of historical interest and are only included for that reason.
The following notes read in conjunction with these listings may be helpful to readers unfamiliar with the subject.
METHODS OF PRINTING
Maps printed from woodblocks are shown as wood-cuts, otherwise it may be accepted that all maps were printed from engraved copper plates with the exception of a few in the nineteenth century printed by lithography which are specially noted. Further details on the printing of maps have been given in Chapter 2.
MAP SIZES
We have only to consider for a moment the vast numbers of maps printed over the centuries to realize the difficulty of giving more than a very general idea of map sizes. In any work dealing with individual maps there is no problem but here, short of providing a collation of every atlas obviously impossible in a single volume an acceptable solution is less easy to find. Certain terms, e.g. folio, quarto, octavo and so on, which originally referred to specific book sizes, are still widely used but so many variations within these main sizes occur that the terms have lost their precise meaning. Even so, they still remain a convenient method of differentiating between sizes of books and hence of maps also, and in the absence of more satisfactory terminology they are used here. Some examples will serve to illustrate their use:
FOLIO
- Speed Atlases
- Blaeu Atlases
- Jansson Atlases
SMALL FOLIO
- Camden - Britannia
- Drayton - Poly-Olbion
- Morden - Britannia
LARGE FOLIO
- Bellin et al. - Neptune Francois
- Bowen/Kitchin - Large English Atlas
QUARTO (4to)
- Mercator/Hondius - Atlas Atinor
- Kitchin English Atlas
- Cary - New and Correct English Atlas (1787)
OCTAVO (8vo)
- Van den Keere - 'Miniature Speeds'
- Moll - Atlas Afanuale
- Kitchin - Pocket Atlas
- Cary - Travellers' Companion
|
DUODECIMO (12mo) SEXTODECIMO (16mo) VICESIMO-QUARTO (24mo) |
These small sizes are less easy to define and tend to be used indiscriminately for verv small atlases or maps, e.g. Bowen Atlas Minimus (16mo/24mo); Badeslade Chronographia Britannica (12mo/16mo)
|
It has to be remembered, of course, that maps in any atlas, large or small, frequently varied considerably in size; two maps (or more) were often printed on one sheet and large individual maps were folded to fit the overall atlas size. It follows, therefore, that any size quoted should be accepted only as a guide.
DATING OF MAPS
When referring to dates of issue of atlases and maps (especially loose maps) it is not unusual to find different dates quoted by different authorities. This is not to say that one writer is necessarily 'correct' and others wrong' for in so wide a field covering a great number of items it would indeed be surprising if differences of opinion or interpretation were not to occur. Apart from differences of opinion, one has only to think of the unrecorded editions which are discovered, of the research which brings to light unsuspected information about existing editions, to realize that no record, however meticulous, can remain completely accurate for very long.
Where reference is made to a particular map it is conventional to quote the date of its first publication in brackets followed by the date of its actual issue, viz. 'Map of the world (1615)1623. If a single unbracketed date is given it may be assumed that the map is from the first edition or was issued only in that year.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Throughout this work every effort has been made to avoid the need to cross refer, which can be time wasting and is often confusing, but in some cases the complexities of the different issues of atlases have defeated attempts at complete simplification. The authors have in mind particularly the Mercator Hondius/Jansson series of atlases, full details of which are given under the Mercator heading with shorter references in the appropriate biographies of the Hondius family and Jan Jansson. The Dutch chart makers in the second half of the seventeenth century also posed problems in this respect and there are occasionally others which it is hoped will not be too distracting.
MERIDIANS
Dictionaries define a meridian as a circle of constant longitude passing through the terrestrial poles and a given place on the earth's surface intersecting the equator at right angles: the prime, or base meridian, dividing the hemispheres into eastern and western portions.' The word 'meridian' itself is derived from meridies = midday.
Some time in the third century BC Eratosthenes of Alexandria, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, set out to calculate the circumference of the world basing his theories on the relationship between the estimated distance from Alexandria to Syene (Aswan) in Lower Egypt and the differences in the angle of the sun at the summer solstice at the two places. His final figure, in spite of many false assumptions, was remarkably accurate, but more important was his imaginary north/south line - or meridian - joining Alexandria and Syene' which he extended to the north to link Rhodes, Byzantium and the estuary of the River Dnieper on the Black Sea, and to the south to Meroe in the Sudan. He placed other meridians at irregular intervals joining the positions of well-known places as they were perceived in his day.
In the following centuries Eratosthenes' ideas and calculations were much criticized, but the use of meridians was accepted and refined, especially by Ptolemy who devised a grid system covering the habitable world based on 36 meridians converging on the North Pole: his zero meridian ran through the area of the Fortunate Isles the Canaries, then the limit of the known world.
As in so many other matters Ptolemy's concepts were accepted without question in the fifteenth century and for many years a head the prime meridian continued to be placed through the Canaries, but as other islands further west became known so the zero meridian was adjusted. The islands of St. Mary and St. Michael in the Azores and Isla del Fuego in the Cape Verde group were favourites although the French chose the Isle de Fer (Ferro or Hierro) in the Canaries to be used on all French maps until about the year 1800. Later cartographers, in a spirit of patriotism, placed their prime meridians through their own principal cities, state observatories or even through special landmarks. In the British Isles London was first used (by John Seller) in 1676 and for the first Ordnance Survey maps it was narrowed down to St. Paul's Cathedral although by then the zero meridian through Greenwich Observatory had become widely accepted, especially for marine charts. In the next century the almost universal use of British Admiralty charts was the main factor in the international acceptance in 1884 of Greenwich as the world's prime meridian, finally ending centuries of confusion.