History of Cartography [2 ed.] 9781412811545, 9781138524910, 9780203790007

Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
List of Illustrations
Foreword: The early map
1 Maps of primitive peoples
2 Cartography in the ancient world
3 The Christian Middle Ages
4 Islamic cartography
5 Mediaeval sea-charts
6 World maps of the later Middle Ages
7 Ptolemy and the Renaissance
8 The first printed maps
9 The end of the Middle Ages
10 The cartography of the Great Discoveries
11 Nautical cartography in the 16th century
12 Map workshops and the world map of the 16th century
13 The mapping of European countries
14 The century of atlases
15 The mapping of America
16 The cartography of Asian peoples
Postscript: Craftsmanship and design in early cartography
Notes to the text
List of cartographers
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY

HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY LEO BAGROW REVISED A N D E N L A R G E D

B Y

R.A. SKELTON ENLARGED SECOND EDITION

S3 jjj^^

Routledge Taylor & Francis Croup

LONDON AND NEW YORK

Translated, revised and enlarged from the original German edition of 1951, published by Sefari Verlag, Berlin. The original German editions were published in 1944 (this edition, in which the maps were reproduced by offset, was destroyed by fire before publication) and 1951. The English translation was made in 1960 by D. L. Paisey and has been revised and augmented by R. A. Skelton. The new revised German edition was published in 1963. © of the English edition 1964 C. A. Watts & Co. Ltd., London. English edition reprinted (with corrections) 1966 Second English edition reprinted and enlarged with additional maps and illustra¬ tions 1985, published by Precedent Publishing, Inc. 737 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois Published 2010 by Transaction Publishers Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2009029166 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bagrow, Leo. History of cartography / Leo Bagrow ; revised and enlarged by R.A. Skelton. p. cm. Originally published: Chicago, Ill. : Precedent Publications, 1985 Enl. 2nd ed. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-4128-1154-5 1. Cartography-History. 2. Maps. I. Skelton, R. A. (Raleigh Ashlin), 1906-1970, II. Title. GA201.B313 2009 526.09--dc22 ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-1154-5 (pbk)

2009029166

Contents

Preface

3

List of Illustrations

7 *

Foreword: The early map

19

1

Maps of primitive peoples

23

2

Cartography i n the ancient world

29

3

The Christian Middle Ages

39

4

Islamic cartography

51

5

Mediaeval sea-charts

59

6

World maps of the later Middle Ages

67

7

Ptolemy and the Renaissance

75

8

The first printed maps

87

9

The end of the Middle Ages

97

10

The cartography of the Great Discoveries

103

11

Nautical cartography i n the 16th century

111

12

Map workshops and the world map o f the 16th century

123

13

The mapping of European countries

141

Italy 144, Germany 147, Switzerland 154, Austria-Hungary and South-east Europe 156, The Netherlands 159, France 160, Spain and Portugal 161, Great Britain and Ireland 162, Scandinavia 165, Eastern Europe 170, Russia 170, The Map of Europe 176 14

The century of atlases

177

15

The mapping of America

191

16

The cartography of Asian peoples

195

China 197, Manchuria and Central Asia 203, Korea 204, Japan 204, India 207, South-east Asia 208, Persia and Arabia 208, Turkey 209 Postscript: Craftsmanship and design in early cartography

213

Notes to the text

221

List of cartographers

225

Bibliography

281

Index

301

Publisher's Note

This edition of Bagrow and Skelton's History

of Cartography marks the reappearance of this

seminal work after a hiatus of nearly forty-five years. As i n any reprint project undertaken so many years after a book last appeared, finding suitable materials to work from proved to be no mean task. Because of the wealth of monochrome and color plates, the book could only be properly reproduced using the original materials. Ultimately we were able to obtain from the original printer Scotchprints or contact films made directly from the original plates, thus al¬ lowing us to preserve the beauty and clarity of Bagrow and Skelton's illustrations. However, when this material was received there was found, sandwiched i n between the films and press proofs, a number of additional monochrome and color maps which, for reasons unknown to us, were not incorporated in any of the earlier editions. These appear at the end of the color section as plates V through Z, and as plates C X V I I through C X X X I I at the end of the monochrome section. Some of these maps arrived unidentified and all of them had German captions which had to be translated and verified. The publisher is especially indebted to Robert Karrow, Curator of Maps of The Newberry Library i n Chicago, for devoting the time necessary to help us identify, sort and translate these maps. As a result of his assistance, these additional maps have been fully referenced and indexed and should provide the reader with valuable cartographic sources.

1

Preface

I_JeoBagrow (1881—1957) was a single-minded scholar w i t h fire i n his belly. Throughout his life, and sometimes i n the face of daunting difficulties, he pursued the study of early cartography w i t h a passionate energy and stubborn courage. His career had three phases, separated by great political convulsions: Russia t i l l 1918, Berlin 1918 —1945, Stockholm 1945—1957. D u r i n g each of these periods, Bagrow made extensive study-journeys, and he had probably seen more early maps and map-collections than any other scholar of his day. W h i l e his published studies (over 70 i n number) made important contributions to our knowledge of cartographic history, his activity i n developing international co-operation i n these studies and i n k i n d l i n g public interest i n them has been even more fruitful. His two principal legacies to scholarship were his fine collection of maps, principally of Russia, and Imago Mundi,

a periodical de-

voted to the history of cartography, founded by Bagrow i n 1935, continued through thirteen annual issues to the end of his life, and still Bagrow completed his Geschichte der Kartographie

flourishing.

i n 1943, and i t was published by

the Safari-Verlag i n Berlin i n 1951. The history of cartography cannot be comprehended i n a single volume, and each of the histories so far published has borne the stamp of its author's personality i n selection and arrangement of the materials. Bagrow's, written for readers at a different academic level from those to w h o m he usually addressed himself, is no exception. I t is distinguished by its author's zest for his chosen subject and by a r i n g of authenticity derived from his first-hand knowledge of the maps about which he writes. The limitations which he set himself are i n dicated i n his Foreword. I n this English edition, some rearrangement of Bagrow's text has been carried out; a few l i n k i n g passages have been inserted; and brief notes, m a i n l y of bibliographical character, have been added. The editor, who worked i n close association w i t h Bagrow

3

for twelve years, believes that these changes w o u l d have been approved by h i m . L i k e the original German edition, this version is concerned (in the author's words) " w i t h the externals of maps", that is, w i t h maps as craft-products. Its arrangement and chapter division are accordingly governed i n the m a i n by the origin of the maps discussed, and not by their subject-content. This accounts for some redistribution of the materials i n the present edition and for the small b u l k of Chapter 15 (The mapping of America), since the products of native American cartography were few and slight before the middle decades of the 18th century, the terminal point of this work. The great majority of the illustrations, whether i n line or i n half-tone, are printed from the original blocks of Bagrow's Geschichte, which have been courteously made available by D r . Reinhold Jaspert of the Safari-Verlag. A few illustrations have been added from Mappae

Mundi

by J. G. Leithauser (Safari-Verlag, 1958); and some new

ones have been provided. That this work is now made available to English readers is due i n large measure to the f a i t h and enthusiasm of M r . T . M . Schuller, of Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons L t d . to w h o m the editor expresses his deep indebtedness.

London, 10 July 1963.

4

R. A . S,

5

I

List of Illustrations and Plates

Illustrations i n T e x t

Fig. 1 • (left) T-0 map i n a Sallust manuscript, 12th century (Biblioteca Vaticana). (right) T-0 map i n the printed edition of Zacharias Lilius, Orbis breviarium, Florence 1493. Fig. 2 • T-0 map i n a Sallust manuscript, 12th century (Biblioteca Vaticana). Fig. 3 • (left) Zonal map i n a Macrobius manuscript, 13th century (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale). (right) Zonal map i n the printed edition of Zacharias Lilius, Orbis breviarium, Florence 1493. Fig. 4 • Zonal map i n the printed edition of Sacrobosco, Opusculum, Leipzig c. 1500. Fig. 5 • World map of Albi, 8th century: schematic representation of the Mediterranean world, with east to the top (Albi, Bibliotheque Municipale; after Konrad Miller). Fig. 6 • Ranulf Higden, world map in a manuscript of his Polychronicon, 14th century: in "vesica piscis" form, with east to the top (British Museum, Royal MS. 14 C. XII). Fig. 7 (a) • Pierre d'Ailly (Petrus de Alii a co), world map i n manuscript of Ymago mundi, 1410: east to the top (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale). Fig. 7 (b) • Pierre d'Ailly, world map in printed edition of Ymago mundi, Louvain 1483. Fig. 8 • Arabic zonal world map, copied from that of Idrisi of 1154, with curved parallels (Oxford, Bodleian Library, U r i MS. 887).

page

Fig. 9 • Woodcut chart of the Dodecanese, i n Bartolomeo dalli Sonetti, Isolario, Venice 1485.

page 63

Fig. 10 • Woodcut charts in Benedetto Bordone, Isolario, Venice 1528: (above) the Crimea and Sea of Azov, (below) the North Atlantic with Greenland ("Terra de lauoratore") and Hudson Strait.

64

Fig. 11 • The "Borgia map", world map engraved on iron, with south to the top (Biblioteca Vaticana).

71

44

Fig. 12 • Claudius Clavus, map of the North, 1427: the first "modern" map added to a manuscript of Ptolemy.

78

44

Fig. 13 • The British Isles, i n the first printed edition of Ptolemy's Geographia with maps, Bologna 1477.

79

Fig. 14 • France: a "modern" map i n Francesco Berlinghieri's edition of Ptolemy, Florence 1482.

80

Fig. 15 • Spain: a "modern" map i n the first German edition of Ptolemy, Ulm 1482.

81

Fig. 16 • Central and Eastern Europe: a "modern" map by Bernard Wapowsky (?) after a lost original by Cusanus, i n the edition of Ptolemy, Rome 1507.

82

Fig. 17 • World map by Johannes Ruysch, in the editions of Ptolemy, Rome 1507 and 1508.

83

Fig. 18 • World map by Bernardus Sylvanus, i n the edition of Ptolemy, Venice 1511.

84

Fig. 19 • World map by Sebastian Minister, i n Simon Grynaeus, Orbis novus, Basle 1532.

85

42

43

46

47

48

49

57

9

Fig. 20 * Hieronymus Miinzer, woodcut map of Central Europe in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.

page 90

Fig. 21 • Woodcut world map i n the German Ptolemy, Nuremberg 1490 (?): the earliest printed world map on a globular projection.

92

Fig. 22 • Giovanni Pontano, map of the marches of the Kingdom of Naples, engraved c. 1500.

94

Fig. 23 • Woodcut world map on oval projection, i n Bordone's Isolario, Venice 1528: after a design by Francesco Rosselli. Fig. 24 • Woodcut world map in the Rudimentum novitiorium, Lubeck 1475. Fig. 25 • Woodcut Ptolemaic world map, i n Gregor Reisch, Margarita philosophica, Strassburg 1504. Fig. 26 • Woodcut map of Africa and the sea-route to India: title page of Itinerarium Portugallensium, Milan 1508. Fig. 27 • Manuscript sketch chart by Christopher Columbus, December 1492: the north-west coast of Hispaniola (Duke of Alba's collection). Fig. 28 • Sketch map by Alessandro Zorzi, perhaps from information by Bartolomeo Columbus (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale).

9S

99

100

106

107

107

in his edition of Ptolemy, Strassburg 1522.

page US

Fig. 34 • G. A. Vavassore, woodcut chart of the eastern Mediterranean, Venice 1539: the first printed seachart. 116-7 Fig. 35 • Coastal profile i n Pierre Garcie, he grand routier de la mer, Paris 1538.

119

Fig. 36 • Coastal profile of Gotland: woodcut i n Cornells Anthonisz, Leeskaart, Amsterdam 1558.

120

Fig. 37 • Petrus Plancius, chart of the North Atlantic, engraved by Baptist a van Deutecum, Antwerp 1594.

120

Fig. 38 • Jan Outghersz, woodcut chart of part of Magellan Strait, Amsterdam 1600.

121

Fig. 39 • Woodcut world map on globular projection by Johannes Stabius, designed by Albrecht Diirer, 1515.

128

Fig. 40 • Woodcut globe gores by Johann Schoner, Nuremberg 1523.

129

Fig. 41 • Heinrich Zell, map of Prussia, 1543: woodcut, east to the top.

131

Fig. 42 • Gerard Mercator, world map on double cordiform projection, engraved Louvain 1538.

134

Fig. 43 • Bolognino Zaltieri, map of North America, engraved Venice 1566: showing the Strait of Anian.

136

Fig. 29 • Woodcut map of the Atlantic and New World, in the edition of Ptolemy, Strassburg 1513.

108

Fig. 30 • Woodcut globe gores by Waldseemiiller, 1507.

Fig. 44 • Pietro Coppo, woodcut world map in his Portolano, Venice 1528. 137

109

Fig. 45 • Pietro Coppo, woodcut map of Istria, 1525.

138

Fig. 46 • Luc' Antonio degli Uberti, manuscript map of Lombardy, 1515 -25.

14S

Fig. 31 • Woodcut world map in Gregor Reisch, Margarita philosophica, Strassburg 1513: mainly after Waldseemiiller. Fig. 32 • Woodcut world map by Laurent Fries, i n his edition of Ptolemy, Strassburg 1522. Fig. 33 • Woodcut map of south-east Asia and Insulindia by Laurent Fries,

10

110

114

Fig. 47 • Erhard Etzlaub, woodcut road-map of Central Europe, centred on Nuremberg and showing routes to Rome for pilgrims in the Holy Year 1500, with the title "Das ist der RomWeg von meylen zu meylen mit

puncten verzeychnet von eyner stat zu der andern durch deutsche lantt": south to the top, with Etzlaub's sundial at the foot. Fig. 48 • Erhard Etzlaub, map of Europe and North Africa engraved on the cover of a sundial, with latitude graduation i n "increasing degrees": south to the top (Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum).

page

149

ISO

Fig. 61 • Woodcut sketch map of Russia, by Sebastian Minister, 1538.

page 172

Fig. 62 • Map of Russia, woodcut, i n Minister's Cosmographia, Basle 1544.

173

Fig. 63 • Simon Godunov and Ulyan Remezov, manuscript map of Siberia, 1667.

174

Fig. 64 • Georgius Carolus, map of Iceland, i n the Hondius-Jansson Atlas, 1638.

182

188

Fig. 49 • Sebastian Minister, woodcut map of the New World, in his editions of Solinus (Basle 1538) and of Ptolemy (Basle 1540).

1S1

Fig. 65 • Isaac Bruckner, chart of western Europe i n his Preussische Seeatlas, Berlin 1749.

Fig. 50 • Tibianus, woodcut map of the Black Forest, Constance 1603.

1S2

Fig. 66 • John Foster, woodcut map of New England, Boston 1677.

194

Fig. 51 • Hiob Magdeburg, woodcut map of Meissen, 1562.

1S4

Fig. 67 • World map i n a Chinese encyclopedia by Chang-huang, 1562 to 1577.

198

Fig. 52 • Johann Honter, woodcut map of France, in his Rudimenta cosmographica, Basle 1542.

1SS

Fig. 53 • Wolfgang Lazius, map of Gdrz and Istria i n his Typi chorographici Austriae, engraved Vienna 1561.

IS8

Fig. 69 • Chinese sea chart by Mao Yuan-I, 1629: Singapore and adjacent islands.

200

Fig. 70 • Giuseppe Rosaccio, woodcut map of Asia i n II mondo e suoi parti, Florence 1595.

201

Fig. 71 • Korean world map, 17th— 18th century.

20S

Fig. 72 • Persian world map, 17th century (modern copy).

209

Fig. 73 • The map of France before and after Cassini's survey, 1693.

216

Fig. 74 • Silver vase of MaikopKurgan, with map of northern Caucasia.

218

169

Fig. 75 • Map of the Realm of Love, printed by Johann Breitkopf, Leipzig 1777, entirely from printing types and ornaments.

219

171

Fig. 76 • Opicinus de Canistris, symbolic world map i n a manuscript of 1335-42 (left-hand half).

220

Fig. 54 • G. L. A. (Georgius Lilius Anglicus?), map of the British Isles, engraved at Rome 1546.

163

Fig. 55 • Nicolas Nicolay d'Arfeville, chart of Scotland, Paris 1583.

164

Fig. 56 • Nicolo Zeno, map of the North, engraved Venice 1558.

166

Fig. 57 • Jakob Ziegler, map of the North, 1536.

167

Fig. 58 • Hieronymus Gourmont, map of Iceland (after Olaus Magnus), Paris 1548. Fig. 59 • Willem Barents, chart of the North on a polar projection, engraved by Baptista van Deutecum in J. H . van Linschoten, Itinerario, The Hague 1598. Fig. 60 • Russian sketch map of the River Pyana region, West Russia, 17th century.

Fig. 68 • Fabulous creatures from Chinese and German cosmographies (right) Shan-hai-ching, c. 350 B. C ; (left) the Nuremberg Chronicle, A. D. 1493. 199

168

11

Monochrome Plates (between pages 224 and 225)

I • Ptolemy of Alexandria. Relief by Giotto and Andrea Pisano on the Campanile of the Duomo, Florence. I I • Carved wooden chart and relief models by Eskimos of Greenland. I I I • Mexican map, middle 16th century. Codex Tepetlaoztoc, British Museum, Dept. of Ethnography. IV • Marshall Islands chart of coconut fibre and shells. British Museum, Dept. of Ethnography, No. 2289. V • Clay map of northern Mesopotamia, c. 3800 B. C. V I • Babylonian world map, c. 500 B. C. British Museum, Dept. of Western Asiatic Antiquities. V I I • Papyrus drawing of the Fields of the Dead, Egypt, 14th dynasty. V I I I • Map of Germany, i n a Greek manuscript of Ptolemy's Geographia, 13th century. Formerly in the Vatopedi monastery, Mount Athos. IX • World map by Agathodaemon, in a Greek manuscript of Ptolemy's Geographia, 13th century. Formerly i n the Vatopedi monastery. X • Map of Western Europe, i n a Greek manuscript of Ptolemy's Geographia, 13th century. X I • The "Tabula Peutingeriana": a Roman road-map completed c. A. D. 500 (detail).

12

X I I • Roman garrison stations on the Nile: a map in theNotitia dignitatum, 4th century. X I I I • Road map by a Roman agrimensor (land-surveyor). XIV • Mosaic map of Palestine, in the church of Madaba, Jordan. XV • World map i n a manuscript of Beatus, 13th century. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale. X V I • World map i n a manuscript of Beatus, 12th century. Altamira. X V I I • The "Cottonian" or AngloSaxon world map, 10th century. British Museum, Cotton MS Tiberius B. V. X V I I I * The "Psalter" mappa mundi, 12th century. British Museum, Add. MS 28681. XIX • World map by Matthew Paris, c. A . D . 1350. British Museum, Cotton MS Nero D. V. XX • Map of the Holy Land by Matthew Paris, c. A. D. 1350. British Museum, Cotton MS Nero D. V. X X I • World map by Ranulf Higden British Museum, Royal MS 14. C. IX. X X I I • Details from the Ebstorf world map. (above) Gog and Magog, confined by Alexander the Great, eating human flesh and drinking blood, (below) The Garden of Paradise, with Adam and Eve.

X X I I I • Lower Saxony i n the Ebstorf world map. Showing the region i n which the map was made, with the towns of Liineburg, Verden, Hanover and Brunswick. XXIV • The Hereford world map, c. A . D . 1285. Hereford Cathedral. XXV • Anonymous world map of Vercelli, 13th century.

X X X V I I - X X X I X • The Catalan Atlas, by Abraham Cresques, 1375. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale. The world map covers eight panels of the atlas. X L • Details from the Catalan Atlas, 1375. (above) The queen of Sheba; (below) a junk and pearl-fishers i n the Indian Ocean. X L I • World map by Pirrus de Noha, 1414 (?).

XXVI • Arabic world map by Ibn Said, 13th century. Oxford, Bodleian Library.

Accompanying a manuscript of Pomponius Mela, i n the Biblioteca Vaticana.

X X V I I • Arabic maps by Ibn Haukal, 10th—12th centuries. (above) The Mediterranean. (below) World map.

X L I I • World map of Fra Mauro, 1459. Biblioteca Marciana, Venice.

X X V I I I • Turkish world map by alKashgari, A. D. 1076. XXIX • Map of Morocoo, i n Idrisi's atlas, A. D. 1154. XXX • Two world maps by Idrisi, A. D. 1154 and 1192. XXXI • Sketch map of Palestine, in a manuscript of Goro Dati's poem La Sfera, 1422. X X X I I • The "Carta Pisana", c. 1300: the oldest surviving portolan chart. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale. X X X I I I • Chart of Giovanni da Carignano, early 14th century. Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale (destroyed) in 1943.

X L I I I • Catalan world map, c. 1450. Biblioteca Estense, Modena. X L I V • Map of north-west Europe: the "Koblenz fragment", c. 1440. Koblenz, Stadtbibliothek. XLV • Portolan chart by Conte Hoctomanni Freducci, c. 1460. Weimar, Staatsbibliothek. Dated 146-, this chart marks the legendary island Antillia. X L V I • Map of Germany, in a Latin manuscript of Ptolemy's Geographia, 15th century. X L V I I • Circular world map in a Ptolemaic atlas, 1470. Zeitz, Stiftsbibliothek. X L V I I I • Ptolemaic world map in the Zeitz atlas.

XXXIV • Maps by Petrus Vesconte, c. 1320. (above) the Holy Land, (below) the eastern Mediterranean and Near East I n a manuscript of the Liber secretorum crucis by Marino Sanudo.

X L I X • World map i n the U l m edition of Ptolemy, 1482.

XXXV • World map by Petrus Vesconte, c. 1320.

L I • Woodcut world map by Hanns Rust, end of 15th century.

XXXVI • World map i n the "Medici Atlas", 1351 (?). Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana.

L I I • Detail of a chart by Grazioso Benincasa, Ancona 1482. Bologna, Biblioteca Municipale.

L • Anonymous Ptolemaic world map, engraved c. 1490. Variously ascribed to Arnold Buckinck and to Carlo Crivelli.

L I I I • W o r l d map i n the Insularium of Henricus Martellus Germanus, posM489. British Museum, A d d . M S 15760. L I V • Anonymous Genoese chart of the A t l a n t i c , c. 1490, sometimes ascribed to Columbus. Inset, a circular world map. L V • D e t a i l f r o m the globe of M a r t i n Behaim, 1492. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Showing the coasts of southern Africa as discovered by the Portuguese up to the voyage of Bartolomeu Dias, 1487 to 1488. L V I • W o r l d map of Juan de l a Cosa, 1500. M a d r i d , Museo Naval. L V I I • Fragment of w o r l d map by P i r i Reis, 1513. Istanbul, Topkapu Saray. The only surviving fragment shows the A t lantic and islands of the New W o r l d . L V I I I • Anonymous I t a l i a n world map, k n o w n as the " K i n g - H a m y " map, post-1502. H u n t i n g t o n L i b r a r y , San M a r i n o (California). L I X • Chart of the N o r t h A t l a n t i c by Pedro Reinel, post-1504 (known as Kunstmann I ) . M u n i c h , Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. L X • W o r l d map by Giovanni Matteo Contarini, engraved by Francesco Rosselli, 1506. British Museum, M a p Room. L X I • W o r l d map by Waldseemiiller, 1507. Woodcut, 12 sheets. Schloss W o l f egg. L X I I • The Carta marina of Waldseemiiller, 1516. Woodcut, 12 sheets. Schloss Wolfegg. L X I I I • W o r l d map by Peter A p i a n , 1530. L X I V • W o r l d map by Diogo Ribeiro, 1527.

14

L X V • W o r l d map, i n gores, Alonso de Santa Cruz, 1542.

by

L X V I • Europe, i n a manuscript seaatlas by Battista Agnese, Venice 1579. L X V I I • M a p of the Danube countries by Giacomo Gastaldi: woodcut by Matheo Pagano, 1546. L X V I I I • Gastaldi's map of East Asia, 1561: as copied by Gerard de Jode, 1578. I n De Jode's Speculum Orbis Terrarum. L X I X • M a p of America by Diego Gutierrez, engraved by Hieronymus Cock, 1562. L X X • W o r l d chart by Mercator, engraved 1569. L X X I • Leonardo da Vinci, bird's-eye view of Tuscany, 1502—03. Red chalk drawing. L X X I I • Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus), map of Central Europe, engraved at Eichstadt 1491 (?). L X X I I I • Hieronymus Miinzer, M a p of Central Europe, 1493. Woodcut. I n H a r t m a n n Schedel, Weltchronik, Nuremberg 1493 (the "Nuremberg Chronicle"). L X X I V • E r h a r d Etzlaub, map of Central Europe, 1501. Woodcut, entitled "Das sein dy L a n t strassen..." L X X V • Waldseemuller(?), map of Lorraine, 1513. Woodcut. I n Ptolemy's Geographia, Strassburg 1513. L X X V I • The British Isles, i n the Strassburg edition of Ptolemy, 1513. L X X V I I • Nicolaus Claudianus, map of Bohemia, 1518. Woodcut. L X X V I I I • Johannes Aventinus, map of Bavaria, 1523. Woodcut.

L X X I X • Sebastian Minister, map of Germany, 1525. Woodcut. Inset i n a broadside kalendar, w i t h the title " E y n new liistig und K u r t z w e i l i g Instrument der Sonnen..."

X C I V • M a r k Jorden, map of Denmark, 1585. X C V • Hemispheric w o r l d map by R u m o l d Mercator, 1587. XCVI R u m o l d Mercator, map of the Arctic (after Gerard Mercator), 1595. 9

L X X X • Georg Erlinger, map of Cent r a l Europe, 1530. Woodcut, w i t h the i m p r i n t "Gedruckt zu Bamberg durch Georg Erlinger von Augsburg". L X X X I • Sebastian Rotenhan, map of Franconia, 1533. L X X X I I • Olaus Magnus, map of the N o r t h , Rome 1539. Woodcut.

X C V I I • A d r i a e n Veen, map of Scandinavia, 1613. X C V I I I • Filippo Pigafetta (after Duarte Lopes), map of Africa, 1591. Engraved by Natale Bonifacio, i n Pigafetta's Relatione del Reame di Congo, Rome 1591.

of

X C I X • G. L e Vasseur de Beauplan, map of the Ukraine, 1650.

L X X X I V • M a p of Bohemia, i n M i i n ster's edition of Ptolemy, Basel 1545.

C • Semyon Remezov, manuscript map of Siberia, i n his Khorograficheska Kniga (fol. 162v), 1687.

L X X X I I I • Oronce France, 1538.

Fine, map

L X X X V • Christophorus map of Germany, 1547. Manuscript.

Pyramius,

L X X X V I • D e t a i l (SW corner) of Pyramius' map of Germany. L X X X V I I • W o l f g a n g Lazius, map of Austria ( N W sheet), Vienna 1556. L X X X V I I I • Jacob van Deventer, map of H o l l a n d , engraved 1556. L X X X I X • T i l e m a n n Stella, map of the D u c h of Zweibriicken, 1564. X C • P h i l i p p A p i a n , map of Bavaria (detail), etched after the original woodcut edition of 1568. X C I • Christopher Saxton, map of E n g l a n d and Wales, engraved 1579. I n his atlas of the counties of E n g l a n d and Wales. X C I I • M a p of north-east Asia, i n Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1570. X C I I I • Chart of the Belt, i n the Spieghel of Lucas Jansz. Waghenaer, 1584.

C I • W o r l d map by P h i l i p p Eckebrecht, after Johannes Kepler, 1630. The map incorporates the determinations of places obtained by the astronomer Kepler. C I I • Chart of the N o r t h Sea, i n H e n d r i k Doncker's Zee-Atlas, c. 1660. C I I I • M a r t i n o M a r t i n i , map of China and Japan, i n his Novus Atlas Sinensis, Amsterdam 1656. C I V • Chinese coastal chart, early 18th century. CV • W o r l d map by Matteo Ricci, Peking 1602: detail showing n o r t h east China and Japan. Woodcut. C V I • Hemispheric w o r l d map Ferdinard Verbiest, Peking 1674. Woodcut.

by

C V I I • M a n c h u r i a n map of the route of the Chinese emperors to the tombs of their ancestors, c. 1760. C V I I I • Kalmuck map, copied by J. G. Renat, 1734.

15

CIX • Ishikawa Ryusen, map of Japan, Tokyo 1697, Woodcut. CX • Map of Arabia, in Ratib Celebi's Turkish version of the MercatorHondius Atlas minor, I s t a n b u l 1654-55. CXI • J. G. Doppelmayr, hemispheric world map showing positions determined by astronomical observation, Nuremberg 1733. CXII • Silver globe after Johann Hauer, Nuremberg, 1620. S t o c k h o l m , R u n g l . HusgeradsKammaren. Presented in 1632 to Gustavus Adolpus. CXIII • The Sala delle Mappe, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, with maps painted by Egnazio Danti, c. 1560.

CXXI • Germany, from the Ebner Manuscript of Ptolemy's Geographia. c. 1460. CXXII • Anonymous Portuguese portolan chart, c. 1502. Known as Kunstmann I I , after its discoverer, Friedrich Kunstmann. CXXIII • Martin Waldsemuller, world map for e d i t i o n of Ptolemy's Geographia, Strassburg, 1513. CXXIV • Jean Rotz, map of Europe from his manuscript atlas of 1542. CXXV • A. Ortelius, map of Northern Lands, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1570.

CXIV • Tapestry map of London and Middlesex, worked by the Sheldon family after the country maps of Christopher Saxton, c. 1600.

CXXVI • Vaz Dourado, map of the Far East, from India to Japan and the Moluccas. From his manuscript atlas of 1571.

CXV • The Ambassadors: oil-painting by Hans H o l b e i n the younger (detail). Showing a globe, perhaps by Johann Schoner, of c. 1530.

CXXVII • Andreas Pleninger, Map of Wurtemberg, from the Chorographia Wirtenbergica, 1603. CXXVIII • Imperial orb of Sweden.

CXVI • Diptych painted by the Master of Rhenen, c. 1480, representing the flooding of Holland in a dream of St. Elizabeth. CXVII • Albertine de Virga, manuscript world map, c. 1414. CXVIII • Juan de la Cosa, detail of the Asia and Europe sections of his world map of 1500. CXIX • Martin Behaim, globe, 1492. CXX • Nicolaus Germanus, map of Northern Lands. From a map of Ptolemy's Geographia, 1466-1474.

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CVXXIX • Egyptian papyrus map, Nubian goldfields, 1300 B.C. CXXX • Tablet from Hierankonpolis, 7 lower Egyptian cities, c. 2900 B.C. CXXXI • Cosmas Indicopleustes, world map from the Topographia Christiana, 535-547. CXXXII • Silas Sandgren, map of island group in northwest Greenland. Wood mounted on walrus hide.

Colour-Plates Titlepage of Mercator's Atlas, frontispiece 1595.

N

Francesco GhisolFi, engraved world map in gores, 16th century.

A

Arabic world map by al-Istakhrl, 10th century.

O

B

Matthew Paris, map of Great Britain, c. 1250. British Museum, Cotton MS Claudius D. VI, fol. 12v.

John Norden, "Description of the Honor of Windsor", 1607. British Museum, Harl. MS 3749. Showing the environs of Guildford.

P

Joan Blaeu, engraved world map, 1648.

Constantinople, i n the Liber insularum Archipelagi of Cristoforo Buondelmonte, 1422. British Museum, Cotton MS Vesp. A. XIII.

0

Frederik de Wit, engraved chart of Europe, c. 1680.

R

Joan Blaeu, engraved map of Frankfurt and environs, with heraldry.

D

The "Genoese" world map, 1457. Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Portolano 1.

S

E

The Ebstorf world map, c. 1235.

New York in 1661. British Museum, R. Top. CXXI. 35. The plan, known as the "Duke's Map", was drawn after the British capture of the Dutch settlement of "New Amsterdam".

F

Portuguese exploration to the Congo, in a Venetian chart of c. 1490. British Museum, Egerton MS 73.

T

J.B. Nolin, engraved map of the Dalmatian Islands, c. 1700.

U

Engraved map of Delftland, by Jacob and Nicolaas Cruquius, 1712 (reprinted 1750).

V

Juan de la Cosa, detail from his world map of 1500 showing the coast of America.

W

M a r t i n Waldseemiiller/Laurent Fries, "Orbis typus universalis". World map (after Waldseemuller) from Fries' edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, Strassburg, 1522.

X

Sebastian Miinster/Sebastian Petri, world map used in later editions of Minister's "Cosmographia", (after 1588).

Y

Nicolaus Geelkerck, world map, Jansson, Amsterdam. 1632.

Z

Old Mexican representation of the five parts of the world and the gods and the symbols attributed to them. North is to the left, east at the top. From the Codex Fejervary.

C

G

The "Cantino" world map, 1502. Modena, Biblioteca Estense.

H

Vesconte Maggiolo, chart of the Atlantic, 1512. Parma, Biblioteca Nazionale.

I

Map of South America, engraved by A. F. van Langeren, 1595.

J

Portuguese chart of the South Atlantic in the "Miller" atlas, c. 1519 (by Pedro or Jorge Reinel?). Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.

R

L

M

The Salviati planisphere, c. 1527. Florence, Biblioteca MediceoLaurenziana. Diogo Homem, chart of the Indian Ocean, 1558. British Museum, Add. MS 5415 A. World map by Lopo Homem, 1554. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.

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T h e early map

Foreword

M ap-collecting is no new growth. The Byzantine monk Maximos Planudes (1260—1310), after a long search, discovered a manuscript of the Geographia of the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy (second century A . D . ) , and celebrated his find i n verse. As the maps were missing, he drew them himself from indications i n the ancient text, and when the work was finished, he commemorated this too i n verse. After the fall of Byzantium i n 1453, its conqueror,the Turkish Sultan Mohammed I I , found i n the library he inherited from the Byzantine rulers a manuscript of Ptolemy's Geographia, which lacked the world-map, and he commissioned Georgios Amirutzes, a philosopher i n his entourage, to draw up a world map based on Ptolemy's text. H e knew i t would be out of date, but that is precisely w h a t he wanted — an ancient map; to perpetuate i t , he had a carpet woven from the drawing. The famous humanist Konrad Peutinger, who searched wherever he went for ancient manuscripts, was inexpressibly delighted when he found a copper plate bearing an almost completed engraving of a map of central Europe drawn by the noted scholar Cardinal Nicolaus Cusanus (1401—1464). Peutinger bought i t somewhere i n Italy, brought i t to Germany, completed the engraving of the old plate, and printed i t (PL L X X I I ) . This map d i d not seem to h i m to be particularly ancient; but he managed to acquire an even more valuable cartographic document — the scroll of an old Roman m i l i t a r y road-map, now known as the "Tabula Peutingeriana", and i n 1536 he commissioned Michael Hummelsburg to make h i m a copy of this scroll, which he considered a valuable monument of antiquity (PI. X I ) . One of the first scholars to feel the charm of early maps and to write a short history of cartography was Johann Gottfried Gregorii. I n his work Curieuse Gedancken von den vornehmsten und accuratesten Alt- und Neuen-Land-Charten (1713) he exclaims: "These maps have now grown very rare and difficult to come by. They are becoming as desirable as old coins". I n the course of centuries, many private and state-owned collections of maps come into being. B u t these collections contained contemporary as well as ancient maps. The collection of Viglius de Zuichen i n Louvain, catalogued i n 1575, comprised merely maps from the previous 40—50 years. M a n y of these maps, which would be of inestimable value to us today, are now k n o w n only by hearsay, although there were printed maps amongst them; unfortunately, they were b u r n t w i t h the library d u r i n g the 1914—18 war. M a n y libraries and collections were not i n the habit of preserving obsolete maps, which must have been destroyed. I n earlier times these maps were considered to be ephemeral material, like newspapers and pamphlets, and large wall-maps received particularly careless treatment because they were difficult to store. This is why the large and beautiful maps of the 16th and 17th centuries are now so rare: many are k n o w n only by name or from a single sheet that has chanced to survive, although i n their day they were widely distributed and passed through several 1

2

3

4

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editions. Of course, maps consisting of several sheets, which had been bound for some reason i n the form of an atlas, fared better. Thus, though only single copies of the famous w o r l d maps of Waldseemiiller, printed i n 1507 and 1516, have been found, even these m i g h t not have survived, had they not been bound, for they were intended as wall-maps. The same author's map of Europe of 1511 has not yet been discovered, and we know of i t only from the text published w i t h i t and a reprint of 1524 which happened to be preserved on the w a l l i n Innsbruck museum, framed and under glass. Interest i n old maps was awakened i n the 18th century w i t h the publication of Gregorii's Curieuse Gedancken (1713) i n Germany and Richard Gough's British Topography (1780) i n England, followed by other books and treatises on the subject. Collectors and librarians began to take an interest i n old maps. The library of Joseph Smith, English consul i n Venice, contained many maps and, after the owner's death i n 1765, i t was purchased by K i n g George I I I for £11,000 and thereafter enriched by constant additions. The 55 years u n t i l the King's death i n 1820 saw £30,000 spent on this library, and the printed catalogue of maps and drawings fills two volumes of over 1,400 pages. This collection passed i n 1823 into the British Museum. By the 19th century there were many private collections w i t h printed catalogues, for example those of J. H . Adelung (1796), Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky (Paris, 1823), Baron Walckenaer (Paris, 1853), and E . F. Jomard (Paris, 1863). After the deaths of their owners, some of these collections were sold and dispersed, others were presented to large libraries and absorbed into their collections. The supply of early maps is decreasing, and demand increasing. Competition i n the secondhand market is growing fierce as prices soar. W h a t envy a collector feels today on looking through such old catalogues as those issued i n the nineties of last century by the Amsterdam f i r m of Frederik M u l l e r , now no longer i n existence; the items listed are no longer obtainable, and i f one does t u r n up, its price has risen ten or twenty times, or even more. Collectors' demand for ancient maps has led to forgeries, and this arouses suspicions about maps that were previously u n k n o w n ; thus, when recently world maps appeared by hitherto unknown masters from the early 16th century — Fra Bona Harigonio (1509), Hieronymus M a r i n i (1513), M . Barbolan (1514), D . Bonaldus (1519), and others — they were suspected of being forgeries like the tiara of Satasphernes, and i n this case w i t h good reason. B u t what makes early terrestrial maps so interesting? W h y should they be collected, studied and preserved? W e suggest three m a i n reasons: 5

maps provide materials for historical research, particularly i n the history of civilisation and science; maps are works of art; and maps embody a degree of intellectual effort and attainment that makes them worthy of collection. Old maps, collated w i t h other materials, help us to elucidate the course of h u m a n history. When, i n 1918, a mosaic floor was discovered i n the ancient Trans Jordanian church of Madaba showing a map of Palestine, Syria and part of Egypt, a whole series of reproductions and treatises was published on the geography of Palestine at that time (PL X I V ) . The map answered many hitherto insoluble or disputed questions, for example the question as to where the V i r g i n M a r y met the mother of John the Baptist. " A n d M a r y arose i n those days, and went into the h i l l country w i t h haste, into a city of Juda" (Luke 1.39). Where was this h i l l country? I t was said that, as the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias i n the holy of holies, Zacharias must

20

have been H i g h Priest and have lived i n Jerusalem; John the Baptist would then have been born i n Jerusalem. B u t Jerusalem was not the 'city of Juda . Some saw i n the ' h i l l country' Hebron, a place that had for a long time been a leading Levitical city, while others held that Jutta was the Levitical city concerned. M a n y solutions to this problem were p u t forward, b u t i t was solved once for a l l by the Madaba map, which showed, between Jerusalem and Hebron, a place called Beth Zachari: the house of Zacharias. Excavations on this site revealed the foundations of a little church, w i t h a fragment of a mosaic which contained the name Zacharias. A series of maps of one region, arranged i n chronological order, can show vividly how i t was discovered, explored by travellers and described i n detail; this may be seen i n facsimile atlases like those of America (K. Kretschner, 1892), Japan (P. Teleki, 1909), Madagascar (Gravier, 1896), Albania (Nopcsa, 1916), Spitzbergen (Wieder, 1919). the north-west of America (Wagner, 1937), and others. A series of maps of a coastal region (for example, that of H o l l a n d or Friesland) or of river estuaries (the Po, M i s sissippi, Volga, or lower Yellow River) gives information on the rate of changes i n outline and their causes. Comparison of travellers' maps from various periods shows the development and change of routes or road-biulding and allows us to draw conclusions of every k i n d about the development or decay of farms, villages and towns. Early maps are of great importance as works of art. To begin w i t h , they were generally drawn by hand on parchment or paper, and then painted. They were artistic treasure-houses, being often decorated w i t h fine miniatures portraying life i n distant lands, various types of ships, coats-of-arms, portraits of rulers, and so on. I f they were to be presents, then, as i n great church paintings, the portraits of the recipients and often the donors too were added. F r o m the second half of the fifteenth century, maps were printed from woodcuts and from engraved copper-plates. D u r i n g the transitional period, maps were still decorated w i t h artistic vignettes, portraits, views of towns, pictures of various peoples i n their national dress, h u n t i n g scenes, and so on, and expanses of water were covered w i t h waves, ships and sea-monsters. Mountains and forests were depicted as they appear i n nature, not by conventional signs. Artists of note, such as Albrecht Diirer and Hans Holbein, often cooperated i n map production and not only executed the plates, but also used their skill i n colouring the prints. Maps were also frequently used purely for decoration; they furnished designs for Gobelins tapestries, were engraved on goblets of gold and silver, tables, and jewelcaskets, and used i n frescoes, mosaics, and so on. I t was not u n t i l the eighteenth century, however, that maps were gradually stripped of their artistic decoration and transformed into plain, specialist sources of information based upon measurement. 5

6

7

Finally, maps are worthy of collection. Some people collect books, others weapons, engraving, porcelain, bronzes — w h y not maps too? A l l these are objects of historical, artistic and cultural significance, and thus collecting them seems to need far less justification than collecting postage-stamps or match-boxes. Unfortunately, however, i t is becoming increasingly difficult to collect maps. N o t many maps of any great age survive, least of a l l those published i n separate sheets. The market now offers m a i n l y single pages from atlases. B u t one can still find wonderful things i n little towns r i g h t off the beaten track. Sometimes libraries from stately homes or other private collections are auctioned. Non-European maps — Chinese, Japanese, Arabian, and so on — would well repay attention. Very little has been done i n this field, and much interesting material is surely awaiting discovery; but there must be no delay, since time claims many victims. For example, i n 1914 there were still

21

many little book-shops about the walls of the imperial palace i n Seoul i n Korea, where one could find ancient native maps. Five years later, these little shops had been demolished, and heaven knows what became of their stock. Similarly, the rebuilding of Canton led to the destruction of many little shops. A n d is the secondhand dealers' quarter of Peking — L u Li-Tscham — still there? The museums of Siam have not a single native map to show. I n nearby B u r m a one could still find early native maps i n the early nineteenth century, but they are now unheard of. Collecting i n such countries should begin at once. I t is good to see material entering state museums, but much has already been lost over the years. This book is intended to acquaint the reader w i t h the early maps produced i n both Europe and the rest of the world, and to tell h i m something of their development, their makers and printers, their varieties and characteristics. Our chief concern is w i t h the externals of maps: we exclude any examination of their content, of scientific methods of mapmaking, of the way material is collected, or of the compilation of maps. This book ends at the point where maps ceased to be works of art, the products of individual minds, and where craftsmanship was finally superseded by specialised science and the machine; this came i n the second half of the eighteenth century. This book contains the history of the evolution of the early map, but not the history of modern cartography. Finally, we must attempt to define a map. W e a l l have some idea of w h a t a geographical map or p l a n is. There can be no one, i n a country touched (however lightly) by civilisation, who has not seen and used a map or plan. Even primitive peoples, i n their own way, make and use maps, i.e. representations i n any m e d i u m and manner, of any particular area or country. The famous French cartographer J. L . Lagrange wrote i n 1770: " A geographical map is a plane figure representing the surface of the earth, or a part of i t " ; and this definition is perfectly adequate. The etymology of the word "chart" (Karte) is more interesting. There have been various attempts at i t . One explanation traces the world back to the Greek ^agdaco, which corresponds to the L a t i n sculpo ( I carve i n stone, or metal). Although i n the ancient world maps were indeed often carved i n stone, and primitive peoples perhaps practised map-making i n their rock-paintings, the word seems rather to come from the word cartes: paper, first used to denote a map i n Portugal, whence i t passed into Spain and Italy. The L a t i n word charta, which also passed into all Romance languages, is descended from Greek xdgrrjQ : paper. The word Karte was introduced into colloquial German by Laurent Fries, a cartographer, probably from Alsace, who i n 1525 published a little book, Yslegung der Mercarthen oder Cartha Marina, as the descriptive text for his world-map, published i n the same year. The word Landcharte was used i n German from the seventeenth century. I n ancient Greece a map was mvai, i n Rome tabula; i n both languages the word means "board, picture representation". The expression imago mundi (picture of the world), coined i n the M i d d l e Ages, is more explicit, like figura and pictura. The expression mappa mundi (mappa: patch, cloth, material) was very widely used. The English word "chart" or "card", i n troduced from H o l l a n d w i t h Dutch charts, has been retained exclusively for maps of the sea, while the word " m a p " is used for terrestrial maps, and also i n a wider sense to embrace all types of cartographic delineation. 8

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Chapter

i

Maps of primitive peoples

S t u d y of the development of an embryo enables the biologist to outline the principal stages i n the evolution of a species from i m m e m o r i a l times to its present form. I f , i n tracing the earliest phases of a particular h u m a n activity, we lack the necessary evidence i n the form either of tangible relics or of w r i t t e n or oral traditions, we can t u r n to the corresponding field i n the culture of p r i m i t i v e peoples of the present day, still untouched by white civilisation. The same procedure may be applied i n studying the early development of geographical maps. Early maps have been known to us for a much shorter time than many other products of civilisation. The earliest w o r l d map surviving from the ancient world — a Babylonian map of the 6 t h or 5 t h century B . C. — is of approximately the same date as the first k n o w n references to maps of Greek origin; and for several centuries after this there are no maps, but only literary allusions and fragments of plans. To trace the beginnings of cartography and its subsequent development we must therefore look at the primitive tribes of to-day, whose cartographic art has stopped at a certain point i n its development. Here we may find evidence suggesting by analogy that the historical peoples who preceded the present Mediterranean races passed t h r o u g h the same stages of evolution. A m a n l i v i n g close to nature relies more on his senses than a city-dweller. His perceptions are not dulled, since his way of life demands a close observation of everything round about h i m ; he feels the p u l l of instinct more strongly and has a keener sense of place and direction. W h e n finding his bearings he sometimes shows an astonishing ability to pick out features resembling those of a landscape familiar to h i m , and a sixth sense often shows h i m the r i g h t way. This sense may be inborn, but i t can also be acquired and cultivated. Rudyard K i p l i n g , i n his novel Kim, describes w i t h insight how a little I n d i a n boy is taught to be always observant and to memorise his surroundings i n detail, and how this prepared h i m for a career as a native pundit, sent by the English to explore and map regions where Europeans could not go. These demands are completely answered by the instinct of a m a n close to the soil. Another prerequisite for map-making — an aptitude for d r a w i n g — is not present i n all races, and where such a gift exists i t does not necessarily include the ability to draw maps. I t has been observed that, i n general, races given to stylisation of animal or h u m a n figures and to ornamentation of their utensils draw either no maps or very bad ones. Talent for drawing, though not dependent on a certain stage of development or degree of intelligence, can be gauged by the way i n which objects are represented. A primitive savage's drawing is often like a child's; the object engaging his attention is placed i n the foreground, large and unconnected to other objects around i t . Neither child nor savage immediately observes perspective. There is no u n i f o r m method of representing objects; some are i n plan, some i n elevation.

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A particular stimulus to map-making is provided by man's mobility and knowledge of his environment. The farther from his home a primitive m a n travels, the greater his capacity for m a k i n g a geographical map; unable to use the experience and information of others, he can only portray what he himself has seen. (Yet there have been native maps used for instructional purposes: for example, the Marshall Islanders had a special type of map which was used solely for teaching.) The tendency of many p r i m itive peoples to nomadism advances their development i n the art of cartography. Indian tribes i n the Missouri region used to follow herds of buffalo 1000 miles or more from their villages, and South Sea Islanders made equally long voyages from island to island. As a rule, however, the maps of primitive peoples are restricted to very small areas, perhaps not exceeding 100 square miles. Above all, their maps are concrete, corresponding to reality as seen by them at the given time. They know nothing of abstract maps, conventional generalisation, or data of a general k i n d . They cannot comprehend a large area solely by applying general considerations; they cannot portray the world, or even visualise i t i n their minds. They have no world maps, for their own locality dominates their thought. A primitive m a n who knows the way from point A to point B, and perhaps also the side-track from B to C, cannot conceive of a direct route from A to C. He carries no plan of a whole country i n his head, but merely a multitude of local details. I f we compare these facts, gleaned from the life of primitive peoples of our own age, w i t h our very imperfect information about mapping i n the ancient world, we are led to the conclusion that the maps of early historical races were developed from those of their primitive forebears. I t is therefore helpful to examine some types of map found amongst primitive peoples. The variety of such map-forms is governed by the m e d i u m i n which they are prepared. The commonest and simplest materials used are stone and wood; bone and leather are rarer. Pictures i n stone may be carved, chiselled or drawn. Rock paintings or petroglyphs occur all over the world and, significantly, are most numerous at points of social or economic importance, such as tribal gathering-places, the best hunting-grounds, and dangerous crossings. They have been found i n Venezuela and i n Africa, i n H o l stein and France, on the shores of Lake Ladoga, on the Yenisei i n Siberia and i n the Caucasus. M a n y rock paintings contain, besides animal and human figures, enigmatic patterns which some experts have tried to interpret as topographical representations of particular localities, that is, as clumsy attempts at map-drawing, but no such drawing have yet been identified beyond doubt w i t h any given locality. Nor has i t been proved that two prehistoric bone tablets found i n the Schafthausen caves, and covered w i t h a network of lines, are really maps. Their discoverer, Fr. Rodinger, maintained that the lines represented the principal roads of the region where they were found, and comparison w i t h the modern map does reveal a certain similarity; other scholars however, following Rudolf Virchow, have doubted the cartographic character of the tablets. Maps drawn on bark, chiefly birch-bark, are particularly common i n Siberia and among the North American Indians. They are easily carried, and this factor contributed to their wide distribution; Indians of north-west America used to take whole rolls of such maps w i t h them d u r i n g their wanderings. I t has been observed that these Indians have a distinct talent for mapping; though unable to read, they have correctly named the major rivers, lakes and mountains of their country on European maps. Maps drawn on birch-bark or deerskin were collected amongst the I n d i a n tribes of N o r t h America, and whole repositories of cartography created, as a Jesuit missionary, J. F. Lafiteau, reported i n 1724.

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While many savage peoples have shown some skill i n drawing maps on a plane surface, the Eskimos are perhaps alone i n attempting the delineation of relief features. Captain F. W . Beechey found evidence of this i n 1826 among the western Eskimos of Bering Strait. H e describes how i n Kotzebue Sound they made on sand a relief model of the littoral: "The coastline was first marked out w i t h a stick, and the distances regulated by the days' journeys. The hills and ranges of mountains were next shown by elevations of sand or stone, and the islands represented by heaps of stones, their proportions being duly attended to . . . W h e n the mountains and islands were erected, the villages and fishing stations were marked by a number of sticks placed u p r i g h t . . . I n time, we had a complete topographical plan of the coast from Point Darby to Cape Krusenstern'. A later anthropologist noted that the Eskimos of Cumberland Sound, off Davis Strait, had recourse to hachure to indicate an elevated shore on a map which they drew on paper. B u t wood was, and is, the most distinctive m e d i u m used by the Greenland Eskimos i n mapmaking (PI. I I ) . Blocks are carved i n relief to represent the rugged coastline of Greenland w i t h its fjords, islands, nunataks and glaciers, the shapes of the various islands being linked together w i t h rods. I n order to reduce the size of the blocks, the outline of the coast is carried up one side and down the other. The ancient culture of Mexico, inherited by the Aztecs from their M a y a and Toltec predecessors, was h i g h l y developed by the time the Spaniards arrived there. Maps were drawn w i t h facility and such accuracy that they could be used w i t h confidence by travellers. I n 1520 H e r n an Cortes, reporting on an interview w i t h Montezuma to the Emperor Charles V, described how he asked Montezuma about harbours for ships along the coast and the k i n g sent h i m "a chart of the whole coast, painted on cloth". These maps were drawn or painted on material woven from agave fibre; some are on fig-bark paper, and a few on prepared skins. Later, i n 1526, the envoys of Tabasco and Xicalango drew for Cortes "a figure of the whole land, whereby I calculated that I could very well go over the great part of i t " ; i n fact i t extended almost to Panama, and guided h i m on his difficult journey into Honduras. Almost all such maps perished i n the systematic destruction of native documents by the Spanish churchmen. Only two relics of pre-Conquest cartography have been preserved, w i t h a few native maps from the period that followed; and on these our judgment of early Mexican cartography is based. W h i l e the post-Conquest maps show some European influence, they retain traditional symbols for communicating topographical and historical i n formation, which is curiously blended. Thus the maps i n the so-called Codex Tepetlaoztoc, although drawn on European paper, use a vocabulary of form exactly like that of the ancient Mexican drawings (PI. I I I ) . M a n y cadastral plans are preserved, covering quite a wide area, and, i n these, different colours were used to distinguish state lands and land belonging to the upper and lower classes of the population. Several town-plans of the early Spanish period are preserved; Alonso de Santa Cruz probably based his plan of Mexico City (1567) on older material, and the surroundings of the city i n his plan seem to be copied from a much reduced map of the whole country of Mexico. Thus we have maps drawn by primitive artists on birch-bark, blocks of wood, skins, and, after the advent of Europeans, on paper too. The charts of the Marshall Islanders, i n the Pacific Ocean, are without parallel i n the whole development of cartography (PI. I V ) . These charts are constructed from lengths of palm-fibre, tied together by threads of coconut fibre so that they point i n various directions. Shells, representing islands, are attached at the intersections. Use of the charts depends on knowledge of ocean swell i n the immediate vicinity of the Marshall

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Islands. The threads represent the prevailing wave-crests and the directions they take as they approach islands and meet other similar wave-crests formed by the ebb and flow of breakers. I t is these wave-patterns, rather than the currents, that play the most important role i n navigation among the islands and channels. Other fibres i n dicate the distance at which particular islands come into sight. The islanders distinguish three groups of these maps, according to their nature and purpose: mattang maps (as PI. I V ) , giving only an abstract picture of wave-movements, and thus i n effect i n structional maps, which cannot be used for a particular navigation; rabbang, maps of the whole island-group (i. e. of the two chains of islands, Rattak and Ralik), or general maps; and finally the t h i r d group, meddo, maps of the various parts of the archipelago. To use these maps, the islanders spread them on the decks of their boats and kept constant the angle formed by the deck and the direction of the prevailing wave-crests, which can be seen for up to 15 miles. The method of m a k i n g these maps was a closelyguarded secret, revealed only to certain rulers and handed down from father to son. A squadron of 15 or more canoes would sail i n company under the leadership of a pilot skilled i n the use of charts. Unfortunately, as the islanders came to know European maps, they gradually stopped m a k i n g their o w n and forgot how to use them.

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Chapter

2

Cartography in the ancient world

Babylonia

If even primitive races are capable of m a k i n g geographical maps, we may be sure that mapmaking was practised by those peoples of antiquity who possessed a h i g h degree of civilisation and their own literature, and who were no strangers to the mathematical and astronomical sciences and to technology. I n these ancient and highly organised empires, maps served specific purposes and were thus functional or thematic i n character: m i l i t a r y maps, cadastral plans for land-registration, route-maps for merchants, and so on. Only a few isolated examples however have come to light. Despite the richness of civilisation i n ancient Babylonia and the recovery of whole archives and libraries, a mere handful of Babylonian maps have so far been found. They are impressed on small clay tablets like those generally used by the Babylonians for cuneiform inscription of documents — a m e d i u m which must have limited the cartographer's scope. One, dating from about 500 B. C , is a diagrammatic representation of the universe, w i t h Babylon at the centre (PL V I ) . Its maker seems to have had no detailed knowledge of distant lands, and i t presents merely a general scheme of the universe i n the form of a disc floating on the sea, similar to the Eskimo conception of the world as a disc-shaped island. The whole kingdom of Babylon is schematically portrayed; the Euphrates flows down from the A r m e n i a n mountains, called by the ancients Urartu, to the centre of the city of Babylon, where i t enters the Persian Gulf. Another, and much older, geographical relic dates from the Agade period (c. 3800 B.C.); i t was found near the town of Harran, not far from N u z i (PL V). This clearly shows the northern part of Mesopotamia, w i t h the Euphrates and its tributary the W a d i Harran, the Zagros Mountains i n the east, and the Lebanon or Anti-Lebanon i n the west. The mountain ridges are clearly marked, as is the river that crosses the country; circles stand for cities. These two maps, however, hardly provide sufficient evidence on the state of cartography i n ancient Babylon; and a l l the other surviving materials are plans of towns or properties, the earliest of which dates from about 2000 B . C . To Babylon nevertheless is due the sexagesimal system, which has dominated mathematical cartography to the present day. 1

Egypt

Egypt, which exercised so strong an influence on the ancient civilisations of southeast Europe and the Near East, has left us no more numerous cartographic documents tnan her neighbour Babylon. Geographical knowledge was highly developed i n early

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Egypt. The Pharaohs organised m i l i t a r y campaigns, trade missions, and even purely geographical expeditions to explore various countries. One of the earliest of such journeys known to us was undertaken i n the years 1493—92 B. C. by sea to the land of Punt (probably Somaliland). This is described i n an inscription i n the temple of Derel-Bahri; the ship used for this journey is delineated, but there is no map. Herodotus tells of another voyage, under the Pharaoh Necho (c. 596—94B.C.) on which the Egyptians sailed down the Red Sea, round Africa, and back to Alexandria by way of the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar). M a n y other pieces of geographical information are to be found i n inscriptions on temple walls and i n papyri, but without maps; unless we count the portrayals of the Fields of the Dead often found on sarcophagi (PI. V I I ) . Only later, when E g y p t was hellenised, do we find the first approach to theoretical problems connected w i t h map-making, and we can assume that maps were then i n fact produced under the influence of Greek geographical thought. For want of maps, we must read w i t h scepticism both Herodotus' statement that, during the Egyptian campaign i n Scythia under the Pharaoh Sesostris (c. 1400 B. G ) , all the conquered lands were mapped, and the reference by Apollonius Rhodius, i n his Argonautica ( I V , 272), to maps made i n connection w i t h this campaign, showing the roads, boundaries, and coasts. There can be no doubt that the ancient Egyptians had cadastral drawings. Indeed, land-surveying must have been highly developed, since the frequent Nile valley floods often washed away field boundary-stones, and the boundaries had to be measured anew. A l t h o u g h the Egyptians are credited w i t h the invention of geometry, no geographical maps have survived, but only plans of buildings, palaces and temples. I n this class may be included a remarkable schematic map of the N u b i a n goldmines, drawn on a papyrus roll now i n T u r i n , c. 1300 B. C.; this is really a plan, showing the gold-bearing basin to the east of Coptos, i n red, and the principal road w i t h the temple of A m m o n and a few houses. 2

Greece

I n early Greece too, i t seems that only small areas could be portrayed. Even i f an attempt was made to map a large region, the result was merely schematic, lacking geographical detail. W e have only to read the ironic comments of Herodotus and Aristotle on the maps of Greek geographers to be convinced that maps, as we understand them, simply d i d not exist i n their day. Strabo held geography to be a science derived from philosophy and developed by the philosophers. N o t u n t i l the time of Ptolemy was geography to be defined as a graphic representation of the known world, i n other words, as what we now call cartography. A l l this shows that i n the classical world i t was not geometers (land-measurers) but philosophers who engaged i n cartographic practice. They were interested i n the nature of the earth, which they visualised variously as a disc floating on the sea, or a segment of a cylinder, or a globe. Their explanations were accompanied by drawings that aroused disputes on matters of principle, such as the number of gulfs or seas i n the world and the extent of the continents. I t is no wonder that such academic activities

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aroused ridicule i n sailors and travelled scholars like Herodotus. W h i l e Ionian scholars were basing their schematic drawings on the assumption that the ocean encircling the earth formed four gulfs (the Caspian Sea, the A r a b i a n Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Mediterranean w i t h its branches), Herodotus knew the Caspian to be land-locked. Anaximander of Miletus (610—546 B. C.) is accounted the first Ionian to have drawn a world map, although neither Herodotus nor Aristotle saw i t . Hecataeus (c. 550— 480 B. C ) , also from Miletus, and a forerunner of Herodotus i n many travels, m i g h t have drawn a map to accompany his account of them, but i t is not k n o w n i f i n fact he d i d so. A manuscript by a Milesian scholar (6th century B. C ) , recently discovered, describes the supposed composition of the earth, which is said to have seven parts: head and face i n the Peloponnesus, backbone i n the Isthmus, diaphragm i n Ionia, legs i n the Hellespont, feet i n the Thracian and C i m m e r i a n Bosphorus, epigastrium i n the Egyptian Sea, hypogastrium and rectum i n the Caspian. I f this anonymous natural philosopher, not content w i t h theory, actually sketched out his map, we can draw instructive conclusions about the state of cartography i n his time. A significant event occurred i n Sparta i n 499—98 B . C . : Aristagoras of Miletus, who had taken refuge there, induced the Lacedaemonians, by exhibiting an iron map he had made, to undertake a campaign against the Persians. Herodotus tells us how Aristagoras pointed to the territories of the Ionians, Lydians, Phrygians, Cappodocians and Cilicians, enumerated the adj acent seas, and indicated the island of Cyprus, the lands of the Armenians and M a t i e n i , the river Choaspes, and finally Susa, the seat of the kings of Persia. F r o m this description we can see that i t was a map chiefly of the Near East, w i t h part of I r a n and Armenia. The earliest evidence of a scientific approach to cartography by the Greeks comes i n the 4 t h century. Dicaearchus (350—290 B.C.), a disciple of Aristotle, first pointed out the necessity for an orienting line on a w o r l d map; his line ran from west to east, through Gibraltar and Rhodes, extending as far as Persia. Eratosthenes (276—195B.C.) suggested that an increased number of such lines should be drawn parallel to one another, but he d i d not space them at equal intervals. Eratosthenes worked i n Alexandria, where he had charge of the famous library. This collection contained few maps, but doubtless a large number of cadastral drawings. W i t h their help, Eratosthenes surveyed the distance from Syene to Alexandria and on the basis of this measurement calculated the size of the earth, assuming i t to be a perfect sphere. This marked the beginning of geography based on surveying. B u t even this beginning had its origin i n philosophy; Strabo, from w h o m we have our knowledge of Eratosthenes' work i n the field of cartography, refers rather ambiguously to his map, and i t is not clear whether the map was i n fact drawn, or merely visualised by Strabo from his reading of Eratosthenes' treatise. Crates of Mallos (c. 150 B. C.) suggested — and perhaps made — a representation of the earth as a sphere, w i t h its surface divided into four equal continents. Strabo, w r i t i n g about Hipparchus (180—125 B. C.) and the trigonometrical calculations which he made for preparing the various parts of a map, emphasises that his work was simply a polemic against Eratosthenes, and that Hipparchus d i d not i n fact construct any map. Marinos of Tyre, who lived about the t u r n of the 1st century A . D . may be considered as the first to expound the theory of projections, that is, of a network of meridians and parallels subject to strict mathematical formulae. Marinos however did not illustrate his text book of terrestrial cartography w i t h any practical examples. His contemporary, the celebrated Greek astronomer Klaudios Ptolemaios of Alexandria (A. D . 87—150), k n o w n as Ptolemy, felt compelled to criticise Marinos' manual and 3

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came to the conclusion that i t was quite impossible to make a map i n accordance w i t h Marinos' instructions: i f the reader had no map to consult, what Marinos said was difficult to understand, and many readers who tried to produce a map themselves from his text had to abandon the attempt. Marinos' work is not extant, and we k n o w n of i t only from writings of Ptolemy.

Ptolemy

Ptolemy himself laid down principles for map-making i n this same polemical work, called by h i m recoyoacpixf] vcprjyrjoig, i . e. geographical guide to the m a k i n g of maps, and by later centuries simply Geographia or Cosmographia. Ptolemy does not say whether he made any maps himself, and i t seems quite possible that he confined himself to basic instructions, suggesting projections, showing how to break down a world map into separate maps and where to make the divisions, and listing the co-ordinates (latitude and longitude) of the principal points to serve as basis for a map. W e have a number of manuscripts k n o w n as Ptolemy's Geographia from a later period, the closi n g centuries of the Byzantine Empire. Some of these manuscripts contain maps, others do not. Even those w i t h maps differ one from another, and two versions can be distinguished. One version (A) contains 26 large maps included i n the eighth book of the Geographia (PL V I I I , X ) , the other (B) contains 64 maps distributed throughout the text. Over and above these maps, the manuscripts are accompanied by a universal map of the whole world as k n o w n to Ptolemy, on either one sheet (PL I X ) or four sheets; only very rarely are both world maps found together. Of the Greek manuscripts of the Geographia, as a whole or i n part, k n o w n to us, eleven of the A¬ version and five of the B-version have maps. Some of the manuscripts without maps contain references to accompanying maps, since lost, and i n others spaces have been left for maps to be inserted. Scholars have long debated whether the originals, of which these Byzantine maps are copies, were made by Ptolemy or by someone else. I f by Ptolemy, and i f indeed the maps of both versions can be ascribed to h i m , then which version — A or B — is the earlier? Doubts as to Ptolemy's authorship have been prompted by the fact that i n some manuscripts the single-sheet world map bears the name of Agathodaemon, a mechanic of Alexandria, who is presumed to have drawn the map following the i n structions i n the eight books of the Geographia, although the projection used is unlike any proposed by Ptolemy. There are also the further problems: who drew the world map i n four sheets? and, is Ptolemy the author of the text of the Geographia as i t has reached us? The Geographia of the Byzantine manuscripts — and we have no earlier ones — consists of eight books. Book I contains the criticism of Marinos of Tyre, instructions for map-making and proposals for two projections, one simple and one complex. The coordinates are stated i n degrees, from a prime meridian (0°) passing through the Fortunate Islands. Book I I begins w i t h an introduction on the evaluation of data, preparations for drawing, how and i n what order to m a r k boundaries, and how to use the appended tables. Then follow tables of inhabited localities, w i t h the latitude and lon4

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gitude (given i n degrees) of towns, estuaries and sources, mountains, promontories, peninsulas, and so on. A l l this occupies the greater part of Book I I and the succeeding books up to and including Book V I I . The last three sections of Book V I I supplement Book I , and give more general instructions as to what any map should show. Book V I I I contains a few more such instructions and, i n the A-version (as already mentioned), 26 maps, each folded i n half and haying on the back a statement of the region portrayed and its bounds and a list of principal towns. The geographical coordinates of these town are given, not i n degrees, but i n time; longitude is expressed i n hours and minutes corresponding to the distance from the meridian of Alexandria (1 hour =1 5 degrees, 1 minute of time = 15 minutes of a degree), and latitude i n terms of the length of the longest day, i n hour and minutes (the greater the distance from the Equator, the longer the day i n summer). I n some manuscripts of the B-version and i n those without maps, these texts from the backs of the maps have been brought together i n a special section, divided into chapters numbered 3—28. There follow supplementary information on satrapies, provinces and so on, and a table of the latitude and longitude of each map. Doubts whether the work transmitted i n these Byzantine manuscripts is from the hand of Ptolemy are suggested by inconsistencies and frequent contradictions i n the various books, by the inclusion of material that could not have been known i n Ptolemy's time, and by discrepancies between text and maps. Ptolemy was (in the present writer's view) probably responsible for certain parts only. Book I and the general instructions at the start of Book I I can certainly be ascribed to h i m ; and the information about the bounds of each map is his too. A l l this was doubtless i n the original text of the Geographia. I t is also quite possible that Ptolemy wrote chapters 3—28 of Book V I I I ; b u t this must have been long before the Geographia was put together, since the coordinates are given i n degrees, not i n time. This list of the principal towns m i g h t have been intended for students of astronomy who were using Ptolemy's Syntaxis, an astronomical manual and one of his earliest works. B u t even i n this work the coordinates are given i n degrees. I t therefore seems most likely that the list was compiled by some predecessor of Ptolemy, perhaps by Serapion Anticherios, who lived 200 years before Ptolemy and composed a list of this kind. Some later author may be supposed to have p u t together the eight books of the Geographia as they have come down to us, d r a w i n g on Ptolemy's Geographia, adding a list of reference points for maps, based on the well-known earlier list of towns, and finally giving the whole work an air of authority by attributing i t to Ptolemy and attaching to i t the name of one of his works. I t is significant that not one of Ptolemy's contemporaries, nor any writer of the next few centuries, mentions such a Geographia i n eight books. I n a l l the lists of Ptolemy's works, there is no mention of the Geographia; even "Suidas", who compiled a dictionary of ancient authors i n the 10th century, does not record i t . W h e n the Geographia is mentioned by other writers, i t is only i n connection w i t h the polemical material that later comprised Book I . Agathodaemon indicates that he based his map on the eight books of the Geographia, but we do not know when he lived. W e cannot hope to ascribe a date to the compilation of this problematic work u n t i l a l l extant manuscripts have been studied w i t h the utmost care. I t is no less difficult to determine when the maps of the two versions (A and B) were made. Certain indications point to the Byzantine period for these also, w i t h the exception of Agathodaemon's single-sheet world map, for the accompanying text of which he must also have been responsible. This map is usually found at the end of Book V I I ,

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preceded by three chapters containing some practical advice, a general description of all the known world and the three principal seas (the Mediterranean, the Caspian, and the I n d i a n Ocean), w i t h their bays and islands, and instructions for d r a w i n g a sphere and maps on a plane surface. M a n y scholars ascribe these three chapters to Agathodaemon, as the descriptive text for his map. B u t on the authorship of the other maps one guess seems as good as another. The Byzantine monk Maximos Planudes (1260—1310) has already been mentioned i n our introduction as a lover and collector of classical manuscripts. After much trouble, he succeeded i n finding and b u y i n g a manuscript of the Geographia, which is now i n the Vatican Library (Vat. Gr. 177). As he tells us, the manuscript contained no maps, but only Agathodaemon's remarks on the construction of his world map. Maximos Planudes was so delighted w i t h his purchase that he celebrated i t i n hexameters. I n other verses, he gives a f u l l account of how he resolved to make a map himself and d i d so. His work caused a great stir, and the Emperor Andronicus I I I expressed a wish to have a copy of the Geographia, w i t h maps, for himself. A t h a nasios, Patriarch of Alexandria, who was then i n Constantinople, had a copy made for the Emperor, and Planudes celebrated this too i n hexameters. Planudes tells us that his maps were based exclusively on the text of Ptolemy's eight books. A manuscript of the Geographia is preserved to this day i n the monastery of Vatopedi on M o u n t Athos; unfortunately i t has been despoiled by the monks, who were not averse to selling pages to collectors, and so the world map has found its way into the British Museum, and two or three other maps are now i n Leningrad (PL V I I I , I X ) . Scholars who have compared the Vatopedi manuscript w i t h letters i n the hand of Planudes believe i t to be his work, but i t is incomplete; i t is perhaps a second copy which he made for someone else. Planudes explains that he considered i t necessary to make a map 17 feet i n length. The other copies, such as that i n the Vatican manuscript Urb. Gr. 82, are on approximately this scale. But, as Planudes' original manuscript w i t h its maps has yet to be discovered, we can say n o t h i n g definite about the original form of the A-version maps. Another scholar of the Byzantine age is k n o w n to have been interested i n Ptolemy's Geographia — the noted polyhistor Nikephoras Gregoras (1295 — after 1359), who added various scholia (notes or comments, generally i n the margins) to the Geographia (PL X). H e is also credited w i t h the four-page world map found i n some manuscripts, chiefly of the B-version. This map clearly shows features of the late Byzantine period, and Gregoras is the only possible author not excluded by particular circumstances of time and place. O n the back of Agathodaemon's single-sheet map i n one 14th century manuscript ( M i l a n , Cod. Ambros. gr. 997/D.527 inf.) which happens to contain the four-page map also, there is a message to the reader from the copyist, or the m a n who commissioned the copy, announcing his decision to make a separate map for each continent, and to divide Asia into two parts; he continues, "we have inserted drawings (i.e. maps) at the places to which they refer", and later reiterates that the contents of the 26 maps of various countries have been distributed thoughout Books I I — V I I . Thus 26 maps of the A-version were divided up into 64. W e may infer that the copyist of this manuscript, or the m a n who commissioned i t , was also responsible for the maps of the B-version. Thus the evolution of the Geographia may be explained: this great compilation, containing maps by three or four different hands, was gradually p u t together d u r i n g the course of twelve centuries, though i t was long believed to have been written i n the second century by the famous Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy. B u t i f the Geo-

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graphia has proved not to be entirely his own work his fame is not diminished: i t rests secure on his other writings, especially the Syntaxis, which became k n o w n to the Arabs as the Almagest. One other Greek cartographic work has come down to us, the remains of a Roman warrior's shield found d u r i n g excavations at Dura-Europos on the Euphrates. The shield is clearly of Greek origin, since i t bears a fragment of a world map lettered i n Greek. On this is engraved the outline of part of the Black Sea coast, from Varna to the Kerch Strait. B u t i t would perhaps be more correct to count this a Roman work, since i t belonged to a Roman soldier and may have been based on a Roman route-map or itinerary.

Rome

There are many references to the existence of maps i n ancient Rome. Some schematic maps have i n fact been transmitted to us through the M i d d l e Ages, as they had previously passed from Greece to Rome. These are the map-diagrams added to illustrate the text of classical L a t i n authors, e.g. the histories of Sallust, the Satires of Juvenal, Lucan's Pharsalia, and the commentary of Macrobius on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis. Even before the Christian era, i n 174 B. C , a map of Sicily had been made for the temple of M a t u t a . Varro mentions a map of Italy. W h e n colonies were founded or territories divided, plans were made i n duplicate, one on metal or stone for public display, and the other on linen for the state archives. Fragments of an engraved marble plan of Rome constructed by the Emperor Septimius Severus (A. D . 193—211) have been preserved. W e also hear of individual maps, such as that of the k n o w n world which was made by Marcus Vipsanius A g r i p p a (63—12 B. C.) and is assumed to have been based on road-surveys of the Roman Empire carried out by command of the Emperor A ugustus (27 B. C. — A . D . 14). Such surveys, i n which no astronomical determination of points was attempted, were undertaken to produce route-maps for milita ry campaigns. A g r i p p a incorporated them i n his world map, which cannot have extended very far beyond the Mediterranean basin. The map was completed i n 20 B. C. and after Agrippa's death i t was displayed i n the Campus M a r t i u s i n Rome. Although copies of i t were taken to all the great cities of the Empire, not a single copy has survived. I t was long believed that Agrippa's map, i n a revised from, was to be identified i n the "Tabula Peutingeriana" (PI. X I ) , named after the German collector Konrad Peutinger of Augsburg (1508—47). The Viennese humanist Konrad Celtes, librarian of the Emperor M a x i m i l i a n I , found this map i n an unspecified library and brought i t to Peutinger i n Augsburg; and i t subsequently passed into Peutinger's possession as a bequest from Celtes. Recent study suggests, however, that i t is not a mere copy of the Roman map exhibited i n the Campus Martius, since i t is not designed for m i l i t a r y use, but gives prominence to trading centres, mineral springs, places of pilgrimage, and so on. 5

I n any case, the Tabula Peutingeriana is not a document of the 3rd century, b u t is of later date; and the stages i n its history have been traced. About A . D . 250, i t was

37

copied from a larger original of the 1st century A . D . ; about 350, the representation of the coastal region was improved and some islands were added; at the t u r n of the 5th—6th centuries the world-ocean was added and improvements were made to the seas; about the same time, the influence of this map appears i n a work by an anonymous cosmographer of Ravenna, who made use of some new material recently added to his source. The overall f o r m of the Tabula Peutingeriana, as i t was found by Celtes, must have been fixed at this period (about A . D . 500), although a few local corrections were made subsequently, for example i n the 8th and 9 t h centuries. W e do not know the maker's name; this may have been given on the first, and now missing, sheet of the map, which covered twelve sheets. Since the Ravenna cosmographer names a certain Castorius as the author of his source, i n connection w i t h material also found i n the Tabula Peutingeriana, i t is to be inferred that this was the maker's name. This map does not conform to the rules of any projection, nor is i t possible to apply a constant scale to determine distances from place to place; for these we have the figures w r i t t e n i n by the author. Doubtless Roman civilisation must have possessed good maps. The great number of surveyed roads, the many far-flung garrisons, the developed practice of surveying and the highly-trained geometers (agrimensores) — all these encouraged map-making. B u t the only surviving relics of Roman cartography are the Tabula Peutingeriana; a few local sketch maps i n the Notitia dignitatum Imperii Romani (5th century A . D.), chiefly of distant garrisons, very rough and without any k i n d of conformity (PI. X I I ) ; the representation of the Black Sea on the fragment of a soldier's shield mentioned above; and sketches of maps and plans appended to a manual for surveyors and assembled by Gromaticus Hyginus (PI. X I I I ) . This is the sum total of the Roman maps known to us. W h e n the Romans seized Greece and her provinces and colonies, they showed scant regard for the intellectual achievements of the Greeks. The basic cosmographical concept of Roman cartographers, as of the Greeks, was a flat disc of land surrounded by sea, w i t h the east uppermost, and the Aegean i n the centre. B u t the Romans had little interest i n theoretical considerations of form and i n methods of laying down geographical data on a sheet of paper; i n other words, unlike the Greeks, they d i d not consider i t worthwhile to argue about the relative merits of projections or systems of coordinates. They were interested i n practical questions. They measured the distances between various places, not i n order to establish their latitude and longitude, b u t for the practical purpose of m a k i n g as accurate a record as possible of m i l i t a r y and trade routes. The written itineraries, designated scrip ta, become from the 3rd century picta, namely, drawn or painted maps similar to the Tabula Peutingeriana. 6

38

Chapter

The Christian Middle Ages

T h e M i d d l e Ages, i n the original sense of the term, are the interval of time between the ancient and the modern world, that is, "between two periods of more or less rational order". I n the history of civilisation the Middle Ages are more properly to be seen as two distinct phases. The collapse of the Roman Empire was accompanied and i m mediately followed by the "Gothic n i g h t " of the D a r k Ages. Unlettered barbarian conquerors and a Church struggling against paganism alike stifled secular culture and allowed the intellectual and artistic legacy of Greece and Rome to fall into oblivion. The Fathers of the early Church were indeed little interested i n intellectual endeavour outside the realm of theology. I n the words of St D a m i a n , " i t was to simple folk, not scholars, that God entrusted the task of proclaiming His laws. St Benedict was not renowned for learning, St Anthony rejected Pilate for the Gospel. W h a t can Christians gain from science?". Echoes of this illiberal attitude to secular culture are found i n much later ecclesiastical reformers; and even St Francis could condemn as unspiritual the desire of friars for systematic scientific knowledge: "There are many brothers who strive to acquire knowledge . . . Those brothers w h o m curiosity drives to science w i l l find, on the Day of Judgement, that their hands are empty". I n the later M i d d l e Ages, from (roughly) the 10th to the 15th centuries, the cloak of darkness was lifted. M a n y forces contributed to this: the consolidation of Christendom and its expansion, the systematic formulation of Catholic philosophy, the foundation of national states and growth of cities, the discovery of relics of classical science preserved i n monastic libraries or i n the works of Islamic authors. The characteristic cartographic works which illustrated the Christian world-view were made throughout this period, and indeed from somewhat earlier, beginning i n the 6th and 7th centuries. The mediaeval Church, as heir of the Roman Empire, found nothing to condemn i n its cartographic practice. There were no doctrinal obstacles to the acceptance of Roman, and even Greek, cartography; the Bible gave no specific rulings on the subject, and the Church Fathers created none. The theory of climates was accepted by ecclesiastical scholars; they d i d not object to a division of the world into climatic zones, but merely to the astrological superstition that placed each under the influence of a particular planet. The Church had i n fact no fully formed attitude to cosmology, but had gradually to acquire one; Origen had allowed a wide degree of freedom i n compiling Church doctrine. B u t this freedom was not exploited u n t i l , i n the 6th century, Constantine of Antioch, k n o w n under the name of Cosmas Indicopleustes, created a "Christ i a n topography". H e rejected the view that the earth was a globe (since the idea of antipodes gave rise to theological difficulties) and preferred the older concept of a flat, disc-shaped earth surrounded by ocean. The Church Fathers however d i d not u n animously approve this doctrine; thus Jacob of Edessa (c. 640—708), although a

41

Orfens

I Marines

Fig. 1 • (left) T - 0 map in a Sallust manuscript, 12th century (Biblioteca Vaticana).

(right) T-0 map in the printed edition of Zacharias, Orbis breviarium,

Florence 1493.

bishop, subscribed to the Aristotelian theory of a spherical earth. B u t i n general the Roman cartographic tradition of a circular map was adopted. This met all the requirements of the Church, whether for Biblical exegesis or Psalter commentary, for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or illustrations for a treatise. For the most part, the maps of the patristic tradition are small and schematic. W i t h the passage of time, however, they become richer i n content and larger i n size, att a i n i n g a diameter of 3 / metres i n the Ebstorf map (c. 1284), which, like the Hereford map, was probably housed behind the altar. The w r i t i n g on such maps is chiefly i n L a t i n , but place-names are often given i n the local dialect; thus the Ebstorf map is i n L o w German, w i t h an admixture of M i d d l e German names, and the Hereford map i n the Norman dialect of O l d French. The geographical content of these maps is taken from the works of Pliny, Solinus and Isidore. The marvels that often f i l l them come from legendary lore, such as imaginative accounts of Alexander the Great's campaigns. W h e n maps were inserted i n a codex, i n book-form, they changed their shape accordingly, becoming oval and later rectangular. Of the secular cartography of the early M i d d l e Ages, no trace remains, apart from a few recorded references. W e know, for example, that Charlemagne (724—814) had many maps i n his collection, including three silver tablets or tables, two being plans of Rome and Constantinople, and the t h i r d a world map (totius mundi descriptio). I t is likely, however, that the latter was not secular i n character, for at this time the golden age of Church cartography was beginning, under the aegis of Pope Zacharias (741—752), who himself painted a world map i n the Lateran (orbis terrarum descriptionem depinxit). Scarcely a monastic library or library of a prince or nobleman was without its maps; we know this from many mediaeval library catalogues. They mention not only world maps (mappae mundi), b u t also maps of the H o l y L a n d , and even sea-charts, though these occur only i n later inventories. B u t maps of the monastic tradition served chiefly to illustrate texts. They are frequently found i n the Psalter u n d St Beatus' Commentary on the Apocalypse, but they also occur i n historical or geographical works, and this conditioned their nature and content. These maps, i n which the east is as a rule uppermost, can be divided into three m a i n groups: 1) The purely Roman type, showing a circular disc, w i t h Asia occupying the upper half, and Europe and Africa the two lower quadrants (Figs. 1, 2). The horizon1

2

42

t a l line separating Asia from Europe and Africa is formed by the D o n (Tanais), the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, the Aegean, and the Nile. The Mediterranean, as a radius, joins this diameter at r i g h t angles, forming the vertical stroke of a letter T. Maps of this type, k n o w n as T - 0 or wheel maps, are the most common. To i t belong the Ebstorf and Hereford maps, mentioned above, which are the richest i n content (PI. E, X X I V ) . Maps of this type occur i n the widest variety of size from 3 cm. up to 3 metres i n diameter. 2) The Crates type, named after its classical prototype, Crates' globe. This type is relatively rare i n Church cartography because the Church disputed the existence of the Antipodes. Here we find division into zones (Figs. 3, 4). The maps of Martianus Capella and Bishop Theodulf are particularly good examples of this type, which includes also the numerous small Macrobius-maps and zone-maps. Some of these are oriented to the north, a legacy from earlier models. Related to the zone-maps, but forming a distinct class, are the climate-maps dividing the habitable world into seven climates, following Ptolemy (Fig. 7). 3) The t h i r d type is a cross between the other two and includes the many Beatus-maps (PI. XV, X V I ; F i g . 5). These maps differ widely i n shape, size and appearance, and their contents is severely simplified. They are invariably oriented to the east, and the surface of the earth is sometimes (as i n the second type also) divided into four parts.

iicic. pwa tMimo/atkimvmwpam ee. ft ofRt&uti I ypanu 6a frnss lyt.ab ocabcnte*ficm nh marts 7ocm ,3tb 01m [SUeTtcUuemlAnnivincm.quclcai C4*n— igu* IkmlwJjonus petcaul artou* mft*u©u6- a?lo _ mq$ yemuna dqnm. g l i n t s \y&i%x$ ptlubu c m p i e ^ u ^ r pattens kto^.-jMaoRp fmcctm^iflchxit* n^fbztz glxih is dutfimv mtcuezer, 11am %tW2bu& qnc€p })mi® lep^ Fig. 2 • T - 0 map in a Sallust fajxttr. maiefia grits p l a n 1114. au&uu Qe® mot tztlcd/qium uuno'habuezA; afftea%$ic^i wtlm acceC- manuscript, 14th century fpvixr/aiit quo inpf&^mipti fur/ ab m rama q p l c - (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana).

43

Fig. 3 • (left) Zonal map in a Macrobius manuscript, 13th century (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale). (right) Zonal map in the printed edition of Zacharias Lilius, Orbis breviariurn, Florence 1493.

Mediaeval texts contain references to other maps which were either made or projected and have not survived. I n the map accompanying the text of the anonymous Ravenna cosmographer (c. 650) already mentioned. Ravenna was i n the centre w i t h , issuing from i t , 24 radii d i v i d i n g the entire surface of the earth into 12 day sectors and 12 n i g h t sectors. Such maps have been reconstructed by modern scholars on the basis of surviving texts, or fragments of text, b u t exact reconstructions are impossible w i t h o u t adequate data. Their arbitrary character is w e l l illustrated by the experts' continued failure to agree on the shape (whether round, oval, or rectangular) of the Ravenna map. The extant mediaeval maps are listed i n the following table, which omits the countless smaller maps — Macrobius-maps, climate-zone maps, T-maps and Sallust-maps — besides those late maps from the 14th and 15th centuries d r a w n under the i n fluence of sea-charts.

Fig. 4 • Zonal map in the printed edition of Sacrobosco, Opusculum, Leipzig c. 1500.

44

Chronological

table of mediaeval world maps

Date of origin

Name or author

Shape

Orientation

Scheme

Preserved in MSS. of century:

Libraries in which preserved

V cent.

Martianus Capella

circle

N

zones

XII-XIII

early V I I cent.

Isidore of Seville

circle

E

T

V I I (late)

Paris, Ghent, Wolfenbiittel St. Gall

rectangle circle

E

T

VIII

Albi

E

T

IX-XII

V I I I cent. Merovingian (Albi) map (Fig. 5) 776 Beatus (PL X V , X V I )

c. 800

Bishop Theodulf

circle

E

zones

1055

Paris, Osma, Madrid, Valladolid, T u r i n , London, Gerona Rome

late X cent.

Anglo-Saxon (Cottonian) (PL X V I I )

rectangle

E

T

X

London

X I cent.

Asaph Judaeus

circle

S

T

XI

Paris Cambridge

1110

Henry of M a i n z

ovoid

E

T

XII-XIII

1119

Guido

circle

E

T

XIII?

Brussels

c. 1225

Psalter map (PL X V I I I )

circle

E

T

X I I I late

London

c. 1235

Gervase of Tilbury (Ebstorf map) (PL E, X X I I - X X I I I ) M a t t h e w Paris (PL X I X )

circle

E

T

X I I I early Hanover (now destroyed)

rectangle

E

T

XIII

London, Cambridge

circle

E

T

XIII

Hereford

circle

E

T

XIII

circle

E

T

XIII

c. 1250 c. 1290

Richard of H a l d ingham (Hereford map) (PL X X I V )

c. 1350

Ranulf H i g d e n (PL X X I ; Fig. 6)

ovoid

E

T

XIV

c. 1350

Johannes Utinensis

circle

S

T

XV

c. 1370

St Genevieve map

circle

E

T

XIV

Vercelli (fragment) Wiesbaden (fragments) London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Paris, Cambridge, Rome Stuttgart, Munich Paris

1417

Mela-map, Rheims

circle

E

T

XV

Rheims

X V cent.

Wolfenbiittel map

circle

E

T

XV

Wolfenbiittel

X I I I cent. Vercelli map (PL X X V ) X I I I cent. Wiesbaden map

(Note — The shape and orientation given above are those of the maps in their original form.)

45

Fig. 5 • World map of Albi, 8th century: schematic representation of the Mediterranean world, with east to the top (Albi, Bibliotheque Municipale; after Konrad Miller).

I t is not possible to establish a chronological order for the development of types. I n fact, no clear cartographic development can be discerned d u r i n g this period. The Church Fathers, who were alone responsible for cartography, all used the same sources. The greater or lesser number of names and details was dictated, not by the geographical knowledge of the individual cartographer, but by the format of his map and the space available. B u t the selection from the material available did, of course, depend on the cartographer, and thus i t is that certain details may be found i n one map but not i n another. The theory of zones, or climates, held sway longer than any other, passing from H i p parchus and Eratosthenes, through Marinos of Tyre, Ptolemy, Pliny and Isidore, and into the Christian monasteries, first as a direct influence, and later indirectly through the Arab geographers, whose works also reflect i t . This however was a later development, as i n the work of Petrus Alfonsus (c. 1100) or Petrus de Alliaco (1410). The map of Petrus de Alliaco (Pierre d'Ailly) was printed at Louvain i n 1483 i n his Tractatus de Imagine Mundi (Figs. 7a, 7b). The zone-map appears, i n simplified form, i n the small Macrobius maps, and was later reproduced i n the works of the Venerable Bede, Lambert of St Omer, and others. Maps of the T - 0 type reflect ideas of the pre-Christian age, although adapted for the Church. They have been called imago mundi rotunda, or "Noachid maps", the latter from their Biblical division into three parts, one for each of the sons of Noah. The maps which survive i n manuscripts date back only to the 8th century, although we m i g h t expect to find them as early as the 4 t h century. The cartographer-copyists gradually came to add more and more details to the simple schematic drawing of St Isidore of Seville, varying its shape to suit the format of their manuscript. The

46

maps i n Sallust manuscripts are only p a r t l y influenced by the T—O pattern. F r o m the 6th century, these maps of Roman character were supplemented by w o r l d maps from the Topographia Christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose influence made itself felt for almost the next thousand years of Church cartography. His Topographia, augmented by fanciful descriptions of eastern lands taken from the chronicles of Alexander the Great, and from later pilgrims and crusaders, was used as a source by monastic geographers, who thought i t contained an interpretation of the Apocalypse. The maps of Beatus and his followers are among those which left their m a r k most clearly on monastic cartography. Beatus of Valcavado, a Spanish Benedictine monk, compiled his famous work Commentaria in Apocalypsin i n 776, adding a world map by way of illustration. Unfortunately the originals of the manuscript and the map are lost, and we have copies only (PI. X V , X V I ) . These are followed by the so-called Anglo-Saxon maps, exemplified i n the "Cottonian m a p " i n the British Museum, which bears no relation however to the text of Priscian's Periegesis, the manuscript containing i t (PL X V I I ) . This manuscript is probably not earlier than the end of the

Fig. 6 • Ranulf Higden, world map in a manuscript of his Polychronicon, 14th century: in "vesica piscis" form, with east to the top (British Museum, Royal MS. 14 C. XII).

47

10th century. For its date, the map shows fairly well-developed geographical outlines. Of particular note are two 13th-century maps named after the places where they were discovered, the Ebstorf and Hereford maps. The former (PI. E, X X I I — X X I I I ) was preserved i n a Benedictine monastery i n Ebstorf, near t l l z e n on the Liineburg Heath, and rediscovered i n 1830. I t passed i n 1845 into the possession of the Historisches Verein fur Niedersachsen i n Hanover, but was unhappily destroyed d u r i n g W o r l d W a r I I . I t consisted of 30 sheets of parchment, measuring overall 3.58X3.56 metres, and had been divided into its separate sheets to facilitate preservation. Unfortunately, some sheets were missing, and a comparison w i t h the similar Hereford map suggests that one of them contained a clue to the author's identity, perhaps even his name. B u t other contemporary sources indicate that the author was probably Gervase of T i l b u r y , an English teacher of canon law i n Bologna, who was later (1223—1234) 1

tlusfrptftnonahg.

Fig. 7.(a) • Pierre d'Ailly (Petrus de Alliaco), world map in manuscript of Ymago mundi, 1410: north to the top (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale).

48

i n the service of the Guelphs as a provost i n Ebstorf. H e is also k n o w n as the author of a historical-geographical-mythological work, the Otia Imperialia, w r i t t e n i n 1211 and still preserved; the geographical map which this manuscript should have contained is now absent from i t . I t seems probable that the map now k n o w n as the Ebstorf map is the missing one. The date i t bears is not quite clear: 12—4. The map is circular, w i t h Jerusalem at the centre, and is d r a w n on a background of the figure of Christ crucified, w i t h the head at the top (east), the feet at the bottom (west), and the arms p o i n t i n g n o r t h and south. The monks clearly used this map as an altarpiece. A l t h o u g h i t is of the T - 0 type, i t shows contemporary influences at work; Africa can no longer be accommodated i n the quadrant allotted to i t , and extends eastwards, displacing part of Asia. I t is covered w i t h pictures of various animals, plants, and a l l kinds of mythical races: dog-headed men, or men w i t h gigantic ears

fpr© bi&natone maris