Chronicle for 1993

Abstract

Theory is not a goal in itself but a means of enriching the history of cartography by stimulating new research questions and objectives. In this paper the concept of ‘transparent maps’ (carriers of an image of the external reality of the world) and ‘opaque maps’ is introduced. The notion is approached structurally (standards of graphical representation, drawing, geometry, text); through the sociology of the map (map makers, institutions, the public); and through seeing maps in their cultural and historical context (an approach which raises issues of the definitional boundaries of the history of cartography and which is arguably one of the most stimulating perspectives today as fostered by, in particular, contributors to the History of Cartography). Finally, attention is drawn to three important topics for the research agenda: the links between maps and culture; maps as a language of communication and as instruments of power; and the links between perception, logic and mnemonics.     

The Egyptian “book of the two ways”

Abstract

Science and cartography have had an intimate history which has not been simply the creation of ever more accurate scientific maps but one in which science, cartography and the state have co‐produced the knowledge space that provides the conditions for the possibility of modern science and cartography. The central cartographic process is the assemblage of local knowledges and, as such, is a particular form of the assembly processes fundamental to science. The first attempts by the state to create a space within which to assemble cartographic knowledge were at the Casa da Mina and the Casa de la Contratación, and hence they can be described as the first scientific institutions in Europe. Their failure to create a knowledge space can be attributed to the nature of the portolan charts. The triangulation of France and the linking of the Greenwich and Paris Observatories established the kind of knowledge space that now constitutes the dominant form within which modem science and cartography are produced. However, resistance to the hegemony of modern scientific knowledge space remains possible through finding alternative ways of assembling local knowledge.     

The Railways of Britain: An Unstudied Map Corpus

ABSTRACT

Railway mapping, a distinctive genre of cartography, came into existence with the invention of railway transport in Britain. The planned route for the first public railway, the Stockton & Darlington Railway, was surveyed by 1820 as a statutory requirement for the Act of Parliament that was necessary before construction could proceed. The Stockton & Darlington Railway was granted its Act in 1821 and opened in 1825. From then on, an abundance of maps, plans, diagrams and technical drawings were created to enable railways to be planned, constructed and operated; to be changed, developed and regulated; to attract business and passengers; and to provide railway staff with a range of specialist tools. Today, Britain probably has the largest surviving corpus of such material, but owing to the essentially private nature of the preparation and use of railway maps, it remains largely unstudied and therefore scarcely evaluated in terms of its historical worth. This paper summarizes the archival history of Britain's railway maps and describes eleven broad categories of railway cartography that collectively form a coherent body of maps covering much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and which await better access and comprehensive study. It also underlines the urgency of ensuring the preservation of the railway map archive from further loss and destruction.     

Academic Cartography,Internal Map History,and the Critical Study of Mapping Processes

ABSTRACT

Academic cartographers consistently expressed an interest in the history of map form (design and practice), at least until the 1980s. This essay reviews the formation of academic cartography, primarily in central Europe and the United States, and the scholarly work on the internal history of cartography that was clearly manifested in Imago Mundi. Internal map history catalysed the development of socio-cultural map histories after 1980 but did not itself change along those new lines. This was unfortunate because it is by paying attention to internal questions of the physical and graphic form of maps and the practices of mapping—albeit critically reconfigured as the processes of producing, circulating and consuming maps—that map historians will discover new and fertile intellectual ground.     

Maps,Mapping, Modernity: Art and Cartography in the Twentieth Century

While the history of cartography has freed itself from debilitating debates over the scientific and artistic status of maps, considerations of the relationship between art and cartography have continued to focus largely on pre‐modern maps, avoiding critical examination of twentieth‐century art and science in cartography and leaving intact the impression that these followed distinct paths in the modern period. In this paper, however, I have drawn on theoretical work in Science Studies and taken account of modern art's separation from aesthetics to suggest that an examination of art and cartography in the twentieth century should focus on mapping practices rather than on maps as such. A summary overview of modern‐art movements and selected works indicates a continued, if critical, engagement of avant‐garde artists with cartography, and the examination of more popular newspaper artwork produced in the context of the intensely modern visual culture of mid‐twentieth century Los Angeles indicates a similarly close connection between modernity, art and cartography.     

地图学史视角下的古地图错讹问题

文章从地图学史的视角,结合历史地理学的最新理论进展,讨论了对古地图上错讹地理信息的合理认知和处理方法。古地图中的地理信息来源芜杂,兼有实际和想象的内容;且其表现形式多样,兼具实用和装饰目的。因此,古地图上的错讹必须以丰富的地图学史知识为基础,将其置于当时、当地的情境中去理解。文章以19世纪初以前中外古地图中对西沙群岛(帕拉塞尔)的表现为例,分析了错讹出现、维持以及最后消失的原因。作者认为,"古Pracel"的提法不符合地图学史,系对古地图地理信息的误读。     

A View from America: Map Collecting, ‘Treasure-House’ Libraries,and American Civic Influences on the History of Cartography

Abstract

The study of the history of cartography in the United States has been profoundly shaped by the peculiar American institution sometimes known as the ‘treasure house’. These libraries, located in major metropolitan areas and at prestigious universities, were created through the philanthropy of businessmen of local and national significance, most of whom also collected maps and books. The collecting patterns of these philanthropists and the institutions they helped to found emphasized materials (including maps) relating to American history and culture before 1800. This emphasis on pre-nineteenth century holdings tended to marginalize the historical study of most post-1800 cartography in the United States until the middle of the twentieth century. At the same time, as a case study of Chicago’s Newberry Library shows, the development of these collections was flavoured by the civic and regional pride of their host communities and the aspirations to be regional, national and global metropolises.     

Post-communist Eastern Europe and the cartography of independence

The collapse of Communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991 was followed by a decade of new-found independence for two groups of states: (1) the former Soviet Socialist Republics of the USSR, and (2) the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, all but two of which were Soviet satellites. As part of an effort to redefine their character and relative location on the European stage, almost all of these states launched a cartography of independence, putting the world on notice that a new set of geographical realities had taken hold of the region. During the 1990s, maps were requested from each country’s embassy in Washington, DC; 15 of the 19 embassies responded, usually with multiple maps. Using perception theory, communication theory, and semiotic theory, these cartographic artifacts, some of which are presented in this article, were analyzed with the objective of understanding how each country wished to present itself in the post-Communist era. Through the lens of persuasive cartography, we are able to note the nation-building process at work and the emergence not only of newly independent countries but of a new Europe.     

中国历史地理学的理论体系、学科属性与研究方法

本文总结了有关中国历史地理学理论方面的若干问题 ,认为历史地理学具有区域性、演变性、结构综合性与有用于世的目的性 ,前三点也与构成其研究内容的空间、时间、部门 (专题 )三大要素相对应 ,其理论体系中除了包括历史自然和历史人文地理诸分支外 ,还应包括区域综合历史地理学、历史地理学理论、历史地图学、应用历史地理学。尽管历史地理学界已普遍认为历史地理学应该属于地理科学 ,但实际上其却多作为历史学的专门史而存在着。本文分析了这种理论与实践脱离状态的形成原因 ,并希望经过长期努力 ,把历史地理学建设成为一门独立的综合性学科     

‘I draw a line here and open a new chapter’: The Bagrow-Almagià Correspondence 1947–1955

ABSTRACT

The Imago Mundi archives, held in the Map Library of the British Library in London, contain the correspondence between Leo Bagrow, the founding editor of Imago Mundi, and the Italian geographer and historian of cartography Roberto Almagià. Their correspondence, which continued throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, brought out the worst in their very different characters, at times to an almost comical extent. The exchanges reveal Bagrow’s somewhat brusque editorial methods but also show his vision for Imago Mundi and demonstrate his total dedication to the history of cartography. The letters also provide a revealing commentary on the immense difficulties of international communication and research in the immediate post-war years, and the persistence of the cultural nationalism that dominated the history of cartography as an academic pursuit in this period.     

A boat perspective: local geographic knowledge of fish harvesters in Change Islands,Newfoundland

People whose livelihoods depend on the natural environment have detailed knowledge of the lands and waters surrounding their communities. This paper presents research on the traditional geographic knowledge of fish harvesters in Change Islands, Newfoundland. Our findings, based on “kitchen table mapping” and other ethnographic methods, demonstrate that residents of coastal communities have extensive geographic knowledge associated with a way of life centred on fishing. This knowledge is reflected in a “namescape” that includes hundreds of toponyms that are not present on existing maps and that reflect meaningful connections with local history and cultural heritage. Fish harvesters also have distinctive ways of conceptualizing the landscape and the seascape, which is reflected in the geographic terminology they use. Overall, their way of looking at the environment, in contrast to the bird's-eye perspective that prevails in western cartography, can be characterized as a “boat perspective”. Their geographic knowledge has practical value for improving existing cartographic information and developing sustainable resource use strategies. At a broader level, their distinctive ways of interpreting the “earthscape” provide alternative ways of understanding space and place, and can help us identify our assumptions about how we define geographic features and represent them on maps.     

从宋代诗文看幽思与胜览思想对宋代地图学发展的影响

幽思与胜览是两宋时代地图学中的两个重要思想脉络。在思想感情与意识形态之外,它们对当时地图学发展的影响大致体现在这样几个方面:促进了政府测绘边疆地图的同时,激发了私人对边地的探险旅行和地图测绘活动;各类"天下"舆图的绘制,在文化和空间上塑造了王朝整体地域形象;推动了历史地图和州郡类区域地理图的不断发展。另一个值得注意的现象则是,在强烈的思想感情驱使下,石碑作为一种特殊的材质成为宋代地图绘制的重要载体,推动了地图绘制形式的发展。与幽思相比,胜览更多地体现了宋代地图学发展中的乐观因素,推动了八景图意象的兴起和山岳地图的流行,在中国地图学中开出一朵灿烂夺目的以审美为核心的地图分支。     

The Responsibility of Science for the Future of Mankind

Abstract

Science and technology have brought immense benefits to man, yet through them he has become divorced from nature and he has failed to understand them. Adverse effects have been deliberately hidden, and when they became obvious, have turned science into a scapegoat. Scientists are here presented as unconcerned with the social consequences of their work, whether it affects industry or politics. The endless scientific future is now seen to have strict limits, and, the author proposes, scientists must devote themselves to the problems of mankind's future. Above all, scientists must explain their work in a language which all can understand, so that man can feel again at ease in his scientific civilization.     

Marinus of Tyre's place in the Columbus concepts

Summary

Thomas Jefferys (died 1771) was one of the most significant London mapsellers of the mid‐eighteenth century. He enjoyed an international reputation and apparent prosperity as a publisher of American and European maps during the Seven Years War. Yet in 1766 he became bankrupt. The paper offers an interpretation of Jefferys’ bankruptcy in the light of his business activities. After reconstructing the main phases of his career, the conclusion is reached that the causes of bankruptcy only operated in the period after 1765, when he became involved in the production of a series of English county maps based on original field survey. Hitherto, his maps had been compiled from inexpensive secondary sources; the field surveys involved a new set of costs which led to his failure.

The bankruptcy explains an otherwise puzzling change of ownership in some of his maps after 1765—especially the acquisition by Robert Sayer of a substantial share in his enterprises. These events may have wider implications in the history of eighteenth‐century cartography. Many map‐publishers were under‐capitalized and had to survive on low profit margins. These, in turn, may have retarded cartographical progress; the conclusion reached is that plagiarism was frequently an economic necessity for many mapsellers.     

Cordiform Maps since the Sixteenth Century: The Legacy of Nineteenth‐Century Classificatory Systems

The heart‐shaped, or cordiform, maps of the sixteenth century, including those by Oronce Fine, Peter Apian and Gerard Mercator, have long intrigued historians. Most writers have considered the heart shape a product only of mathematics, but some have recently offered other interpretations for the use of the heart. A classificatory system devised by d'Avezac in 1863, however, has impeded our understanding of the cordiform map, particularly in the matter of what is considered to be such a map. The nature of his classification and its reception by other writers since the late nineteenth century are examined in order to elucidate new directions for the study of the use of the heart shape in sixteenth‐century cartography.     

Samuel Taylor Coleridge on ideas actualized in history

ABSTRACT

Situating Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s thought on historically actualized ideas with reference to a range of classical thinkers, this article examines his intriguing philosophical theory about how ideas become progressively actualized in history. This cultural growth can be understood as contemplation-in-action, although it occurs through mainly fumbling – or else overenthusiastic – human agents. I distinguish Coleridgean first-order, transcendent ideas (such as God, infinity, the good, the soul) from second-order, historical ones (such as church, state, the constitution). It has been argued that Coleridge’s theory of ideas develops from Bacon’s inductive method for discovering laws of nature through experiment and natural law through common law. I further claim that Coleridge upholds the reality of “Forms” in science, and of rights in ethics and politics; that his later political thought is inherently more progressive than is generally admitted; and that his account differs from Schelling’s and Hegel’s respective theories by maintaining the transcendence of ideas above the immanence of their evolving historical actualizations. Coleridge’s philosophy is therefore, whether political or metaphysical, ultimately an ontological defence of the transcendence of ideas above the immanence of their progressive but imperfect actualization.     

Draft town maps for John speed's theatre of the empire of great Britaine

ABSTRACT

A unique Hebrew map of the Exodus and the Holy Land was printed in Mantua, Italy, in the mid-sixteenth century. This map is graphically and artistically different from all other Hebrew maps, both earlier and later. The aim here is to analyze the map and the text that is printed on it, explore the reasons for, and the context of, its printing, and identify its sources within contemporary Jewish scholarship and Christian cartography. The only known exemplar of this map is in the Zentralbibliothek in Zürich, Switzerland.