The History of Cartography in Brazil in the 1940s: Jaime Cortesão's Lecture Courses

Abstract

During the Napoleonic Wars the military croquis, or sketch map, played an important role in the spatial management of the various campaigns. Presumably, many of these sketch maps were destroyed or discarded after their immediate use. Those that survive have received little scholarly notice. Attention is drawn in this article to a large and well-documented collection produced during the campaign in Russia in 1812 and subsequently amassed by the Saxon cartographer Ferdinand Heinrich August von Larisch. The operational value of the military croquis is examined and the relationship between cartographic poetics and historical representation considered.     

OBITUARIES

The crime of Claudius Ptolemy. By Robert R. Newton. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London. Pp. 411. Illustrated. Price £15.75.

London map‐sellers 1660–1720. A collection of advertisements for maps placed in the London Gazette 1668–1719 with biographical notes on the map‐sellers. By Sarah Tyacke. Tring, Hertfordshire, Map Collector Publications Limited, 1978. Pp. 160, illustrated. Price £12.

Heinrich Berghaus: der Kartograph von Potsdam. By Gerhard Enmglemann. Halle: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 1977. 411p.: ill.; 24cm. Acta Historica Leopoldina; Nr 10.

Vývoj mapového zobrazení Slovenska [The development of mapping of Slovakia]. By Lubomír Viliam Prikryl. SAV Bratislava, 1977. Pp. 481, illustrated.

John Cary, Engraver, Map, Chart and Print‐Seller and Globe‐Maker 1714 to 1831. By Sir Herbert George Fordham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925. Reprinted by Wm. Dawsons &; Sons Ltd. 1976.     

Medieval Maps at Merton College,Oxford

Abstract

À la fin du XVIIIe siècle, dans le processus de fixation de la frontière linéaire entre le Royaume de France et les Pays‐Bas autrichiens, les cartes manuscrites thématiques des traités des limites jouent un rôle fondamental en tant qu'instruments de négociation. Ces cartes permettent de saisir visuellement la complexité des possessions territoriales et de comprendre les enjeux économiques et politiques des transactions pacifiques. Les cartes analysées, de concert avec les actes des traités, mettent clairement en évidence un aspect moins connu, mais fondamental des cartes des limites, à savoir leur rôle en tant qu'indicateurs des enjeux économiques, en présentant avec beaucoup de soin les grands axes de communication par route.     

Maps and Memory: Readings of Cartography in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Song China

ABSTRACT

This essay traces the early history of the genre of the empire map in China, examines twelfth-century steles and printed maps of the Chinese territories, and analyses contemporary viewings and readings of maps in this genre. It argues that such maps reached a much broader readership of literate elites over the course of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and acquired new political significance as maps became powerful symbols in debates concerning the pros and cons of negotiated peace.     

An unknown “Pilot” by Hessel Gerritsz,dating from 1612

Abstract

Maps of Africa produced in the sixteenth century relied on Ptolemy for their representation of the unknown heart of the continent. However, another cartographic model, which challenged the classical authority in several respects, became available for the depiction of the African interior. This was the map attributed to Duarte Lopes (Odoardo Lopez) and published by Filippo Pigafetta in 1591. Since contemporary cartographers had no way of verifying which model presented the African interior most realistically, other facts must explain the pre‐eminence of one model over the other.     

Educational

Initiated in the seventeenth century, the growth of Scotland's glass industry was severely restrained by taxation laws and reached a low ebb in the 1820s. Recovery after the repeal of these laws enabled developments in every branch of glass making. Big demands for containers, especially from the drink trades, assisted the setting up of numerous container works particularly in Glasgow. Tied to coal rather than to sand, the industry was concentrated in Central Scotland. Since 1950 the use of oil and natural gas have enabled the establishment of works outside the traditional areas, but Glasgow, Alloa, Irvine, Kinghorn and Edinburgh (Penicuik) continue to be the main locations of the glass industry in 1980.     

Map or Terrier? The Example of Christ Church, Oxford, Estate Management, 1600–1840

Many factors might have prompted English landowners to map their properties after the genre of estate maps emerged in the late sixteenth century. However, the continuing predominance of the traditional written survey, or terrier, remains to be accounted for. An example from the muniments of Christ Church, Oxford, a large institutional landowner, is used to explain this pattern. Circumstantial evidence from maps and written surveys is augmented by the deeper insights gained from evidence of individual perceptions and institutional policies to explain the durability of the written, as opposed to the cartographic, record of land.     

Interdisciplinary approach for reconstructing an alder-based historical agricultural practice of the Eastern Ligurian Apennines (NW Italy)

Data from four soil profiles studied through pollen and macroscopic charcoal analyses were used to identify specific palynological assemblages associated with a traditional land-use system documented in the Eastern Ligurian Apennines (NW Italy) between the 18th and early 20th century, concerning a cyclical use of grey alder plots for temporary cultivations involving to the use of controlled fire. This is the first attempt to verify on palynological evidence some hypotheses raised by previous historical ecology studies about the consequences of this agricultural practice (recently named alnocoltura) on past and present vegetation. Our investigations underline (1) high percentages of anthropogenic pollen indicators, (2) increase of Ericaceae percentages, (3) low pollen percentages of Alnus, (4) high macrocharcoal concentrations and (5) high values of palynological richness during periods affected by the alnocoltura cycle according to the historical sources. Similar patterns are also detectable in pollen diagrams from two adjacent peat bogs. The paper shows the strength of an interdisciplinary methodology (field observations, cartographical and archival historical data, palynological and archaeological investigations) for studies of past land-use systems. By demonstrating the necessity of a long-term prospective in environmental reconstructions for the preservation of the cultural landscape, one of the important elements of this research is its potential contribution to issues of habitat management and nature-conservation policy. Further analyses are needed to test the replicability and reliability of the hypotheses derived from this study.     

The Secrets of a long life: The Dutch firm of covens & mortier (1685–1866) and their copper plates

Abstract

Commercial map publishing firms between the mid‐sixteenth and mid‐nineteenth centuries needed to prolong the life of their copper plates for as long as possible. In order to avoid the costs of engraving new plates, the famous Dutch publishing house of Covens & Mortier of Amsterdam (1685–1866) amended existing plates for topographical and politico‐administrative changes, engraving errors, imprint alterations and marks resulting from general wear. Not only were the plates altered, but the printed maps themselves were sometimes also modified: a new title cartouche might be pasted on or a date or part of the text scratched away. In these ways the map publishing firm was a master of creative solutions as regards both the re‐use of old copper plates and the ‘renewal’ of old printed maps.