Maps and F{istoryConstructing Images of the Past

Jeremy Black

Yale lJniwersiqy Press

New Flaven and London

Copyright @ 1997 by Jeremy Black

All rights reserved. This book my not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any fonn(beyond that copying pennitted by Sections ro7 and ro8 of the U.S. Copyright Law and

except by reviewen for the public press) without witten permission from the publishers.

Set in Bembo by Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong KongPrinted in Hong Kong through Worldprint

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Daø

Black, Jeremy.Maps and history{eremy Black.Includes bibliographical reGrences and index.ISBN o-3oe-oóqzó-6I- Historiogrephy. z. History-Methodology. 3. Historical

geogephy-Maps. l. Tide.Dr3.854 r997go7.z-dczo 96-41293

CIP

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ro9876S43zr

V-,túgæii!l.Æ

T î T',ìi ,r ,"* i? ?

4_

Zl3S zcÇ o¡zttlu3o'

For Pippa

Because she asked for a second book

¿Sü¿ vun.L*¿ã"¡.Nl

xþ{ã vâtN4l!-N)l

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

I

2

J

+

5

6

8

9

Developments to rSoo

The Nineteenth Century

Nationalism and Eurocentrism in Nineteenth-

century Historical Atlases

Environmentalism and Nationalism

'W'ar, Environment and Ideology, rgr+-+5

Commercial Context r9+5-

Politics and Post-war Historical Atlases

Remembered Histories

A New Agenda: Post-r945 Historical Atlases and

the 'Non-political'

ro Technology and the Spaces of the Future

rr Concluding Remarks

Notes q

Map Acknowledgments

lndex

v111

ix

I

27

5r

8r

roz

r32

r+9

173

204

zz6

2+o

a ^a

z6o

z6t

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to a large number of individuals and instirutions for their helpwith this project. Fint and foremosr are the libraries that collect, store and mak-eavailable historical atlases, and their staff whom without exception I have foundhelpful and a pleasure to deal with. I have worked mosr in the Map Librarv of theBritish Library, but would also like to record my gratitude to rhe librarians of theRoyal Geographical Society, the National Llbrary of scotland and the ribraries ofthe Univenities of British Columbia, Cambridge, Colorado @oulder), Durham,Newcastle, Oxford, Texas, 'Western Onta¡io and york (Ontario), to Ball State,Denver and rexas christian universiries and to South Australia House in London.

The research was assisted by aJ.B. Harley Research Fellowship in the History ofCartography, a Christophenon Fellowship and a Mid-Career awa¡d both from theuniversiry of Durham, and a grant from rhe Nuftìeld Foundation. The cruciarassistance of each of these awards is gratefully acknowledged. In order to undentandthe problems of historical mapmaking I sought ro discuss them with es rrnnypractitionen as possible: with scholars, editon, cartographers and publishers. I amgrateful to a large number who took the time to talk to me, including M. Barke,Michael Blakemore, RJ. Buswell, Thomæ Cussans, Marrin Gilbert, MarkGreenslade, Simon Hall, Terry Hardaker, John Haywood, R.H. Hewsen, EricHomberger, Andrew Lawson, Colin McEvedy, Malcolm McKinnon, paul Magocsi,Bob Moore, Don Parkes, Anne Piternick, Andrew Porter, Francis Robinson,Richard Ruggles, Herbert Sandford, Geoftey Scammel, Joseph Schwartzberg,Graham Speake, Richard Talbert, Barry 'Winklemen

end Liz Wyse. Many othersgenerously took the time to reply to my letters.

Earlier drafts of sections of the book were read byJohn A¡drews, Sarah Bendan,Frank Carter, Brian Catchpole, Catherine Delano-Smith, Johannes Dörflinger, paulDukes, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Colin Flint, James Forsyth, peter Furtado, MarkGaleotti, Walter Goffart, Lâs216 Gró{, Paul Harvey, Roger Kain, George Lukowski,David Moon, Robert Peberdy, John Plowrighr, Dawid potter, Merfyn Rady, BillRoberts, Brendan Simms, David Sturdy, Peter'Waldron, Armin'[/ol{ and Daniel'woolf, I am also grateful for the comments of four enonymous readen on either thesynopsis or the text.

I am most gratefui to Robert Baldock for his encourâgement and to WendyDuery for her secretarial assisrance. I have only been able to write this book thanksto Sarah's love and ettention and it is dedicated to mother wery special pe6on, ourdaughter Pippa, one of the two 'maps' of our lives.

Preface

Maps and Hktory, a study of the mapping and mappability of the past, offers an

approach to the undentanding of history, both the past and the way in which it is

studied and presented. Most historians have given very little consideration to histori-cal mapping. Historical atlases, i.e. atlases (generally books in which half or more ofthe space consists of maps) composed of historical meps, tend to be taken forgranted, treated like basic reference books, akin to chronologìes, dictionaries and

encyclopaedias. Yet, like such works, they can be fruitfully analysed. The visual

images they offer are influential in creating and sustaining nobions of historicalsituations, and are particularly appropriate as a theme for inquiry given the recentstress on nations as imagined political communities, on the role of images es a meens

of creating perceptions of power and, more generally, on iconographic aspects ofpolitical and cultural authority.

Geography was and is more than a background or backdrop to historical events

and processes. The nature of our understanding of space and of spatial relationships

is of consequence, and historical atlases provide a means for assessing how these have

changed over time. Considering the past use of historical atlases also provides an

opporËunity to discuss their present and future potenrial - important as the content

of these works has changed considerably since the Second World War. In addicion,

it is necessary to offer a certographic perspective, to discuss what can be mapped

effectively, what informetion is best presented in map form and how it should be

treated. Important in their own right, historical adases thus also offer ways ofundentanding and presenting the past.

Deuelopments to tSoo

In recent decades the undentanding of maps and mapping, of cartography and the

history of cartography, has altered a.d widened to include traditions of representa-

tion that do noi accord with the custoÍxrry -Westem definitions. This is related to

a critique of what has been presented as a triumphalist conception of the map and

the development of rnapmaking, a critique associated in particular with the late Brian

Harley.r An understanding of the past at least partially in cartographic terms is not

and was not restricted to 'Westem societies. Instead, in a number of independent

contexts there was interest in spatial relations because of the natute of religious

foundation myths, although there is a distinction between understanding spatial

relationships and undersranding carrography. In New caledonia, for example,

,oci"ty *Ã organízeó into spatially differentiated clans with reference to mythicel

*..r*.r. A sense of spatial relationship and control was based on dwelling founda-

tion mounds and the roures berlve€n rhem, and the geography of the region

included the mythological place in which man originated and the entrance to the

subterr¿nean country of the dead. There was clearþ a well-developed sense ofmenrel mepping, and ir is possible today to map such relationships.2 fn Australia

aboriginal maps depict ancestral stories and traditional relations with the envi¡on-

-ent], Su.h maps eústed not only in the mind - unmanifested mental maps - but

also in sand pairrirrgs and carvings - manifested mental maps. That such maps were

not reproduced in manuscript or print in no way decreases their accuracy, although

printing does make the creation of a readily repeatable visual image far easier. The

.ehaoÃhip berween the picture story in cartoon-strip styl€ that moves in place as

well as time and cartographic origins in certain societies, for example Ancient Egypt,

Aztec Meúco and among the North American Native Americans, is potentially very

interesting and would repay investigation.It is no part of the agenda of this book ro suggest or imply that manuscript or

printed ,epi"rentations are superior to mental maps or that orel culture is deficient

,, " -."t

t for consrructing, descriþing and analysing spatial relationships Th9 printed

world of maps is scarcely auronomous. Yet, in studying the mappability of the past

by referenceìo historici athses it is inevitably the case that attention is concenrrated

or tlr" .olttr. of print. It is certainly outside the rcope of this work to consider how

spâtiâl norions anã understandings of the past have changed within oral cultures.

I

l

2 Mdps and History

Developments in China

The history and pre-history of the historical atlas are commonly understood in-Western terms. The ûrst known historical adas is generally given as the Parergon of

Abraham Örtel (Ortelius), published in Antweqp in r57g, inirially as part of hisgeneral atlas, but from 16z4 as a separete work. Yet it is also possible to drawattention to independent developments in China. The fint map in China d¿tes fromabout zroo rc and appeared on the ourside of a ding (ancient cooking vessel), anda map of a graveyard produced behveen 323-rj Bc was uncovered in a tomb in1977. Maps in China certeinly became more common under the Western (or'Former') Han dynasty (zo6 nc-ao 9), although very few have survived from beforethe twelfth century. Among the maps that have disappeared is rhe Y¿i Ki.ing Ti YüThu (Map of the territory of the Yugong) of Phei Hsiu/Pei Xiu (ao zz4-7r), rhefounder of scientific cartography in China. Appointed Minister of Works in 267,Phei Hsiu wes an active mapmaker. He shared the Chinese fascination with legen-dary and historic times and sought to map the Tribute of Yü in order to clarify thegeography of ancient times, to compensâte for the destr.uction and loss of Qin mapsand to improve on what he regarded as the inadequete maps of the Later Han. PheiHsiu presented his eighteen-sheet map to the Emperor, who kept it in the secretarchives. The preface claimed:

referring back to antiquity, I have examined, according to the Yugong [an ancientwork of geographyl, the mountains and lakes, the courses of the riven, the plateaus

and plains, the slopes and marshes, the limits of the nine ancienr provinces and thesixteen modern ones, taking account of commanderies and fieß, prefectures and cities,and not forgetting the names of places where the ancient kingdoms concluded treaties

,or held meetings; and lastly, inserting the roads, paths and navigable waten.

The sources of information available to Phei and his final achievement may havebeen in large part works of the imagination, but his wâs ân attempt to fix the pasrin cartographic terms.a

From the twelfth century, maps were frequently used in various types of publica-tion such as administrative works and histories. The oldest printed Chinese historicaladas is a twelfth-century Song work, rhe Lídai DiIi Zhi Zhang Tu (Easy to use mâpsofgeography through the dynasties) atffibuted to Shui A¡li. This was a collection of44 meps of dynastic territories from legendary times to the Song dynasty, originallyproduced in a woodblock edition, a reproduction of which, edited by Tan Qixiang,was published in Shanghai in 1989. We know almost nothing about Shui Anli, buta Southern Song dgrasry writer says he was from Shu, that he was summoned tocourt, but died before he arrived there. Some editions give the compiler as Su Shi,a noted Song ofÍicial and poet, whereas some bear no níune. The blocks wereproduced in Shu, a minor state in what is now Sichuan province. A Qing edition,which seems to be directly descended from the Song editions, has the date rogg aÍ.

the end of tfie colophon, so it is possible that this was rhe date of presentation, butit is impossible to be certain.s

This work, apparendy the oldest printed historical atlas, is fascinating because itreveals that &om the outset the selection of maps md presentation of macerial in" historical atlases involved issues of politics and propaganda. The atlas encouraged a

Developmenß to tSoo 3

sense of irredentism by showing, through graphic illustration, what had beenChinese and what had been taken away, and thlus feeding dreams of what might beagain. Naomi Standen has drawn ettention to this work in her thesis on the Chinesefrontier and argues that one of the most striking aspects of the atlas is the constancywith which the Great Wall is shown, and its depiction even for legendary timeswhen, whether or not walls were already being built, there was certainly no single'Great'W'dl'.6 Standen has suggested that given that the border lines are shown withrelative accuracy in regard to the Wall, the Wall must be tåere primarily as anorientation feature, but she also argues that rePresentations of the-Wall as a consrânrfeature would have had the effect of reinforcing Chinese ideas about the 'natural'extent of China. In the period of the later Northem and earþ Southem Song, whenthis atlas wes produced, there was a greet deal of concern about the northern Êontierof China and where it should lie. The Êontier had not lain in the place desired bythe Chinese for over a century. The non-Chinese Kitan Liao dynasty had acquireda small but important region south of the'Wall in 93ó, and this had been conûrmedby the Treaty ofShanyuan (roo5). The situation deteriorated from the Chinese pointof view when the non-Chinese Jurchen Jin expanded into the nofthem third ofSong territory in ttz6. The contents of ttre Lidai Dilí Zhí Ztang Tu atlas are relatedto Standen's thesis that post-Shenyuan (roo5) regimes encouraged an ethnocentricreaction against the non-Chinese as part of their legitimating and sbte-strengtheningprocess. Showing what had been conquered and conrrolled, the depiction of past

glories in spatial terms thus offered a powerful programmatic visual message. Asimilar message was conveyed by a thirteenth-century map of former capitals.T

If Song concern with territorial integriry can be related to pressure from thenorth, it also reflected both an ability to think in historical terms and a tumingtowards a spatial rather than a cosmological definition of what China meant. Itwould however be misleading to suggest that an ability to think in historical termsnecessarily led to historical mapping. The abiliry of Chinese regimes to think in suchterms was already well established before the Song. Histories had been submitted forimperial approval, and written ât leest partially under imperial auspices since Sima

Qian's Såli (Records of the grand historian) produced during the Han; and thisexcludes the much older mythologized 'histories' of the golden age. During theTarng (618-9o7) much thought was given to historical writing, and the evolvingformal system of producing history reached its mature form. Although not fullypractised during the Tang itsel{ mostly due to mfiøry upheavals,s the Tang system

of historical compilation was adopted by all subsequent dynâsties, and was actuallyfollowed to â greater rather than a lesser extent. This was also a period of mapping

- an edict of 78o ordered that 'maps with explanations' be submitted every threeyears - but not apparently of historical cartography.

By contemporary world standards, although the art of drawing topographical mapsro scale, as practised in the Later Han period (to z5-zzo), had probably been losr,

medieval China had a strong interest in mapping, and there was much informationavailable that could be mapped. The govemment was assiduous in collecting reportsby envoys. Dynastic histories contained geographical sections which described t}leter¡itories controlled by China; these sections have preserved numerous maps, oftentranscribed ûom other sources. From the wvelfth century, if not earlier, numerous

fangzhi, æzetteers of various prts of China, were compiled, nomally with maps ofthe district, prefecture or province described.e The practice wæ originally used by

4 Maps and History

court-appointed ofücials to famiTtarize themselves with the history, economy, floraand fauna, and important families of the area they had been sent to govern. Theselocal gazetteers also gave travel distances and often included -"p, oi some of thecities or the entire district. Later gâzetteers incoqporated rhe information of earlierones, thereby offering an historical dimension.

Yet, despite the changes in chinese mapping, there is no sign of development inChinese historical atlases. In part, this reflected a ratåer limitedìnterest in the outsideworld and a very limited knowledge of its history. There was nothing ro comparewith the role of the Bible and the classics in European sociery. Íher. *orkprovided very exrensive texts that were spatially specificin what they discussed andthat generally depicted events in what were diitant, foreign .o,-oi., for mostEuropeans. In addition, after their major episode of Indian ocean exploration in thefifteenth cenrury, the chinese did not benefit &om the massivå expansion incartographic information that the Europeans gained in their exploratiorr^, fro- thefifteenth century on.

After Shui Anli the next sigrrificant figures in the history of chinese historicalatlases were Hong Liangji (1746-18o9), Li Zheoluo (1769-lg4r) and yang Shoujing(t839-r9r5). A scholar, inspector of education and acrive write., Ho'f pfoducedatlases devoted to particular periods of chinese history: the Sixteen ririgáo-s, theThree Kìngdoms and the Eastern chin. He did not, ho*.u.r, consider ihe historyof foreign states.l. A contemporery, zhang Xuecheng (r73g-rgor), wanted todevelop gezetteers so thet they became totar histories oi regions, inciuding sets ofmaps' but his impact on the production of gazerteen wæ limited . Zhang eì 11705-1833) published a work on the geography ofthe Late chou period in rsri, and Lizheoluo published in r83z and 1838 atlases designed to

"."o-p".ry his dictionariesof place names. There was interesr in mapping past geographfus, for example thechanging course of the Yellow River, because they werã regerded es a necessaryaspect ofthe undentanding and thus appreciation ofancient w.isdom as reflected inthe writings of sages. Yang shoujing, director of the school at'wuchang Êom rgozuntil r9o8 and a leading bibliophile, compiled tj''e Li-tai yü-ti yen-ko I-Isien-yao T,u(r9oó-rl), an historical atlas of china dynasty by dynasry, a work of traditionalconception and scope.rl

Thus, despite the fact that it was a map-using cukure, the compilarion of the finthistorical atlas in the world in third-century-¡p china, and the interest of the LídaíDili zhi Zhang Tu atlas, china wes nor central ro the development of historicalatlases. Elsewhere, in the pre-modern Islamic world there were major adva¡ces indeveloping the mathematical and astronomical bases of celestial and geographicalcartography, but theory was nor matched by pracrice.12 South Asian -"p p.ãau.tionwas also limited.13 It was Europe that was to be central to the subsequ-eni develoo-ment of historical adases.

The Pre-Hßtory of the European Historical Atlas

The 'pre-history' of the historical atlas in Europe was a long one, for rhe characrer-istic wgrks ofthat genre were preceded by others that are ress easy to define, notablyindividual maps depicting the Holy Land at the ri¡ne of chrisr, or the classicarwo¡ld, such as the map of ancient Greece produced by the Venerian cartographer

Developmenß to tSoo 5

Ferdinando Bertelli in r564-1a Such maps probably would not have been regarded as

historical in the same way as they are today. Without exactly being contemporery,their contents made up so large a part ofpeople's intellecçual baggage as to give thema distinctly contemporay tincture.

The Bible was a sigaificant inspiration for mapping. There was interesr in thelocation of places mentioned in it and also the wish to construct a geography thatcould encompass Eden. Earþ Church Fathers, inciuding Eusebius in the early fourthandJerome in the late fourth and earþ fifth centuries, possibly drew maps to furthertheir investigation of biblical toponomy. A now lost map of the Holy Land possiblyby Eusebius may have been the first to show the divisions of the Twelve Tribes ofIsrae1.15 The copy ofJerome's works that includes maps is farlater, a twelfth-centurymanuscript that comes from Tournail6 and may have been made there. The maps areclosely rel¿ted to the Cotton, Hereford and other world maps from contemporaryEngland and neighbouring erees. There is nothing to suggest a strong connectionwithJerome and it is much more likely that the copyist simply added the maps fromsome other source, thinking that they would be an appropriate accompaniment tothe text. The medieval tradition of wall decorations and manuscript illuminationprovided opportunities for scriptural mapping. The great mappae mundí (world maps)

of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century produced in the English tradition -Ebstor{ Vercelli, Hereford, Duchy of Comwall - conveyed histo¡ical and otherinformation in a geographical framework, whereas chronicles used a chronologicalftamework. The route of the Exodus, for example, was shown on the Herefordworld map. More specifically, the mapgtae mundí can be seen âs analogous tomedieval narretive pictures that present events that occurred at diflerent moments inthe same scene.lT

In addition to such Christian productions there were also Jewish maps. It has beensuggested that a map may have accompanied the Book of Jubilees written in thesecond century nc, and it is possible thet there was a cartographic tradition inHebrew biblical commentary.l& Maps of the Holy Land survive in manuscriptsdating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. They stemmed ûom originalsprobably drawn by Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac). The Jewish tradition ofmapmaking influenced its Christian counterpart. The commentaries of Nicolas ofLyra, Postillae littetalß super totam Bibliam, written berween rjz3 and 1332, drew onRashi and included a number of maps that were subsequently influential.le

The mapping of biblical themes had a new impetus and took a new form in thesixteenth century as a result of the Reformation and the spread of printing. Suchmaps were particularly characteristic of Reformation bibles, so that 'the history ofmaps in Bibles is part of the history of the Reformation'.20 The Protestane soughrto spread knowledge of the Bible, making its printing a major priority, and mapswefe the obvious wey to coÍrmunicate biblical geography and thus to establish andillustrate its truth. Inhß l¿ctures, Luther revealed his wish to have 'a good geographyand more correct map of the Land of Promise'.2l Maps were published as illustrationsto biblical commentaries and explanations from the r5zos, the first being a versionof Lucas Cranach's map of the Exodus in the r5z5 edition of the Old Testamentpublished by Christopher Froschauer. The fint map to be printed in Englandappeared in r j3 j and illustrated the Exodus.22 Later in the cenrury bibles printed inEurope included maps of such subjects as Eden and the division of Canaan amongthe twelve tribes of Israel. Biblical maps were updated to incoqporate developments

6 Maps and History

in astronomy and cartography, but as paradise and the Garden of Eden werebelieved in they were also iocated in many maps. The first printedJewish map of theHoly Land appeared in r5óo.23

The Bible was nor the onry text ro receive cextographic ffearment. The Benedic-tine monk rhomas Elmham (d. c. r4zg),''in his Hßioia monasteü sancti AugustiniCantuariensis (History of St ,\ugustine,s monasrery, Canterbury), on which hefinished work in r4r4, used a plan of the Isle of rúanet to iflort rt" the legend ofDompneva's hind in which the monastery of st Augustine received lands delineatedby the route of a running hind.2a Such an illustration was unusual, however, andvery few medieval narratives_included a map. An awareness of historical caxtographydepended on a clear sense ofthe past es sepaxate. This entailed a realizerion both ofthe limited, because contingent, value of earlier maps and of the fact that the pastwas distinct, required mapping and could be mapped. Thus, in the.ûfteenth cenruryPtolemaic Íxrps \¡/ere at fint treated as authoriiative, though in r4z7 they weresupplemented by claudius clavusls map of norrhem Eurofe; and'the ptolemaicaccount was only gradually replaced by new works, a p.o..* th.t was accelerated byprinting and European explorarion. This left ptolemaic and other classical -ro, .,separ¿te' historical *otþ, ï rheir subsequent publication history indicated. rh" isr¡Strasbourg edition of Ptolemy's Geography was the fint to ,.pa."te modern fromancient maps and in 1578 Mercator issued the ptolemaic

-aps aro.r., withour anymodem supplements; thus they could stand as an unrevised atlas of the classicáworld.2s

Early Modern Mapping

The situation in Europe changed radically in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu_ries. Maps were finr prinred in Europe in the r47os. They could therefore be morespeedily produced and widely distributed. As a resurr, most mapmakers had more,lnd-

morg recent, maps to-refer to when tåey were producing thei, owrr. printingfacilitated the exchange of informarion, th" p.ocerrei of copling and revision thatwere so important for rnapmaking. printing also led to

"n .-ph"rìr on the commer-

cial aspecr of mapmaking and a pubric world of maps, and tiru, to , new dynamicfor the producrion of maps and the propagation of mapping.

In contrasr, the use of maps in, for exampl", th" odãmà empire was far morerestricted. The panegyric onoman royal histories produced by

-the ofüeial court

historians contained some illustrations from the r53os and several of these weremaps, but the works were in manuscript and their wider impact was limited. Inaddition, the Turks câme to be influenced by European printed views and maps,26for an aspect of princing wæ that it aided the dissemination of cartographic images,models and techniques to foreign states and cultures.

. Y"!r came to play a greater role in Europe in a number of fields, for examplejudl¡lal disputes. By the end of the sixteenth cenrury, esrere rnaps were wellestablished, whether supplementing or replacing written surveys. These maps werethen used in courr cases.27 changing notions of history wer- ahl importanr, partrcu-larþ the emergence of a quasi-modern securar historical

"*"."n..i, d"dúog f.o-both the Renaissance's sense of a rypology and progression of historicãl eras(classical-medieval-modern) and the relareà proresranr sense of Early church_

Deuelopmenß to t6oo 7

Medieval Church-Reformed Church. This underlay or motivated a desire to repre-

sent the past in an 'objective' cartogrePhic manner.

Maps were increasingly published as part of texts. In large measure this change was

due to rhe impact of humanism and, specifically, the emphasis that was placed on

literal rather than allegorical interpretations of scripture and the Classics and also on

the accuracy and clariry of the text.28 Historical nìâps were en aspect of the new

textualism of the Renaissance. Most of the maps did not directly reflect the new

cartographic knowledge produced by the beginning ofthe age ofEuropean explo-

ration. Èxploration shifted attention from the Mediterranean to the Oceanic,ze tndthe Spanish empire introduced the idee oî Relaciones geográfcas into the New -World

at ar early stage of colonization, pardy with the aim of elucidating the political

boundaries or tribute-reach of pre-conquest stãtes, but the nature of historica.l

knowledge and interest was such that the contents of historical adases did not

develop in the same way.

Neverrheless, historical atlases reflected the increasing interest in and under-

standing of cartography. They can also be seen as en espect of the development ofthematic mapping which has been presented as a refinement from the mid-

seventeenth century.3o Some writers were clearþ interested in creating maps. There

was a relationship beWveen antiquarian studies and m¿ps, certeinly in England and

Italy in the fìfteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Kenrish entiquary and mapmaker

william Lambarde (1536-16or) not only pubLished the fint English county history,

the Perambulation oJ Kent (I-ondon, r57ó), but also drew a map of the Anglo-Saxon

kingdoms: the first had been produced by Matthew Paris in the mid-thirteenth

..rr*ry, while the Anglo-Saxon scholar and carrographer Lawrence Nowell's thir-

reen-section mid-sixteenth-century map of England and Wales gave place names in

Old English and used Old English letter forms. The maps in the works of historians

such as John Norden (r548-c. t6z5) and William Camden (155r-1623) can be

considerèd as precursors to atlases, but it is important to note that these euthors did

not initially think they were writing history.31 Â series of Dutch historical maps

showing Zeeland at successive d¿tes from the seventh to the late thirteenth century,

sremming appârently from Egmont Abbey, was originally thought to derìve Êom

".torl -"diã""l maps but is now recognized as being historical reconstrucÈion. The

series may have been produced as a form of regional historical atlas. The maPs were

copied on several occasions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries'32

th"r. *"r an increasing tendenry for historical writen and, more important,

historical readers, especially in the seventeenth century, to went to relate time to

place. Earlier there had been many remarks to the effect that geography was en

ì-po**, ancillary to history - a kind of second eye - but these were essentially

rhe¡orical before about r58o, and possibly later. The relationship berween space and

time is complex, but there are signs of important shifts in interest and percepCion in

the seventeenth century. There were close relations between history and geography

in handbooks of history in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. There

were dozens of such works, ranging from potboilers such as Peter Heyiyn's

iúinorr*ur, or a Little Descripüôn oJ the Crcat World. A Treatise Historicall,

Geographiull, Politicall, Theologicall (oxford, ró2r) to major popular encyclopaedias

,o.h ,. Looi. Moreri's It grand dfttionnaire hßtoríque (Lyons' t674; rgth edn, Paris,

r7ß-9) the basis or The Great Hístorical, Geographíml and Poetícal Dictíonary (London,

t64o).

8 Maps and. History

The concept and use ofmaps spread. Travel literature did not begin in this period,and there had of course been in the medieval period pilgrim guides and represente-

tions of the sites travellers visited. However, thereâfier, especially in the seventeenth

century, there was increased travel to places of interest by a broader segment of thesocial elite - an elite now far more familiar with its own history than its medievalor sixteenth-century ancestors had been. Thus, the wish to have guidebooks gainedfresh impetus. In the seventeenth and earþ eighteenth centuries it is possible todetect a sense of history and of place converging in travel diaries such as those ofCelia Fiennes or John Percival, which refer repeatedly to particular places as beingestablished historic sites. The higher degree ofhistorical literacy produced a need forbooks that formally connected geogrâphy with the past. Book readers sought a

history informed by precise cartography and a cartography that was in turn histori-cally accurate - by contrast, for example, to the many early-modern illustrativewoodcuts that used generic images of 'a ciry' to represent Peris, Nuremberg, Venice,etc., at any date.

Two aspects ofchange in this period are harder to essess. First, a consciousness ofthe past that increasingly placed a stress on place rather than, or in addition to,chronology can be detected and possibly related to a growing sense of separate

sovereign policical bodies and of national patriotism. Power helped to frame politicalewereness and to form political consciousness.

Second, there was a change in the notion of time and thus of its impact. SomeRenaissance theorists of time, notably those who accepted the arguments ofCopernicus on cerrestrial motion, explained it as simply a product of the spatial

rotation of the earth, a dimension thet wâs accordingly without particular relevance.Different scientific eccounts of time cane to be offered. John Locke in his .Essay

concemíng Human (Jnderstanding (London, ró9o) constructed time as a psychological

experience of duration with no necessary connection to spatial movement. Thesignificance of time, the separation between past and present, ceme to be morestrongly asserted and more readily understood and, in creating the past as a subject,.made its depiction as different more of ¿n issue. Historical maps, maps drawn todepict past events, were conscious historical stetements dependent on a sense of thepest es a separate sphere, one that was of relevance and could be interrogated, butwhich remained separate.

The noeion of sight aiso altered. Scientific developments undertaken by the Dutchin the seventeenth century, especially in optics, caused them to stress síght as r},e

sense tlrough which God reveals his creation most clearþ to mankind. Thisadmiation for the sense of sight led painters to attempt to 'describe' the world as

they viewed it. Dutch cartography has been linked to Dutch painting as bothattempted the 'description' of physical realiry.33 Thus greater value came to be placed

on geographical 'realism' in cartography rather than on the older stylized maps

which did not depend on eccurate topographical descrþtion. Vermeer presented

Clio with an historic map of the United Provinces on the wâ11.

Maps came to play a greater role in the culture of print in the seventeenth century.The numbers of historical and geographical works from this period that are nowmissing their maps, or have had later ones pasted in instead of known originals,

suggest that even then it was popular to rþ or cut maps out and collect themseparateþ, although as mmy bools were bound on purchase it is possible that maPs

were not inserted because they might get damaged. John Speed's A Prospect of the MostFamous Parß of the World (London, 16z7) included 'A Briefe Description of the Civil

'¡res and Battails fought in England, 'Wales, and lreland', illustrated by a double-

vil wan since the Conquest', a map first published c. 16or. This map arguably hadblack-and-white map of 'The Invasions of England and Ireland with all their

not least in its depiction of events greatly separated in time, as simultaneous, a

tional device, characteristic oî mappae mundi, whìch, in this case, led to a workat was crowded and without apperent form or analysis. It is not surprising that the

res of fleets arriving were impressionistic, but the map was arresting, illustrative

d definitely added visual interest to the book. Speed's county meps also included

The translation of Thucydides by Thomæ Hobbes, first published in t629,information, for example sites of battles. Some narrative histories included

simple adornment. The conjuncture of time and space in art andlor maps,maps which were clearþ conceived to heþ illustrate the text; rather thân

separation transformed the sense of the past and thus historical cartogrePhy.

maps of the Bible, had for long been one in which the significance ofy and the separation of past and present were limited. The breakdown of

Qrtelius

fint historical atlas arose as a result of the mapmaking of one of the lead-

cartographen of the sixteenth century, Abreh¡m Ortelius (r5z7i8). Born in

Deuelopments to tSoo g

,(Theatre of the World), which was published in Antwerp in r57o. This workrbecame very popular and about 4o editions had appeared by 16rz. Ortelius was able

Ortelius was well-travelled in France, Ialy and Germany. He tumed tophy in the earþ r56os and created a map-book, the Theatrum Orbis Tenarum

to purchase a new house in Anwverp in r58r.Ortelius was also interested in Classical geography. He published a mîP, Roffilni

inperíí imago in r57r and in 1578 the Synonymía geographica sive populorurn, regíonum,

insularum, urbíum . . . appelationes et nomía, a major repertorium of geographical names

that provided an alphabetical list of place-names mentioned by Classical authors

with, against each, the names employed at other periods. The following year,

Ortelius began to draw historical maps for the Theatrum. These maps of the Classical

world - r,he Parergon - were his own work, un-like the copies of other maps thet he

used for the contemporary world in tl¡Ie Theatrum. Between t57g anð 1598 he drew

38 maps for the Parergo¿ and this section of the Theatrum grew from rz plates in the

1584 Lacin edition to zó in r59r, 3z in that of 1595 and 38 in 16o3' After Ortelius'sdeath more plates were added. The accompanying text wes also by Ortelius. The

Parergon was translated into French, Italian, German and English, the English editionof ttie Theatrum, containing 43 plates ín the Parergon section, appearing in róoó. The

fìnal version of the Parergon was published as a separate book in Antwerp in r6z4byBalthasar Moretus, though the tSgS Parergon also appeared as a separete edition in

Antwerp that year. Ortelius had the Roman 'Peutinger' map engraved and published

in rj98, probably the fint printed facsimile of a Classical map; it was subsequentþ

included in several editions of the-Parergon Thus, the Parergon wâs a very successfì¡l

work, and its impact was spread by translation and new editions.

The Parergon began with 'sacred Geography': the Bible took precedence over the

world of the Clæsics- The joumeys of the Patrirchs and of St Paul readily lent

themselves to cartognphic depiction as did those of Alexander the Great and Âeneas.

The Classicd world was presented in great detail, although the Paretgon's rnaps

r. The Eest, imagined and teal: a section of the map of fuia from the Aegean to the Indus &om the 6nt westem

historical arlas, Abiaham Ortelius's Parugon, imdelly part of his Theatrum Orbß Tenarum (Ãncwetp, fint published

r57o, this edition 1555). This map illustmtes Aleunder the Great's expedition and conquests._ For sixteenth-century

Euopearo the Clæsical world wa their source as well as a meâsure of the achievements of their civilization.

Alemder's Éeet is depicted with sixteenth-century boets'

centred on Rome rather than Greece. The emphasis on Itely detracted from due

. attention being given to the Near and Middle East, and there was no sense ofchronological progress in the organization of the maps. The map of the campaigns

of Alexander was followed by that of the travels of Ulysses. In addition, Ortelius was

affected by current concerns. The Low Countries, in his map of them in the Roman

period, consists of the seventeen provinces belonging to the Habsburgs, creating a

sense of territorial coherence that was misplaced for the earlier age. Sixteenth-

century boats were depicted in the picture of Alexander the Great's fleet that

accompaned the map of Asia frorn the Aegean to the Indus, showing Alexander's

.ooq,r.rtr. Aside from maps and text, ortelius also included a number of views

including tvvo fantâsy views: 'Tempe' and 'Daphne'':+

The Parergon represenred the signiûcant shift from the single-sheet historical map tto the arlas. The idea of map_s_systematically produced_to e common purpose was

very much a t-od"-' p.G.i i" ttt" rense of a fu-sion of ucitiry and the conse- ì

quences of the technology of printing, including predictebility and quanticy. In I

idditiott, the idea of an atlas had a symbolic authority which trmscended that of the -individual maps.

th-Century Historical Mapping

Parergon was followed by other historical adases sharing a common subject: the

of the Bible and the Classics. Knowledge of this world was seen by peda-

and princes alike as a vitel espect of genteel education3s and there was a

wing awateness that a cartog!¿phic perspective \¡/âs imPortant to this process.

is led to the printing of Classical maps, but also to an increased demand for

oyalist, Thomas Fuller (róo8-ór), had published his atlas of the Holy Lend, A\Fßgah-Silht of Palestine and the confnes thereoJ wíth the hßtory of the OId anil New

Testament acted thereon. He placed Mt Pisgah, Êom which Moses had viewed the

Sromised Land, north of the Dead Sea. Each mep wes preceded by a description.

ical atlases. There was some variety in the works produced. In ró5o the English

One of the more importânt historical atlases was that by Philippus Cluverius, the

In,troductio ín universam geographiam, taffi ueterem quam notdm, published in Leyden int6z9 (later editions included those published in Âmsterdam in t697 and rTrr).Çluverius's maps depicted towns, mountains, roads and provincial boundaries, butlacked dates. Maps of the Low Countries in Classical tirnes ol Spain Old and New.thus offered no sense of chronological specificity, or of progression, bar a stark

eontrest of unspecifred old and new. Joannes Janssonius's Accuratissima orbis antíqui

delineatio; sive geographia uetus, sacra et profana (Amsterdam, t65z), to which a text was

added by Georg Hom or Flomius, Professor of History at Leiden, was an importantwork that was translated into English and French in the eighteenth century' The

Nucleus geographiae antiquae et nouae (Jem, t676) by the Halle professor Christoph

Keller or Cellarius (16¡,8*17o) was reprinted under different titles. He was also

responsible for a major text in Clessical geography, the Notítia orbis antiqui (Leipzig,

tZot-6). Cellarius made considerable progress in the accurate depiction of Classical

geography.The genre of historical atlases also developed. The maps in Ortelius's atlas had

lacked any thematic or chronological order, but the latter was supplied in Philippe

de La Ruë's I-a Tene Saínte en síx cartes géographiques (Paris, ró5r). In this adas the

maps of the Holy Land were presented in chronological order, from early Canaan to

modem times. Nevertheless, most atlases did not follow this example. It is clear that

in the seventeenth century scant value was attached to a chronological, sequential

series of maps. In part, this was probably because the circumstances depicted indifferent maps were seen as having only a limited interrelationship and, instead, as

having a direct relationship with modern readers. Furthermore, these readen could

be presumed to supply the chronological placing of the maps if such was required-

Like many other importânt adases in the seventeenth century, La Ruë's work was

published in Paris. Other important works published there included thre ParuIlela

geographiae ueteis et nouae (r647i) by PhiJippe Briet (16or-ó8), a Jesuit academic

who had already in ró4r published a map of Palestine including an inset of the

Exodus. Briet's comparison of ancient and modem geography reflected the role ofthe Classics as a point of reference and source of information. The comparison ofancient and modern was to be an important theme in historical geography until the

early twentieth century.There was a strong interest in mapping the past in French circles, partly because

this was of direct relevance to Bourbon attempts to use historical claims to justfi

book was a success.

Deuelopmenß to ßoo

12 Maps and Hßtory

French expansionism, and pa*ly because of a more long-term interest in Frenchhistory that reflected the increase in national consciousness among the elite. Thelatter interest led to a development of French historical geography in the form ofNicolas Sanson's geographical commentaries on Caesar's Gallic wars and Bergier'sreconstruction of Roman routes.36 Sanson's maps included GaIIiae antíquae @aris,164z) anð, Callía vetus ex C. IuIíí Caesaris commentaríís desctipta @aris, t649), thoughhe also produced maps of other areas in the Classical period, for example Britain andSpain. They were published again in Pa¡is in r75o: throughout the history of thehistorical atlas the primacy of commercial considerations has been most clearþdisplayed in the eagerness to re-use material. It was less expensive to use ready-made

blocks than to pay for new designs. The expenses involved in map production were

such that the investment usually had to be recouped over a long timescale.

In the seventeenth century there was also an extension of tÏe cartographic range

to the post-Roman period, including a map of France under Clovis engraved bytsercy in about 168o that appeared in two editions.3T It depicted woods, riven,towns, mountains, tribes and some boundaries presented in dotted lines: Pierre

Duva.l's Cartes et tables, pour la géographie ancienne, pour la chrcnologíe, et pour les

ítinéraíres, et uoydges nodetnes (Paris, 1665) wes not restricted to the established

Classical repertoire of journeys, and was one of the atlases that presented maps inchronological order. In addition, the atlas included three maps covering the expan-sion of the Roman empire. Duval's adas was, however, an example of historicalcartography that lacked the scholarly goal and knowiedge of the ancient geography

mapped by, for example, Sanson, Delisle and D'Anville. Comparisons of ancient and

modem geography were more weighty than drawing maps as companions to theancient poets and historians. In the seventeenth century there was, therefore, an

important increase in the quantity of historical mapping. Furthennore, the sense ofthe past as having a distinct spatiâlity increased. For example, in an atlas of t65z J.Mejer paired medieval ard modern town Plans of Schleswig-Holstein.

The Mapping of the Early Modern World

Improvements in the mapping of the contemporary world were important increating the basis for more âccurete historical meps: the improvements might notaffect the historicai information that could be depicted, but they made a majordifference by ensuring that the carcographic background wes more accurate. Thiswes particularly important as maps depicted physical features, especially mounteinsand iivers, as well as towns, roads, batdes and frontiers. There had been considerable

stylizârion in the depiction ofphysical features, for example islands and coâstlines, inmedieval and early Renaissance maps, es the mapmakers were primarily concerned

with recording their existence rather then their accurate shape. In theír Porølaní andIsolaríi the Italians simply presented coastlines in a schematic form. In pârt this was

a matter of contemporary conceptual standards,3s but the nature of the informationavailable to rnapmakers was also important. The trend in fifteenth- to seventeenth-

century maps was away from pictorial (specific) representation and towards symbols(gene¡alized) in all but outlines, but there was emphasis on the need for precision inthe portrayal of the crucial physical oudines: coastlines and rivers.

European cartographic knowledge of other continents increased greatly in the

;regions were generally the only well-mapped areas. European knowledge of the

interior of other continents was limited and these intedon were thus poorþ mapped

by them. This situarion also reflected the navigational rationale of many maps. For

example, the Venetian Vincenzo Coronelli's Route maritime ile Brest à Siam et de Siam

à Brest (Brest, ró87) was essentially a map of coastal regions. Etienne de Flacourt's

nrap ofMadagascar (166ó) was âccurete largely for the south-east of the island, where

the French had established Fort Dauphin in t642. In d'Anville's Carte de I'Inde ofr7j2 most of east-central India was labelled 'Grand espace de pays dont on n'a pointde connoissance particulière'. Desnos's marp L'Asíe (Paris, 1789) included all of Asia,

although the mapping of Tibet wâs very vague; but then the twelfth-century

th and seventeenth centuries but nonetheless remained limited. Coastal

Jerome' map of Asia had been likewise.Even coastal regions were not elways well mapped. In Robert's map of the

Archipel des Iniles Oñentales (r75o), a caption 'Le fond de ce Golphe n'est pas bien

connu'appears for the coasdine of the Teluk Tomini in the Celebes (Sulawesi). The

: Carteplate qui conprendl'kle de Ceylon (1775) includes the captions'Isles Laquedives

r dont le détail n'est pes exâctement connu' and 'on ne connoit, ni le nombre, ni Iagfandeur, ni la situation respective des Isles Maldives'. The Australian coast was notfully charted until the Flinden and Baudin expeditions of the r8oos.

Nevertheless, more of the world was mapped by Europeans and this directly

beneûted historical scholarship and adases, most appropriately with the Atlas nouveau

etcurieux dæ ph.s céIèbres itinéraíra...t246...t6g6 (Leyden, t7t4)by a Leyden book-seller and publisher, Pierre van der Aa (ró59-r733). Each ofthe r39 black and white

maps appeared on e seParate sheet and the explorers were organized by region oftheworld, with those who ranged wideþ presented fint and most imPressiveþ on a global

scale. Better geographical descriptions made it easier to understand ot seem to gnder-

stand historical fragments. Gibbon's assessment of the history of North Asia, a vast

region of great importance to him because of its role as a source of 'barbarian' attacks,

owed much to information acquired on an expedition that Peter the Great had sent

to Siberia under von Strahlenberg, who had also compiled a map of 'Great Tartary'.3e

Within Europe there were major improvements in mapping in the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries. They took three forms. Fint, cad¿stral maPs - maps made

for taxation or administrative purposes - which resulted in increased familiariry withce¡togrephy. In much of Europe, earþ large-scale maps were cadastral. They often

involved the mapping of estates which led to greeter accurecy in identifiing estate

boundaries, Cadastral mapping was employed extersively by the Swedes, both inSweden and in their German conquests in the seventeenth century. Such mapping

was seen as a necessary complement to land registen and thus as the basis ofreformed land taxes. The Swedish Pomeranian Survey Comrnission of t6g2-t7ogwas desigrred to provide the basis for a new tax system. Detailed land surveys ofPiedmont and Savoy, establishing the ownership and value of land, were completed

in rTrr and 1738 respectively, while cadastral mapping of Lombardy was carried outin the late rTros with the backing of the Emperor Charles VI.a0

The second major developmenr was the growing importance of large-scale mili-tary surveys, though chronologically military mapping had long preceded cadastral.

The Austians, who ruled Sicily berween tTzo and 1735, used amy engineen to

prepare the first detailed map of the island. The French military èngineers of the

Developmenß to tSoo 13

z. The World Undentood. As European knowledge of the world increased, so interest grew in past exploration. Amp of Magellm's discovery in r5zo of a route round South America &om AtIa ftouveau et utieux des plw célèbres

itinéraíres by Piene van der Aa (Leyden, r7r4).

period, such as Pierre Bourcet, tâckled the problems of mapping mountarns, creatinga clearer idea of what the alpine region looked like. Following the suppression of the1745 rebellion there was e militery survey of Scotland which served as the basis formore eccurete maps. A major military survey of Bohemia wes begun in the r7óosend completed under Joseph II. Lower Austria was surveyed frorn 1773 and anenormous survey of Hungary completed in r78ó. Frederick II had Silesia mapped.4l

The third major development was the improved measurement of longitude. Untilthe eighteenth century there were no clocks accurate enough to give a ship'smeridional position, and longitudinal mapping faced problems. Many islands wereplaced too fa¡ to the west or the east; combined with the failure of captains to knowwhere their ships were, this caused shipwrecks, for example on the Scilly Isles.

Vincenzo Coronelli's Route marítime de Brcst à Siam et de Siam à Brcst wes based ontheJesuit mission sent to Siam (Thailand) by Louis XIV in ró8J. It carried a notesaying that the map employed rwo sorts of longitudinal markings, those generallyagreed and those based on information from the Jesuits. Major differences wererevealed by a comparative French mep of r73g, Carte de I'Océan Oríêntale ou Mers des

Indes dressée au dépost des cartes pldns et joumaux de Ia naine comltarée auec la carte

hollandoise de Ptietergoos et la carte angloíse de Thomton.a2

In response to an Act of Parliament of t7t4 oft^ering a reward for the discoveryof a method of detemining longitude at sea, John Hmison devised a chronometerthat erred by only eighteen miles in measurement of the distance of a return journey

Deuelopments to 18oo r j

to Jamuca in t76r-2. Progress on land was swifter. Triangulation had been used toconstruct maps since the sixteenth century, but its use was becaming more conìrnon.In ró79-83 the French Académie had worked out the longitudinal position inFrance. A geodetic survey of France was carried out. ln r7o8-r7 the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Régis supervised the first maps of the Chinese empire to be based onestronomical observation and triangulation.a3

An improved ability to calculate longitude, combined with the use of triengulationsurveying, aflected mapping, obliging and permitcing the drawing of new maps. Oldmaps appeâred redundant. Flermann Moll noted ín rIrc Atlas geographus (r7tr-t7)that

the curious, by casting their eye on the English map of France, lately dohe and

corrected according to the observations of the Royal Academy of Sciences et Paris,

mey see how much too far Sanson has extended their coasts in the Mediterranean, the

Bay of Biscay, and the British Channel.aa

The establishment of accurete values for longitude led to improvements in historical

adases, improvements that benefited writen such as Edward Gibbon. Thus the

historical adases produced by Cellarius, Delisle and d'Anville were better than theirseventeenth-century predecesson, work for example by Cluverius. It became possi-

ble to locate most pleces accurately, and the development of accurete and standard

means of measuring distances made it eâsier for mapmakers to understand, assess end

reconcile the work of their predecessors.as Aside from specific improvernents inmapping techniques and concepts, which by the late seventeenth century werepretty well developed, îürps were increasingly created for general reference beyondtlre ad hoc circumstances, military, cadâstrel or otherwise, of their inception. Maps

also became more predictable as mapping conventions developed. Even at the end

of the seventeenth century, there was no standard alignment of maps, but in the

following century the convention of placing North at the top was esteblished.

Improvements in cartography led to increasing awareness of cartographic distinctive-

ness and change and criticism of the efforts of predecessors, es in The Construction ofMaps and Globes (London, r7r7), which has been attributed to John Green.aó

As in subsequent periods, however, changes in information availability or depic-

tion not only created commercial opportuniries, but also produced pressures- The

costs of mapping and the financial, legal and production issues that major newprojects entailed - for example obtaining the necessary investment, sales and cash-

flow, legal disputes about ownership, copyright, pâyments and profits, and the need

to secure a consistently high standard of workmanship from engrevers - drew

cartography into a complex commercial world.

Greater C arto - Literacy

The habit of referring to maps inçreased in the eighteenth century; they were the

cartographic equivalent of the interest in statistical information that affected those

concerned with'political arithmetic'. Maps had been used in the recording of'European frontiem since at leæt the fifteenth cçntury a{rd were increasingly used

from the sixteenth onwards as their potential became more wideþ appreciated. A

t6 Maps and History

map was used for the negotiations that led to the Anglo-French TreaËy of Ardres of1546..The Tordesillas line separating Portuguese and Spanish spheres of control was

â common feature of sixteenth-cencury maps of the Atlantic. As maps were more

and more widely used, they increasingly g"t" fo¡m to political territorialiry and

resulting interests and concems. ln t7tz, during the negotiations over ending the'War of the Spanish Succession, Torry, the French foreign minister, urged his Britishcounterpârt to look at e map in order to see the strategic tlueat posed by the Alpinedemands of Victor ,\madeus II of Savoy-Piedmont.47 The French foreign oflicecreated â geographic section in t77z and in r78o it acquired the collection ofaboutro,ooo maps of the famous geo$apher d'Anville. One measure of the growingimportance of maps was sensitivity about allowing copies to be made.as

A map that formed part of an Anglo-Dutch treaty of r7r8 delineated the frontierbetween the United Provinces and the Austrian Netherlands. This owed much to

the publication in rTrr of the Fricx map of the Low Countries, the fint relatively

large-scale military map of Europe. The frontier was fixed literally on a map, sigrred

and seaied by plenipotentiaries as an ennex to that treety. This practice became

established by the end of the century.Maps were increasingly referred to in crises and in time of war by diplomats and

. politicians. In r7r8 the engraver and mathematician Reeve 'W'illiams published his

defence of British foreign pdtcy, A l-etterfrom a Merchant to a Mem.ber of Parliament,

Relating to the Danger Great Brítain k in of Lnsing her Trade, by the Great Increase of the

Naual Power of Spain with a Chart of the Medítenanean Sea Annexed; gooo copies of the

pamphlet were printed. The inclusion of a map added to its interest. The Worcestet

Post-Man reported that

a notable book was delivered to the Members of Parliament, with a chart annex'd ofthe Mediterranean Sea, whereby it demonstrately appears of what importance it is to

the trade of Great Britain, that Sicily and Sardinia shall be in the h¿nds of a faithfirl

ally, and if posible not one formidable by sea. That these two islands lie like rwo nets

spread to intercept not only the Italian but Turkey and Levant trade.ae

In r75g Lord George Sackville had writren to the Earl of Holdernesse, BritishSecretary of State, about military oPeretions in Germany, 'You will see

Cappenburgh in the map.'SirJames Harris, British envoy to The Hague, recorded

of the Cabinet meeting he attended in London on z3 May 1787, zs the Dutch crisis

neared its height, that the Duke of Richmond, Master General of the Ordnance,. 'talked of military operations - called for a map of Germany - traced the marches

from cassel and Hanover, ro Holland, and also from Givet to Maestricht [sir]'. Thus

the posibilities of French and British-subsidized German inte¡vention were oudined

to the Cabinet by the use of a map. The following day Harris saw William Pitt the

Younger. He recorded that Pitt 'sent for a map of Holland; made me show him the

situation of the Provinces'. George III used a mep to follow the Prussian invasion ofF¡a¡ce in r7g2. In rSoo George canning wrote to his successor as (Jnder-secretary

, of State in tfre Foreign Office, ''What do you think of the Italian news? and what

consolation does Pitt point out after looking over the map in the co¡ner of his roomby the door?'so

The greater use of maps, or increased carto-literacy, fed the appecite for the

production of more historical maps. There was a growing emphasis on what was

seen as accu¡acy, on representation in the two-dimensional map of features thet were

DeueloPmenß to tSoo 17

both correctly proportioned and in the correct relative location. For both contem-

porary and histã¡c"l maps rhis affected â major subject, the depiction of Êontiers. A

hr-., grrrp of the nature of a linear frontier developed, one that was possibly

associat;d with improved mapping and e more defrnite perception of t¡e nature ofpolirical sovereigrrry, alttrough rhe norion of such &ontiers long predated the

i*prorr"-.rrr, in mapping in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries' For example'

charlem"gn." division of his dominions emong his th¡ee sons in 8oó drew on a

number of territorial criteria, including the linear. The second clause read:

To our beloved son Pippin: Italy, which is also called Langobatðiai' and Bavaria as

Tasilo held it, except for the wvo uillae caTled Ingolstadt and Lauterhofen which we

once bestowed in benefice on Tassilo and which belong to the district called the

Nordgau; and that part of ,Aleman'nia which lies on the southem bank of the river

D"nube and the boundary of which runs from the source of the Danube to where the

districts of the Klettgau and the Hegau meet on the river Rhine at the flace cdled

Enge [near Schaffhausen] and thence along the river Rhine, upstream, to the -AIps -whãtever lies within rhese bound¡ and extends southwards or eastwards, together with

the duchy of Chur and the district of the Thurgau'5¡

Nevertheless, poorþ defined boundaries on the ground, and thus territorial divisions

rhat were d;nicult io ,.pr.r"nt clearly on maps, had been an integral feature of the

medieval period. They were a consequence of its 'mind-set" with an approach to

territory in legal/feudal rather than spacial terms. The societies of the period lived

with a prono"orrc.d degree of tensiãn over frontier zones, ereas of overlapping'

jurisdiction and divided sovereigrrty.s2" A ,,,or" spatially territorial approach to frontiers developed in the seventeenth ând

eighteenth i.rrto.i.t, although this process remained incomplete at the time of the

Fr'ench Revolution. Rivers were used to delimit frontiers in the Peace of Nijmegen

in ró7g and a similar policy was followed in the Peace of Ryswick in t697. A,

stronger intetest in p.ecision inspired advances in mapping, which in turn gâve the

spatii "sp."ts

and fretensions of territoriality a new cartogrâphic precision,_ though

tir. g"r.r.l problems of cartography ¡emained - the scale of the line on the map,

delineation and emphasis through colour and sryle'

Increased precision in the mapping of frontiers was as important ¿s the-related

consolidation of territorial sovereignty and increasing state monopolization of organ-

ized violence. All were different facets of the consolidation and spread of govem-

mental authority and the erosion of the distinctive features of border zones, and all

encouraged the use of frontier lines on maps, both contemporary, and - because the.differejness' of the past was only partially grasped - historical. The implementation

of f,,m frontiers wai bound up with the existence of more assertive smtes and

grôwing state bureaucrecies, which sought to know where exactly they could

í-por.'tt "i, demands for resources and where they needed to create their first line

of defence. Fonificacions and garrisons provided an opportunity for large-scale

mapping of border regions and mountain passes'q

Mapping the Classical World

If locating the present came to be of greater importance to politicians and estate-

o*n.., "rtd

of interest to readers, the same was also true of the pâst' Meps came to

È-süiïf.:i;'= i

r8 Maps and Hßtory

play an integral role in the presentation of the past, indeed to be a way in which thepast could be presented. In addition, knowledge of the world of the Bible and theClassics remained a vital aspect of genteel education and cartography was increas-ingly seen as an aid to knowledge. Maps of the biblicd world were presented in thislight and some important works were produced, including Palaestina ex monunentßueteríbøs illustrata (Utrecht; r7r4) by the Utrecht professor of Oriental languages and¡sìigious history, Adrian Reland, and the Heilíge C,eogruphíe of aardryckskundíge

Beschryving uan alle de l-anden, enz in de H.S. Voorþomnende (Utrechr, 1758) by AlbertBachien, a rnilitary chaplain.s3

A pedagogic emphasis characterized the historical atlases of the Classical world.The preface to Ceographia Classica. The C.eography of the Ancients, So Far Desaib'd AsIt Is Contained ín the Greeþ and Latin Classicþs. In Twenty-Nine Maps of the Old World,and íts Seuerul Kingiloms and Prouinces: Wherein the Chief Places Mentíoned in Homer,Virgí|, Ovid, Lucan, Eutropíus, Comelius Nepos, Justin, Quintus Curtius, Sallust, Líuy,Caesar, Plutarch, Xenophon, Herodotus, and Many Other Ancíent Authors Are Desuibed.To Which k Added, a Map of the Places Mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. ACollectíon I-ong Wanted, and Now Publíshed Jor the Use oJ Schook (London, rTrz)declared:

if a Master was to describe to his Scholar, from his Virgil, the Navigation of Aeneas...[it]canonlybemadeintelligible...inaMap...[It] willmaketheReadingtheirAuthors less tedious and more profitable to them, since they will not only with moreDistinction apprehend the Matters their Authors treat o4, but with reasonable Exact-ness judge of the Accions described by them, when... they have a tolerable Notionof the Countries through which their Armies a¡e said to pass.sa

The emphasis in the preface on the low price of the work reflected the extent towhich the pedagogic purpose of this adas, Iike many othe¡ later historical adases, ledit to have a different commercial rationale to that of non-educational works.

The Atlas hktorique (Amsterdam, r7o5) of Herrri,\braham Châtelain (though also

âttributed to Zachenes Châtelain), dedicated to John Ist Duke of Marlborough,referred in is preface both to the public desire for knowledge and to the inseparablenature of geography and history, adding'La Carte est un secours que I'on fournit parles yeux à I'imagination' ('The map is a help provided to the imaginetion tbroughthe eyes'). The atlas contained much text an.d many genealogical charts and one ofits maps, entitled 'Plan de l'Histoire lJniverselle', wrongly included Persia andPoland in the Roman empire. FIowever, the atlas was not restricted to the ancientworld. There were meps of the Spanish empire, France and the Low Countries, thelast locating battles from the sixteenth century on. This was the first atlas with thetíde Atlas histoique.

There were both more atlases of the Classical period and more general historicalatlases in the eighteenth century than eve¡ before. The Ceographía Classíca obviorxlymet a demand, for it reached an eighth edition in 1747. The Classical scholar SamuelPatrick (ró84-r748) edited Cellarius's Nucleus C.eographíae Antiquae et Novae (Jena,1676) as Geographía Antíqua pondon, r73r) and this Classical atlas erfoyed a longlife, with eight London reprints by r8rz. However, it was not without serious error:the map of Britain had the Antonine wall too far south. The 1789 edition ofGeographia Antiqua was described as 'designed for the (Jse of Schools, md ofGentlemen who make the Ancient 'Writers their Delight or Studlr'.

Comparisoru of ancient and contemponry were comon in earþmodem European culture. In his Nru Sel o/s Both of Antímt and Prcsent Geogrcphy (Oxford, rToo), Edward Wells r.evealed contempomry knowledge æ being

mo¡e extensive. An entire hemisphe¡e wæ 'unknown to the Antients' unless North America wæ their Adantis.

so, the Aacients could not map it, whereas the Moderns could. Califomia wæ believed to be an island.

Similarly, the work of Edward W'ells (1667-1727), an Oxford academic who was

very interested in geography, went through several editions. Hß Treatke of Antíentand Present Geography, Together with a Sett of Maps in Folío, fint published in Oxfordin r7or, appeared in a fifth edition in 1738; his Hktoical C.eography of the New

Testament . . . Adomed wíth Maps (London, r7o8) in a third in r7r8. 'W'ells's New Set

of Maps Both of Antíent and Prcsent C.eogruphy (Oxford, rToo), dedicated to Princess

Anne's son, the Duke of Gloucester, had pedagogic pulposes as the full tide made

cleer: 'the most remarþable dffetenca of antient and present geography may be qukklydíscemed by a bare inspection or cotnparing of conespondent tnaps; whích seeftis to be the most

natural and easy method to teach young students.' Thus, in the fint maP, one of the

world, 'those parts of the Earth which were anciently known, have their coasts

engraven (as usually) with the shade fàlling ourwards whereas the parts ancientþunknown have thei¡ coasts shaded inwards'. Like most mappers of the Holy Land,

W'ells had never visited it.ss

The Dutch cartographer Flermann Moll, who settled in London at the end of theseventeenth century, published a 14gge number of maps of the contemporary worldand wvo imporønt works that ranged more widely. The Atlas geographus . . . Ancient

and Modem appeared in five volumes in rTrr-r7. Thirty-Two New and Accurate Maps

oJ the Geogrøphy oJ the Ancíents wæ published in Latin æd English wenions in tTzrand later editions followed in r7zr, r73z aîd 1739.

zo Maps anil Hisøry

The impact of individual works was increased by translation. A Compleat Body oJ

Ancient C*ography, Both Saoed and ProJane; Exhíbiting the Vaious Empires, Kíngdoms,

Principalities, and Commonweakhs, throughout the Known Woild, in Ffty-Two Maps,

Selecteil from the Best Authors (The Hague , r 74 r ) was the translation of the Latin workby Joannes Janssonius and Georg Hornius. It covered the history of the world fromits origins to the fall of the Roman empire and noted the extent to whichcartography offered the possibiJity of enlarging human understanding: 'the wholeTerrestrial Globe, however unmeasurable and inexplicable it may seem to be, is nowby the art and dexterity ofgeographen clearly and distincdy represented within the

narrow bounds of a small map.'só The work was also published in French at TheHague in the same year as DescrQttíon exacte de I'unívers, ou I'ancienne géographie sacrée

et profane.

A number of important works appeared on the continent, including the Desctíptio

orbß antiqui in XLIV tabulis exhibita (Nuremberg, r7z4) by Johann David Köhler(t684-r75), professor at Altdorf and Êom 1735 the fint Professor of History at

Göttìngen, and Christoph Weigel. They provided detailed maps of the ancient world.In 1757 Twelae Magx oJ Ancient Ceography Drawn by the Síeur d'AnuíIle, origrnally

' published byJean Baptiste Bourguignon d',{nville (t697-t782) in Paris in r738-4o as

part of a multi-volume study of ancient history, appeared as a single work in London.The title-page referred to the value of such a work for understanding modernClassical scholarship: 'Being useful and necessary for the readen ofthe several editionsof Mr. Rollin's Ancient Hisøry, and all other writers on that subject.' D'Anvillefollowed a scholarþ approach in his mapping of the past, which was reflecæd in his

Dßsertation sw l'ëtendue de I'ancienne Jérusalem et de son Tenple, et sur les mesures

hebraiques ile longueur (Pans, t74), Ttaité des mesures itinéraircs anciennes et tnodemes

(Paris, r7ó9) and Géographie ancíenne abrégee (Pans, rZSz). D'Anville's work led to the

appeârânce in Nuremberg, a major centre of cartographic publication, of rhe Atlas

antíquus Danvíllíanus (1784) and the Atlas antiquus Danuillíanus nínor (1798). TheEnglish edition of his work was still being reprinted in the earþ nineteenth century.

The increasing number of tides was demonstrated by the case of B¡itain. InT,ondon Geographia antiqua delineata, designed for'the use of schools', was published

ín t775, rnd a Cornplete Boily of Ancíent Ceography ín t795. The former, engraved bythe prominent London map engrever Thomas Jefferys, emphasized the need formep's to explain the Classics, but, like so many other works, offered no sources forits 3 r maps. These adases were followed ín 1797 by tn Atla Ctassica, which included

a map of the boundaries and sites of battles of Saxon England. Bowles's Ceographía

Classica, 'principally designed for the use of schools', was published in London inabout r79o by Bowles and Carver, the map and print warehouse in St Paul's

- Churchyard. Its 3z maps were largely based on those of Moll, though the map of'Ancient Asia' after the Flood, which illustrated the ini¡ial habitations of Noah's

descendants, was based on a mep by the antiquarian 'W'illiam Stukeley.

Antiquarian resea¡ch led to the production of a number of individual maps.

Stukeley, who greatþ developed Britrsh field archaeology, produced Ingratiam

itinerantium atiosorum Antoníní Aug. itineraium per Bitanniam (London, 1723) and AnAccount of Richard of Cirencester . . . with hís Antient Map of Roman Bittaín . , ' the

Itinerary thereof (London, r75ì. The latter was unwittingly based on the forgeries ofCharles Bertram (17445), a London-bom English teacher in the school for naval

cades in Copenhagen, whose work wes eccepted âs â mâjor source on the Roman

Developmenß to tSoo 2r

geography of Britain until the late nineteenth century, and was published as one ofthe Slr English Chronicles (1872) in Bohn's 'Antiquarian Library'. Bertram's otherworks included a Danish translation of On the Great Aduantages of a Godly Ufe (176o).

John Honley (t685-t7jz), a Northumbrian archaeologist, Presblterian ministerand teacher, was foftunate in not being the victim of such trickery. He produced a

nrap of Roman Britain, showing roads, tribes, towns and mountains, as part of his

Britannia Romana (t732), and it was reproduced by d'Anville in 1775. William Roy(1726-9o), who played a major role in the mapping of Brit¿in, also carried outarchaeological research on the Roman period that led him to produce a number ofmaps, including one of north Britain in the Roman period.sT The active a¡dwideranging writer, John Andrews, followed with his map Roffian Bitain Collected

from Pøleny Antonines ltinerary $7g), and a year later enother map appeared, Roman

Bríøín according to Antonius, Ptolemy and the Díscoueies of Moilem Times by theantiquarian cleric Thomas Reynolds.

Guilleume Delisle (1675-1726), a leading French mapmaker, produced a numberof important maps of Classical themes based on his scholarly knowledge of theperiod, including Theatrum Ilistoicum ad Annum Chrístí 4oo (Paris, r7o5) end Orbis

Romani descriptio seu diuisío pet thenata post Heraclii tempora Qans, r7r r). The ûrst was

the sole map to appear in what was intended to be a historical atlas of Europe and

western Asia in seven Íups. Increasingly, Europe, particularþ westem Europe was

being mapped in sorne detail for the Classical period. Thus, the roads, towns, rivers

and monntains of western Iberia in the Roman era were mapped in the Mapa de la

Lusitania antíqua, con su corÍespondmcía modema (Madrid, 1789). Maps complementedillustrations. Thanks to both, the Classical world was grasped in increasingly graphic

ways.

The Post-Classical World

Though ancient geography and its mapping remained prestigrous sciencific pursuits,

there were also more moves to map the post-Classical world, not least because of the

growing interest in medieval geography and history. This represented an importantlessening of the imaginative grip of the Ancient world. Cellarius wished to give his

Notitia Orbis Antíqui (Leipzig, r7or4) a continuation into the Middle Ages, a periodthat he played a role in naming. A set of maps was accordingly drawn and engraved

by the Nuremberg cartographerJ.B. Homann, but there was no text when Cellarius

died in r7o7. Homann's plates were r¡ot published :unt:J. 1776 when they wereincluded as part of the Appendíx trþIex notítiae orbís antiquí Chrísøphoi Cellaií(Leipzig). His treatments of the medieval period, such as maps of Germania and

Beþa, were unsuccessful. Köhler began a continuation of his Classical atlas but,finding it too great a project, instead began a Kurtze und gründliche Anleitung zu der

ahen unil mittleren Geographie nebst XII. Iand Chärtgen (Compenilium geographíae

antiquae et mediae) (Nuremberg, r73o4). This 'Brief and Thorough Introduction toAncient and Medieval Geography comprised 39 small maps, of which twelvecovered the medieval period, though in no particular order.

Johann Matthias Hase or Haas (ró84-r742), Professor of Mathematics atIVittenberg, was a better cutognpher, who also made seweral imPortæt imowations-In t7z8 he set out his plan for a historical atlas and in 1743, the year after his

22 Maps and Hi*0ry

death, his Hßtoria uniuersalis politica, Part 3' Tabulae geographicae ' ' ' de summß imperüs

(Nuremberg) appeared. H"'å *" i"tttt'itd in the iheme of empires and continued

ituntilthemodemE..,top"""empires'Thus'therewescoverageofancientempires'including thor. of ¡gypilÁ'ytlt, Persia u¡der Darius' Alexander the Great' P¿rthia

and Rome, the last iå"tttt" "'"p'; ^' Úell as of the rise of Islamic power and the

empire of Chrrl.-"g,,t and seïeral m.aps o.n the history of the Holy Roman

(medieval German) f*pi" from the.reigrr of Otto I in the tenth century to the

death of charles VI in lz+o. The emphasii on Islamic empires was novel, es was the

mapping of nyr*J"* under Justinian' -Hase's maps also spanned the Eurasian

world: far from beinf rert i.t.i ro the Classical *orld, th. atlas also included the

Mongols, ø. ""*pi!. À colection of Hase,s historical maps of the Holy Roman

Empire was publisheJ ^,

uoppo, wI geographkae pro íIlustrandß totidem períodß hktoriae

Germaníae (N"*-;;;, 'ziå) ""¿ irtii "* be seen âs the first atlas of German

history. The collecrioi'or ír"r"', hisrorical meps, the Atlas hßtoi.cus comptehendens

imperia maxtmo ,,u- *ono,,hias orbis antíqui historice, chtonologice et geographice

repraesentdtds, published in Nuremberg ín t75o' was reprinted as late as r8r3-r4'58

At about the saml rime, the Atlal complet des rëvolutions que le globe de Ia tere a

éprouuées depuß te coffiffienceínent du monde jusqu'à púsent was drafted in Paris' This

work, of whicn *," lo-t"o" ettribution to Gilles i\obett de Vaugondy has recently

been rejected,5' .o,,,i,t"¿ of o6 maps' Based on the same outline plen' they provided

a history or ,.rt roif to"oot o'g;"d by chronological sequence rather than by

geographical "r." o, ,htrn"' The"series was elso right'up to date' going from the

dispersalofNoah,schildrentothelT3Tacquisitionoflorrainebythefather-in-lawof Louis XV of F;;. Each double-folià map showed Eurasia from Britain to

Korea, and .".r, -"f i""' øllo*.d by re*. Despite the coverage of the eighteenth

century,.the chronoLgical emphasis was not *oà""" 3r of the maps were devoted

to the medieval Period'60Asimilarpl"rr*",adoptedbyLunceaudeBoisgermaintn.hísAtlashistorique'ou

caúes des pafties pnncipales du globe tenestre, assujettiis aux révolutíons. séculaíres qu'il a

éprouuéespoursentfà.l,hßtoired'esteffipsquiontsuíuilaCréation(Paris,176o_l).Thiswas projected ", "-'*t"ty--"p

*oik'-thoogh Boisgermai"' "-"y.produced three'

This work ** f.ü.;;;;; --ü

R*otui¡on, dll'uniuers ofrant les diuisions polítiques iles

dffirentes rrgion, 1V^'i', tzâl)t ^f'

the maps in it had "ot*ott base designed by

Michel picaud ,næ lir"r"i"á over rwo folios and covered England to Japan. Both

thisandtheworkuynoi,g".."inconteinedverylittleafterr5oo,whilerheCompleteBody oJ Ancien G;ä;'eW W Monst' D'Anville (London' 1795) contained only one

map depicting *.åå -roiop" ,in an intermediare stete, between Ancient and

ftf"^¿"- GeolaPhY'' r L:^¡^-Les Réuolutions

'd, l'unirr* contained 30 meps and covered history from the

dispersalofNo"t,',.hrd,.,',othe.réunion'oflorrainetoFrance.Theatlaswasrelated ro th" draft Årt^ **pnt des réuolutions. The pseudony-mous author 'Dupré'

has been ia.r,tin.j n lf ififfi at r'e'o'' although'wal¡9r Gotrar¡'has cast doubt on

this.61 The "rr",

pr",."itl- çography as the, seÃant of history: 'La Géographie est

principalement "rir. p.". ri r.äor. ",

l'étude de I'Histoire.' The scope of the atlas

was Eurocentri. itt th't, although the maps included Asia' the intenúon was to cover

history as ""¿".r.ooã-üv

no'oít*tt 'to"tt l' parúe de I'ancien continent qui a été

le théâtre ¿., ,e,roiorøîs que I'Hirtoi.e arciånne et moderne nous présent'' The

preface to the atlas was also interesting because it commented on two e'rlier efforts'

Deuelopmenß to 18oo 23

The largely aborcive historical atlas by Delisle was criu'cízed because the maps wereonly intended to cover up to gooE, thus excluding the Orient. Hase's work wascrlucized because the maps were in quarto and therefore too small, because they didnot extend to cover the Orient and because there was no conunon base map.Seeking to tâke the whole of human history as its subject - Êom biblical origins tothe modern day - the atlas put an emphasis on continual change that contrastedgready with the more stâtic nature of traditional adases of biblical and Classicalhistory.

Köhler's successor et Göttingen, Johann Christoff Gatterer, produced maps and an

historical adas to assist his students in the r77os. He devoted particular attention tothe medieval period, and was especially interested in the Asiatic powen that invadedEurope. Gatterer was far from Eurocentric and ignored modem history, producingno maps on the period after 1517.62 This accorded with the emphasis in Germanteaching at this period. More generally, schola¡s tended to avoid the recent pest.

Thomas Pelham wrote to his father in 1776 of 'a kind of modem history whichhistorians have not yet come down to' and the following year Professor Pestel toldPhilip Yorke that he wished to teach him what was 'not to be found in any bookthat he knows of,, which was to give a sort of system of policy and of the presentBalance of Furope, drawn Êom the facts that have happened since the periodmentioned [tó48], a srudy which he says is entirely new, and not followed in ouruniversities'.6

Historical mapping was not only carried on at the global, or at least Euresian,scale. A map of England in the post-Roman period, dedicated to the Duke ofGloucester, was published by Christopher Browne in rToo (later stâtes of it wereissued in t735, t76o and r77o). The map showed the 'ancient and present govern-ment being divided as in the Saxon-Heptarchy also into dioceses, judges-circuits andcounties' as well as the sites of major battles. A series of eight maps of Paris, all onthe same scale and in chronological order, showing its development from RomanLutetía untti the seventeenth century, was published in Nicolas de La Marc's Traíté

de la políce . . . on y a joint une descriptíon hístoique et topographique de Pais et huit plans

graués Qans, rToJ). These maps have also been attributéd to Nicolas de Fer. Themost ambitious regional historical adas in the period was by Menso Alting (ró3ó-r7r3), Burgomaster of Groningen. In 1697 and rTor he published a fourteen-map,two-part historical atlas of the United Provinces from the fint century ¡c until afterthe major North Sea floods of the thi¡teenth century.óa This gave a sense ofcontinuiry to a poliry that in fact was a sixteenth-century creation. Maps of theUnited Provinces prior to thet did not corespond to any political reality.

Matthãus Seutter's Hístoria Cfuculí Bauaricí (Augsburg, r74j) employed a numberkey for ia map of Bavaria in order to depict what had happened in its history. Amore politically pointed map appeared eleven years later when Britain and France

went to walt: A Map of the Antient Dominions oJ the Kings oJ England ín Frarce (I-ondon,r75ó). This only depicted boundaries, but that was all tlat was required to make thepoint that the British monarchy, which still claimed thè throne of France, had oncefound the Channel no hindrance to is ambitions. A black and white map of NonegiaAntiqua by G. Schönning was published in Copenhagen in r77g. It depicted places,

riven and provincial boundaries, but made no refqfence to the- date of what wasbeing depicted and offered no suggesrions of chmge through time. Â similar problemaffected Robert's undated map of 'Germanie Ancienne', covering the area from

24 Maps anil Hßtory

. Belgrade to the Low Countries. This depicted rivers, hills and boundaries, but there

was no guide to chronology and the map simultaneousþ presented political siruations

widely different in time without acknowledging the fact.

The first historical atlas of France, rJ:,e Atlas hístorique et géographique de la France

ancíenne et modeme by the Paduan mapmaker Giovanni Antonio kizzi-Zawtortt(1736-1814), was published in Paris ín' 1764; a quarto version followed the octavooriginal rn 1765. There was no other such atlas for another half century. The atlas

covered French history in óo maps, providing the best coverage ofthe history ofanyeighteenth-century country: Hase, in contrast, had devoted only seven maps toGermany. The expansion of France was presented in a positive light, and Rizzi-Zannoni covered recent events. Thus the map of contemporary France bore the

title, 'La France Renaissante sous Ie Règne heureux de Louis XV le Bien-Aimé'(France reborn under the happy reign of Louis XV, the Well-Beloved). This did notprevent Fiízzi-Zennoni from defrauding the govemment.6s A single-sheet map ofFrance during the reign ofHenri IV (r589-róIo), published in Paris in 1787, used

colour to depict Henri's patrimonial domain and also foreign enclaves within France,

and provided a fair amount of detail on the r¡/erfâre of the period.fn t797 John Andrews produced a work that, as with so many eighteenth- and

nineteenth-century historical adases, failed to live up to its title, Hßtorical Atlas oJ

England; Physical, Polítical, Astronomícal, Cíuíl and Ecclesiastiml, Bíographical, Naual,

Parliamentary, and Geographbal; Ancient and Modem;fron the Deluge to the Present Time.

The Introduction stated that 'Those unacquainted with Geography can never form a

proper judgment of the facts recorded in history, as they must strike the mind in a

confused marìner, without order and without connection.' Historical atlases were

necessary to 'give a clear view of all those places which ere most distinguished in a his-tory of this counrry'. Yet only four of the thirteen plates were historical; the rest dealt

with physical and ecclesiastical topics. There were maps of the Ancient Britons, RomanBritain, Saxon Britain and Britain at the time of the Danelaw, but nothing later.

Though limited, Andrews's atlas was very different from the maps of Speed.

Decorative details had been reduced: historical atlases had changed. They were

affected by the same processes that affected non-historical countelparts: the desire to

appear scientific, to separete the map Êom its decoration.óó The increased use ofcolour also affected different types ofmapping. Johannes Hubner (róó8-r73 r), rector

of the Johanneum in Hamburg, is said to have originated the idea that the lands

ruled by the same monarch or republic should be painted in the same colour. Thepurpose was didactic-historical, rather than didactic-geographical. Since the maps

were intended ro illustrate history, by clarifying the territories of particular princelydynasties, toponymy and, to ân extent, topography were neglected. Quite oftenlesser towns and villages on, for example, the mâps of the leading German carto-graphic producer - Flomann of Nuremberg - are identified only by the first letterof their neme so as not to clutter the map and obscure the name of the largerterritorial unit. By contrest, eighteenth-century French and English maps tended tocolour only the borden of territories and not the territories themselves.

The Mapping of Frontiers

With his maps of the expansion both of France and of the French royal domain,

n-Zennoni clearþ embraced the frontier line. He did so without any difñculry,because of the scale he was employing and partly because of increasing

temporery mapping. The idea of natural frontiers - readily grasped geographicalnce in the drawing of lines on maps. As so often, historical mapping reflected

ies, principally rnountains and rivers - became an established aspect of geo-cal description and political discussion, though the selection of such frontiers

not free from serious problems. Riven were not yet generally canalized, as so

y were to be in the nineteenth century. Their courses shifted, islands wereand disappeared, and river courses could be afected by drainage works.

r were, however, extensively used as the basis for frontiers. At the end of the-Swedish wer of t74r-43 Russia, by the Treaty of ,Ä,bo, secured a triangular

*t the head of the Bothnian Gulf remained on the line of the Kemljoki until r8o9,when the Russians pushed it west to the Tornionioki. River lines including the

ofsouth-east Finland, based on a new river line. The Swedo-Finnish boundarv

x793 afr.r t795.Defining mountainous frontiers could be difficult, not leâst because it was unclear

how they should be defined. Disputes were a majot theme in Franco-Savoyard

nëgotietions after the Peace oflJtrecht ofr7r3. The Convention ofParis ofr7r8 leftgcveral issues outstanding. Negotiations in the late r75os culminating in the Treatyof Turin of 176o marked a step forward. Eight maps, defining the watenhed, played

rn integral role in the treety, having the same weight as its text. Nevertheless, untilühe mid-nineteenth century it was very difficult to mep mountainous areas. Seriousproblems were encountered in getting people on the mountains and there were also

difTìculties with topographic mapping. There was also no consistency in the depic-tion of topographic information.6T

The French Revolution

Niemen, Bug and Vistula were used in the three pârtitions of Poland ín 1772,

Deueloomenß to t6oo z\

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period lent renewed energy to mappingthe contemporary world and thus provided a better base for historical mapping. The

Revolution replaced jurisdictional-territorial criteria when radically redrawing fron-tien within and outside France. For a sociely that created a new calendar and a newunit of measurement (the metre), such a spatial reinteqpretation was not a surprising

conception. The new political order could incorporate former frontiers as ancien

régime pobo.es took on a new existence - Genoa becoming the Ligurian Republic,Tuseany the Kingdom of Et¡uria - but even when this was the case there weremodifications, while elsewhere there were major changes, especidly in Germany and

r¡grthern Italy. This lent renewed interest to the process of territorial change,

underrnining the sense of territorial continuity. New frontiers were mapped, whileNapotreon's invasion of Egypt and Palestine led to the fi¡st accurate map of the

region, the French army carryrng out the surveying. The Napoleonic regime and its

wars p(ovid;ed major stimuli for th,¡: detailed mapping of Europe to serve political,

financial and military purposes, and to satisfy the quest for information that theregirne dìsplayed.68 The wars also stimulated mapping by France's enemies, not least

in Bdtain by the Boud of Ordnence as concem deweloped about a possible Frenchinvasion.óe In addition, mapping projects begun before the Revolution were brought

26 Maps and Hisøry

to completion. A survey of Holstein, Lübeck and Hamburg, begun for administra-

tive anã þxarion pulposes tn r7fi, was pubLished in ó8 sheets bewveen r78g and

r 8oó.70

For most Europeans, 'intemal' frontiers had been as significant âs their inter-

national counterpârts, and they had often been diflìcult to distinguish, both on the

ground alld on maps. They had crucial judicial and financial functions. This was

ãspecially marked in western Europe, with its denser and more historical fabric of

¡uiisdictional authoriries, and the accompanying vitality of local privilege. The wvo-ryp.,

of froritien were diffìcult to distinguish on seventeenth-century maps. This

mãntal world wâs not to change appreciably until the impetus and focus that the

French Revolution gave to nationalism altered the European political consciousness

and gave ¡enewed interest to historical mapping.

l'{ineteenth Century

In the preface tohís Popular Atlas of Comparatiue C.eography pondon, r87o), William

'Hughes wrote thet the 'alliance' of history and geography 'forms the basis of the

StuJy known as "Comparative Geography," a main object of which is the exhibition

ofthe successive changes in the distribution ofstates, with their attendant alterations

of frontier, which are presenred by a particular region of the globe, viewed at

.fucceeding periods of time'. These changes were the major theme of nineteenth-

century historical atlases. They reflected the values of the age with its emphasis on

territorial power and coherent statehood. Yet, as in other periods, there was

considerable variety in the types of historical atlases that were produced.

Tke Traditional Agenda

The Classical World

The uaditional cartographic agenda remained important in the earþ nineteenth

century. The classical world was central not only to education but also to much

eh.. fh. roles of, ancienr Greece and Rome in political and moral thought and as

cultural beacons ensured, for example, thet many of the new developments of the

century sought classical references. Thus, ancient Greek and Roman models played

a role in the constitutionalism and imperialism of the period'

The Classical world continued to play a major role in historical atlases. The Atlas

d.e tableaux et de cartes graué par P.F. Tardieu pout le couts complet de cosmogtaphie, de

géagraphie, ile chronologii et d'histoire ancíeøne et moderne par Edme Mentelle (znd edn,

ÞaÃ,^rsoa¡ began with a map of the world that wes not speciñcally historical, and

then offered a plate devoted to 'the world known by the ancients" a common

theme, another to the Assyrian empire, which was given excessively extensive

frontien including all of AnatoLia ¿nd Persia as well as Bactria, a fourth on ancient

Greece, a ffth pioviding plans of Athens, Sparta and Syracuse, a sixth on Italia

Antiqua, a sev"rrth on Gaul, and then a shift to modern Europe with no maps

"or"å.g the intewening period. The following yeæ, howewer, Robert Wilkinson in

his Atløs cløssíca Qondon, r8o5) added Saxon England and Charlemagrre's empire to

28 Maps anil Hístory

the Classical world and in the r8o8 edition ¿ map of 'The Kingdom of Jerusalemwith its Environs at the time of the Crusades' appeared. The preface declared the

hope that the atlas would 'be found to be a pleasing arrd useful addition to the library

of the Divine, the Scholar, and the private Gentleman'. It was certainly seen as â

successfi.rl model: another edition appeared ín t842. James Playfair, Principal of the

United College, St And¡ews, produced an atlas of Classical maps in r8o8 to

accompany hís System of Geography Ancient and Modem (Edtnburgh, rSro-r4). The

seme maps were also used in his Nøz Gened Atlas Reußed and Modem @'dtnburgh'rSzz).

'W'orks such as Srnith's Classical Atlas (London r8o9), Ch¡istian Gottlieb

Reichard's Orbß terarum ueteríbus cognitus (t8r8-3r), Samuel Butler's Atlas oJ Ancient

C*ography (London, rSzz), the New Classknl and Histoical Atlas (Edinbwgh' r8z9)'

Jones' Classical Atlas (London, r83o), V/illiam Mutphy's Comprehensiue Atlas

(Edinburgh, r83z), Aaron Arrowsmith's Atlas of Ancient C.eognphy (London, r84z),

Mitrhell's Ancíent Atlas (Philadelphia, 1844), James Tate Head's First Classical Maps

(London, 1845) and Philips' School Classical Atlas (Lívetpool, 1855) illusçate the

fascination with the ancients. Flowever, William Hughes, an active mapmaker and

Professor of Geography in the College for Civil Engineen, referred inhis llluminated

Atlas of Seripture Geography (London, r84o) to the problem with much of the

mapping of the ancient world:

The absence ofa strictly chronological arrengement in the delineation ofboundaries

and localities has been felt as an imporant defect in the maps generally prepared for

the illustration of ancient geography: ancient and modem, classical and scriptural,

appellations have been mixed together, without regard to the period of history to

which they relate in such a manner as to leave on the mind of the student no distinct

impression ofthe actual condition ofa country at any one period. Yet this synchron-

ism of geography . . . constitutes, when presented to view, the most important guide

in tracing the progress of a nation's civilisation, since without it we are unable to form

an estimate ofits condition either internally or with reference to other countries. It is

a particular object ofthe present Atlas to preserve this, by successively delineating the

Holy Land . ..1

Hughes's criticism was a fair one and many of the Classical atlases offered little more

than maps o{;, for example, ancient Gaul that showed riven, places and (dateles$

boundaries, but without any suggestion of chronological development. Their prin-

cipal purpose was to display the location of places prominent in Classical works,

often with direct comparisons with modern names. This was e4plicit in such works

as Aaron Arrowsmith's Orbis Terrarum Veteríbus Noti Descríptio. A Conparatfue Atlas oJ

Ancient and Modem Geogruphy Ç-ondon, r8z8). As with a number of Classical adases,

the pedagogic purpose of this work was directly linked to a Particular institution. Its

title page declared that it was 'for the use of Eton School' and it was indeed

dedicated to the headmaster. Arrowsmith also produced An Atlas oJ Ancient Geog-

raphy; For the tJse of King's CoIIege School (London, r84z).

Tine Hanow Atlas oJ Classícal Ceography was published in 1857, one of the

publishen being Crossley and Clerke, the school bookseller. There was also a juniorversion. The atlas drew âttention to the problems of the available sources. The

second m¿p, devoted to the 'world as known to the Ancients. The East', carried

The Nineteenth Century

¡¡¡ith it a warning: 'Srythia was inhabited by various nomad nations, whose names

.fannot be placed in a map with eny accuracy. Many of the names of these nations

,given by ancient àuthors are fabulous. The ancients were not âlvâre that the Sea ofAral was distinct from the Caspian.'There was e note on mep 20, that of Egypt: 'A',long list of names is given by Ptolemy and Pliny of places south of Syene end of the

Õreat Cataract: they are not inserted here, as it appears impossible to show to what$todern positions they correspond.'. James Tate Head, Fleadmaster of Richmond Grammar School, emphasized edu-,çetional purposes in his Firsf Classical Maps (London, 1845). The preface explained,the principles underþing the maps and the way in which lettering in particular was

'used:

It is the particuler object of the following maps prominently to exhibit those places,

and those only, which possess a leading interest in the ancient history of Greece and

Rome and tleir principal connectiotls and dependencies: and, by rendering very

conspicuous the great oudines and natural feâtures of each counrry, to invite the eye

and the attention to its more important localicies. With this view, (after a free erasure

of other names,) the towns end rivers, etc. of primary importance have been marked

by dark capital letten: open capitals are used to designate the countries themselves and

their larger districts. Other places ofconsequence or interest from various causes, es for

instance rhe birth of distinguished men, have been given in iølics, greater or less, as

the case seemed to requrre.

Head criticized tÏe absence of such a selection and ordering in other atlases:

It is very certain, that the young Classical scholar is seriously discouraged from

consulting his maps, by the difñculty with which (even if latitude and longitude be

supplied) he detects the position ofany required place; crowded as the surface is with

names of apparently equal importance, though possessing no interest whatever to him

either naturally or historically.

Head made the Mediterr¿nean more conspicuous 'by.a deeper and broader line ofcoasts' and even took advantage ofthe central fold'for pointing out the division ofthe Roman Empire into its Eastern and W'estem porcions, - a division not mereþ

geographical, nor of fanciful value, when we take into eccount the essential differ-

ence of charecter between the one class of nations and the other - of the rwo

portions'.The Reverend George Butler's Publk Schook Atlas of Ancíent C*ography (London,

rg77) was specifically designed to help those reading classical authors. He explained

the particular value of his work for pupils trying to follow campaigrs:

In studying the history of any great campaigfr, such as Caesar's Gallic Wars, a very

good general knowledge ofthe geography ofthe country can be obtained by any boy

who will take the trouble to work out the details of the campaign with his Ancient

Atlas before him, and the corçsponding map in the Modern Adas at hand for

purposes of reference. If the habit of tracing on a n1¿p the movements of armies be

once acquired, historical derails will readily fix themselves on the memory. 'without

rhe assistmce of the eye the memory will very soon throw off the burden of deteils

which have never been reallY comprehended end studied intelligently.

30 Maps and Hßtory

The growth of research into the Classical world, not least archaeological investi-

gations, ensured that considerable advances were made in the interpretation of the

period. An increase in the ¿mount of information available wes eccompenied by a

greater abiJity, and to some extent willingness, to judge it and to differentiate the

material, creating a categorization in terms of 'reliable' and 'less certain'. For

example, Charles Newton of the British Museum prepared a fold-out map of Bitkh.and Roman Yorleshire rhat was published by the Archaeological Institute of Great

Britain and Ireland in 1847. This distinguished between 'ascertained Roman roads',

'ancient roads ofwhich the general direction has been ascertained, but which have

not been accurately traced throughout', and supposed lines of ancient roads. Simi-larly, 'ascertained' Roman stâtions were distinguished from doubtfirl ones. This

provided both a challenge and en opportunity for the mapmakers. In r 8ó7 Alexander

Keith Johnston produced a new edition of his Sc/¡ool Atlas of Classical Ceography

(Edinburgh, r8ó7). The extended title referred to it as'embodying the results of the

most recent investigations' and the preface claimed that 'Recent researches and

investigations have so widely extended and modified our knowledge of Classical

Geography, as to dernand the construcrion of en entirely new series of meps'. Pert

of the new work was possible thanks to the help of 'w'illiam Ewart Gladstone,

chancellor ofthe Exchequer t852-55 ând r859-66, leader ofthe Liberal party fromß67, rnd future Prime Minister. Gladstone was a noted Classical scholar and author

of three books on Homer. One was the source of Johnston's 'Map of the Outer

Geography of the Odyssey', and the book was also used for wvo of the maps ofGreece, but Gladstone was no mere passive source. As the preface noted, he had

'enhanced the favour by revising the prooÊsheets of the plates and text, as adepted

for this Atlas'. Scholanhip was also reflected in the map of Roman Britain in Charles

Pearson's Historkal Maps of England (London, r8ó9), where the author ofFered the

observation: 'compared with most existing maps, mine of Roman Britain willeppear very bare of names; as I have not felt warranted in giving a local habitation

tã tribes whose limits I was unable to determine.'2 Pearson had been Professor ofModem History at King's College, London.

In 'William Murphy's comprehensiue classital Atlas @dnburgh, t83z), dedicated to

the rectors and masrers of the High School and New Academy of Edinburgh, the

preface acknowledged the role of James Rennell in 'advancing the knowledge ofAncient Geography'. Rennell (r742-rfio) worked as many yeârs es Surveyor-

. General of the East India Company's possessions in Bengal before tuming to the

geography of Herodotus, leading eventually to his Tteatise on the Comparative Ceog-

raphy of western Asia (London, r83 r). Rennell became the leading British geographer

in rhe decade after SirJoseph Banks's death in r8zo, and was as interested in Classical

geography, publishing for example on Babylon, Troy and the merch of the Ten

Thousand, as in the study of winds and currents. Flowever the 'advancement' ofknowledge was affected by the habit of seeing the past in the light of the present.

Thus, for example, the Hellenistic world was identiûed with the world of modem

Europe in the age of its colonial empires.3

Some ¿tlases still appeared in which the sole maps devoted to history treated the

Classical world. This was rme for example ofJ. Andriveau-Goujon's Atløs classíque et

uniuersel de géographie ancienne et modeme (Paris, rS5ó). Maps of the Classical worlddominated other atlæes, sometimes as a result of the continued role of the Classics

in educarion. This was true of fìve of the six historical maps in the AtIa géographíque

et historique à l'usage de la classe ile quatrième (znd edn, Paris, 1878) by F' Oger,

The Níneteenth Century 3 r

Professor of History and Geography at the Collège Saint-Barbe. The other map,

placed fint, was an historical map of France showing its provinces and dePartnents.

The Berlin scholar Heinrich Kiepert (r8r8-99) was responsible for a number ofworks including the Topographisch-hßtoischer Atlas uon Hellas und den helleníschen

Colonien (Berlin, r84r-4ó), the Hßtoisch-geographischer Atlas iler ahen Weh flü/eimar,1848) and Acht Karten zur alten Qsthíchte @erlin, 1859). The r87os saw importantadvances in British mapping of the Ancient world. This was largely due to the

distinguished Classical and biblical scholar 'W'illiam Smith (r8r3-93), who was

responsible for wvo works published in r8Z+. The first, Dr. William Smíth's Ancíent

Atlas. An Atlas of Ancient Geogaphy pondon, r 874), provided extensive notes on thesources for each map which even extended to pointing out the limitations of thesources. For example, that on 'Hispania' observed:

It is extremely difficult to construct an accurete and tolerably complete map of ancient

Spain, for the topographical statements of St¡abo and Mela are generally confined tothe coast districts; Pliny gives stâtistical surveys and in part alphabetical lists of towns

rather than topographically arranged materials. Ptolemy's map, on the other hand, is

evidentþ full of great errors, so that those places which are based on its authoriryalone must always be very uncertain. We are, therefore, here more than elsewhere

dependent upon the Itineraries, the ruins, and the inscriptions . . . forged

inscriptions. . . the recent maps ofmodem Spain are not altogether to be depended

upon. . . they frequently differ from one anothet.a

An Atla oJAncíent C.eography, Biblical and Classical, to Illustrate the Dictionary of the

Bible and the Classical Dictionaríes appeared the same year. This major work, with 43

maps, was edited by Smith and George Grove.s Grove was Secretary of the Palestine

Exploration Fund and author of the articles on biblical topograþhy in Smith'sDíctionary of the Bible. The Classical maps were drawn by Charles Mäller, theirbiblical counterparts by Trelawny Saunders. Anotfier edition followed in 1825.

Smith's preface to the 1874 edition emphasized the novelty of the work ¿nd stressed

the importance of providing precise locations and geographical informarion:

This Adas, the preparation and execution of which have occupied eighteen years, is

the first attempt, either in this country or on the continent, to give a complete set ofmaps of the Ancient World on a scale corresponding in size to the best Atlases ofmodern geography. The large size of the present Íurps allows space for exhibiting the

natural features ofeach country, and for adding, wherever it was possible, the modern

names underneâth the ancient ones. This combination of ancient and modem names,

which is a distinctive Gature in the present Atlas, is of the greatest assistance inunderstanding ancient geography, and ascertaining the exact sites. A comparison ofmaps of the modern world with those of antiquity, even if both are executed on the

same scale, is always troublesome and often useless, since ancient geography, in many

cases, has to take notice of insignifìcant modern villages and ruins, which are of no

importance in the present d"y, "ãå "."

consequently nJt marked in the ordirnry maps.

Smith offered an instrocdwe contrast of the new work with its most illustriouspredecessor, one that not only indicated his own intentions, but also helped toestablish a typology of approaches in historical cartography:

32 Maps and Hßtory

The only large Atlas hitherto published, comprising the whole domain of ancient

geography is Spruner's 'Atlas Antiquus,' in thirry-one maps' improved by Menke

(Gotha,r8ó5).ButthisAtlasisconstructedonanentirelydifferentplânfromthep,",.,,.o,'.'besidesbeingonasmallerscale.onlyalimitedportionofitisdevotedio the g.ographical representation ofparticular countries: by far the larger part contarns

r,,"p, "liuirirrg

histoiical surveys at particular periods, and small supplementary charrs

of certain epochs of encient history. The number of such historical maps might be

increased indefinitely, without adding in any way to the scientific value of an Atl¿s.

For on the one hand the historicel changes in the distribution of countries are so

simple that no special firaps ere needed to understand them; and' on the other hand'

. it happens only rarely that the. geographical data concerning the political relations of

".rt"ìr, hirto.i""l periods have been handed down to us in sufticient compl€teness to

enable us to give a correct picture of them in a map' Such maps' therefore' always

contain much that depends upon the mere conjectures of their authots, and, conse-

quently, are ofren moìe misleading than trustlvorthy as guides. In the present Atlas

each country is delineated in a separate Írap on a large scale; but we have also given

in addition a sufiìcient number of Historical Maps on a smaller scale ' ' '

Smith also directed attenfion to the sources used: 'The certographical part of the

Clasical Atlas is based, fint, upon Strabo' the text of which has been much

improved in the edition . . . by Müller ' ' ' secondly upon the iTq::.:t9 edition of

theGeographiMinores...bythesameeditor'andsoon.Miiller'sworkonptolemy *"i ¿ro cited æ a source in avoiding the errors of earlier'works. The map

of India was prepared by Henry Yule, the much_travelled editor of Marco Polo,s

writings. George-Butler's inroduction to his Public schools atlas of Ancíent ceography

referred to the nume¡ous recent works that reference had been made to: Forbiger's

Handbuch der alten Geographie (Leípzig, 1848)' Spruner,s historical 'atlas,

Kiepert,s

Hellas a',d Atlas Antiquul,john Cramer's map of Italy (Cramer published his Descríp-

tion of Ancíent ltary i; ß;6), 'William Smith's Dktionary oJ Greek and Roman Geogra-

phy (London, rs j¿) and i'rs Stud'nt's Manual oJ Ancient Ceogtaphy (London' r8ór)

r"à rr.f. Tozer's Geography of Greece (London, 1873)'

Research_based -"i, of th. cl"rrical world continued to appeer in the closing

decades of the century^. They reflected the development of archaeoigs.y 1"d also the

risingnumbersi.,th."."d.*icprofession.ImportantworkincludedtheseriesForma urbk Romae, maps of Rome and ancient Italy, that appeared in r893-r9or'

Mapping the Bible

By the second half of the century biblical atlases had benefited gready from archaeo-

logical ,esearch in Palestine and their topography was increasingly precise. Major

. works included Richard Palmer's The B¡bIe Atlas or Sacred Geography Delineated ín a

complete series oJ suiptural Maps (London, 1823), samuel Arrowsmith's Bíble Atla

@onãon, rs35), Heiåich Kieierr;s Bíbelatlas nach den neuesten und besten HílJsquellen

þzeichnet (Berlin, rB47), Richard Riess's Dl¿ Länder der Heíligm Schift Hßtorisch-"geographkcher

Bibelatlai (Frerburg, 1864), Theodor Menke's Bíbelatlas in acht Blättern

Ïcã,ftr, r8ó8) and H..mron ôuth.'s Bibet Attas ín zt Harytt-und 3o Nebenkaræn

if"ipzlg, rgri;.u Such works enjoyed considerable sales and influence, an achieve-

ment aisisted by translations. Palmer's atlas, for example' appeared in a German

The Nineteenth Century 33

edicion and Kiepert's was published in London as The New Bíblical Atlas and Saípture

Çazetteer (t852).Historical atlases of the Bible were found in the Protestent more than the

catholic, let alone the orthodox, world. The Anglo-German rela¡ionshþ was

related to the increasing emPhasis on the study of the Bible in a way that challenged

the literal inspiration of ,..ipt.tt. and the influence of German Protestant biblical

scholarship in g¡oltt. David Friedrich Strauss contradicted the historicity of super-

natural elåments in the gospels in his D¿s LebenJesu (Tübingen, 1835-36)' a work

rranslated by the English "o""list

George Eliot as The Life oJJuus, Critically Examíned

by or. oaiid sfrøøss (London, 1846). There was a clear cartographic dimension to

the enterprise of directing scholarship to establishing and demonstrating the truth ofscripto.ei and yet also a ready market among readen who lacked any interest in

,.nåU.b.or,,rårr..ry. The introduction to Wyld's Søipture Atlas Q-ondon, no date),

by the geographer James Wyld (r79o-r 83ó),claimed:

The Reader of the Bible may here trâc€ the wandering of the earþ patriarchs of the

Hebrew race, mark the traditional sites of their encamPments and dwelling-places, or

the hallowed spots in which their rem¿ins reposed in death, and note the reputed

scenes of rhe numerous battles and other thrilling events which impart so much of

human interest to rhe inspired records. It is believed that even in the present age of

critical (and often of sceprical) inquiry, these qualities will be found to possess

sufiìcienr anraction for ttre simply devotional readers of the Bible, to justify the

publishen in the reissue of a work which thus identifies locally every place mentioned

in the Sacred Narrative, ¿nd exhibits with topographical precision et ieest the supposed

scenes of the most deeply-impresive events in the history of mankind'

The pedagogic role of the Bible was also reflected in historical maps, such as

Creigirtorr;s ñew Histoical Map of Palestine (London, r83 r), a fold-out sheet without

text äepicting the boundaries oi the rwelve tribes, the Exodus, cities and forts' and

the rhiireen ãaps in the walt Maps oJ scri?ttute Hlsfory published by the Edinburgh

map-publishers W. and A.K. Johnston in the r86os'

'ih" ""ri"ty

of biblical atlases, their complex typology, was obviously present in

the nineteentil cenrury. Old works could be reprinted with litde oi no reference to

scholarþ advances. TLus in 1835 the Sociery for Promoting Christia¡r Knowledge

publishád a new edirion of Edward Wells's Hßtorícal Ceography of the New Testa-

nent . . . Adomed wíth Maps of r7o8; the work had been reprinted' with his Old

Test¿ment volume, in r8oì, and a,"in in r8o9. Yet there was also, particularþ in the

second half of the century, a strong wish to incorporâte recent biblicâI scholarship

and, tlerefore, ân emphâsis on the most recent discoveries and discussions. william

rrogh., emphasized the ,ralu" of increased information in the introduction to his

Illininated Àúas of Saipture Geogtaphy (London, r84o)' The researches of Edward

Robinson, Profesior "i ¡l¡U"¡ fit.reture at New York Union Theologrcal Sem-

inary, influenced the work of Kiepert. Archaeological and topographical studies in

the ûeld added to the available information imrneasurably'

Archaeological information greatly increased as a result of the work of captain,

later Field lr.iarshal, Kitchener and Captain Conder of the Royal Engineers' who

weresentinrST¡bythePalestineExplorationFundoflondontomakeasurveyand to collect information relevant to the Bible. They mapped the Holy Land west

of the Tordan and also recorded the names and described the visible remains of

:.:;.:.:f,

34 Maps and Hßtory

several thousand sites; many were successfully identified with biblical sites.T In r88rthe Palestine Exploration Fund published a Map oJ Westem Palestíne in z6 sheets.

'William Smith's preface to rhe Atlas of Ancient Ceography, Biblital anil Classical

(London, 1874) stressed again the value of detailed information - the crucialcombination of scale and precision - and the degree to which recent research hadtransformed the situation:

Biblical Atlases certainly exist, but they are so small in size, or so imperfect inexecution, or so often framed for the support ofprivâte theories, that no examinationof the topography can be obtained from them adequate to the present demands ofBiblical study, which, in the case of the Holy Land, often depends fo¡ its results onthe power of comparing very rninute points. And, in addition to this, it is only withine recent d¿te that any really accu¡ate information as to the geography of the Holyl¿nd or the Peninsula ofSinai - . . has been obtainable. Less than ten yea¡s ago. . . nosystematic attempt had been made to survey the country and make e mep on the same

scale of size or minuteness as other regions. The distance, the difficulties, even thevery sacred ¿nd familiar char¿cter of the spots seemed to stand in the way. Theimpulse given to the study by the Biblícøl Researches of Dr. Robinson, and by the Sinai

anil Palestine of Dean Stanley, led the way first to the ordnance survey ofJerusalem,and next to the establishment of the Palestine Exploration Fund . . . and of the Sinai

Exploration Society, whose survey is completed. . .

In the corxtruction of the Assyrian maps and elsewhere, use has been made, for thefint time, of the Turco-Persian survey, as well as of the labours of Layard and

Rawlinson . . . The map of Babylon and the surrounding district has been revised byCaptain Felix Jones, the able oftìcer who made the survey of the Tigris and Euphrates

Valley.

The adas lived up to its preface. The maps were detailed and there were notes oneach. The survey referred to, however, was not the end of nineteenth-centuryresearch in Palestine. Topographicd mapping was followed by increased archaeo-logical activiry. In r89o Flinden Petrie applied to the Tell el-Hesi site his theory ofthe stratified formation of a¡ ancient city mound, the first time this had been donein biblical archaeology.s

The interaction of advances in knowledge with the precise and controversialnature of biblical scholarship encouraged the production of weighty works thatpresented themselves in the context of a developing scholarly process, reflecting inprefaces and notes on the maps with reference to the limitetions of the evidence.This can be seen clearþ in a major work that represented the culmination ofnineteenth-century scholanhip in this field and, like several other such works,appeared early in the following èentury: a natural consequence of the ¡ime taken toproduce such atlases. The preface to the Atlas oJ the Hístorícal Geography of the HolyI-and (London, rgrj), by George Adam Smith, Principal of the Univenity ofAberdeen, declared:

The contents of an ádequate Historical Atlas of any land must comprise at leest thefollowing five: -r. Some representation of the world to which the land belongs. This should include

the general features ofthat world, physical and political, and in particular should

The Nineteenth Century

exhibit the kingdoms and empires bet\Ã/een which the land was placed and bywhich its history and cultu¡e have been most deeply influenced, along with thedelineetion of the main lines of its traffic with these.

z. The general features ofthe physical and economic geography ofthe land itse[ as

well as the detailed representation on a large scale of its va¡ious provinces -including natural features, towns ând villages, with their names at various periods,

and the lines of communication between them.

3. ,\ succession of maps of the political geography of the land, exhibiting its

divisions, ftontien, and historical sites at va¡ious periods.

+. Some illustration of the conceptions of the land and of the world to which itbelongs, prevalent at former periods of its history.

5. A series of 'Notes to the Maps', including a list of the ancient, or contemporary,

and the modem, authorities for each; and, in the case of most of the historical

meps, st¿tements of the principal events in the periods to which they refer, withsome explanations or ârguments for the frontien, lines of traffc, and historical

sites which are delineated upon them.

These were not only fine sen¡iments. Srnith, who employed modem critical tech-niques and was familiar with Hebrew and Arabic sources, repeatedly introduced a

proper note of caution. FIe was an OId Testament specialist who was aware ofdevelopments in geography and archaeology- Thus, in the preface, he gave his viewon frontien, the principal subject depicted in historical adases of the period:

Political frontiers cannot be determined except approximately, especially where there

were no distinct natural lines of demarcation. In such circumstances they oscillated

from reigrr to reigrr, and even probably from year to yea;r, as in the case of the border

beñveen Northern Israel and Judah, or in the cases of the suburban territories of the

Decapolis and other free cities of S¡ria. It would be an even more prêcarious t¿sk toâttempt to draw the exact Êontiers of the Tribes of Israel. On the other hand, it is

extremely probable that so strong a natural frontier in Moab as the valley of the Amonwæ almost constantly a political frontier as well; and the historical evidence is inagreement with this conclusion.

The notes on individual maps underlined Smith's caution a¡rd drew attention to theavailability and accuracy of information. For map 3r, 'Palestine before the coming ofIsrael. r5oo to r2Jo nc', Smith wrote:

The dificulty of the geographícal date of this period is due not to their meegreness,

but to the lact thet the races then appearing in Palestine were numerous .and inconstant movement; and that the names for them were not used in the Old Testament

nor elsewhere in any exact sense.

For map 33, 'Palestine in the tirne of Saul', Smith emphasized the problems withboundaries: 'The frontien indicated on the mep are, of course, only approximate.

This is tme in particular of the Israelite extension over Galilee, the Eest of Jordan,and southwards into the Negeb.'e Smith's atlæ was used by the British amy and

T.E. Lawrence during the First'W'orld'War-

35

36 Maps and Hßtory

k Sage and Nineteenth-century French Publications

Despite these emphases, historical atlases that were not primarily Classical/biblicalalso started to appear in greater numbers in the first half of the century. Tlire Atlas

hktorique, généalogíque, chronologíque et géographíque (Paris, r8oz-4) ofl-e Sage (Marie-

Joseph-Emmanuel-,{uguste Dieudonné de Las Cases, Marquis de la Caussade, t766-r84z) was the most important in the earþ decades of the century: its circulation was

immense, and the preface of the rSzg Paris edirion described the work esrhe uade

mecum of merchants, scholars and men of the world. Le Sage was the pseudonym ofan émigré marquis and former naval lieutenant lacking any real qualifications foracting as a mapmaker or historian. Seftled in London, Las Cases became a teacher ofhistory, astronomy, geography and mathematics, and an active producer of maps. His

atlas, published in monthly parts in rTgg-r8oo, initially appeared in English as the

Genealogical, Cfuonological, Histotícal and C.eographícal Atlas (London, rSor). The list ofsubscribers was headed by George ItI and most of the royal family and included

numerous eristocrats, 3z clerics, and 3z academies and schools taking a total of 6Icopies. Las Cases recumed to Paris in r8oz where his amateur status did not prevent

him from eaming a fortune. The r8oe Paris edition was ofiìcially adopted by the

Ministry of the Interior for use in French schools and by the Foreign Ministry forthe use oflegations. After that, as the r8r4 Paris edition noted, five editions appeared

in Paris and an unofiìcial French edition in Florence in r8o7, as well as editioru at

Philadeþhia and St Petenburg and German and Italian translations. Another English

edirion appeared in r8r3. The American edition, fint published in Philadelphia inr8zo, included maps of the New World.

Though very popular, the atlas hed its limitations. Las Cases made much use of.genealogical and chronological maps': genealogical tables and time-charts; the 'geo-

graphical' meps were clearþ secondary. He presented all his maps as similar devices

to disseminate knowledge by fixing location. The plan of t}e work printed in the

rSor edition stated:

If it were possible,. in studying hisrory, ro see the personege of which it is spoken,

constantly in its chronological ptace, without having recourse to chronology, and

always surrounded by its ancestors and descend¿nts, without being constrained to

study genealogy . . . it is certain it would then be engraved on the memory, attended

by all the adventâges that would assist the recollection, and rectify the judgment; for

while the ear listened to the history of any one, the eye would see et the same time

the precise epocha of their existence, their contemporaries, parentage, relations, etc.

A system of this sort would undoubtedly reduce the study of history to that ofgeographical maps, and the abstract eforts of memory to mereh the mechenical

exercise of the eyes, but Las cases, it was declared, had succeeded. PupiJs, it was

claimed, find

relative spaces impossible to confuse. In short, they have learnt upon the historical

. mâp, the distance oftime, as they leam that ofplaces upon the geographical, and have

followed on one, the change of events and successions, as on the other the turnings

of roads and windings of provinces, and they will determine with as much ease and

precision, the situation of Elizabeth in respect to 'w.illiam the conqueror, or George

the Third, as they would that of London to Edinburgh or Portsmouth'

4. Map of Gemy Êom the English edition of L* Cases's Atlæ historíque, généølogique, chonologíque

it glogrop¡íq"" (paris, rSoz-4)- A pòor *ap that contained inaccumcies. The ernphasis on the imperial

cirilei ws misle¿ding; and this legalistic approach ensured that Prussia ws not shom æ a sepmte

st¿te and its acquisitioro of Silesie md pan of Poland were not recorded'

The use of the word atlas to describe a book that tried to locate and describe by the

use of tables rather than maps was not peculiar to Las Cases. In t8z6 Adrien Balbi

published hís Atlas éthnographique du globe ou classfication des peuples anciens et moilemes

d'après leurs langues Qans), a work that similarþ used tables instead of meps for its

classification.Rather than chronologically sequential maps, Las Cases was guided by the

country-by-country practice of geographical atlases. His favourite device was

the gaudily colouredline, used to show campaigns, for example those of Alexander,

the T'en Íhousand, Hannibal, Gusravus Adolphus, Charles XII, Charles Edward

Srua¡t fBonnie Prince Charlie), Napoleon and Suvorov. Las Cases keenly praised his

own maps. That of French history was 'quite new in its composition . . . it shows by

a difference of colour, the original-domain of the crown, and points out the order

and nature ofthe several reunions by which the kingdom has been composed, under

what king, and by what colour'. Gains by violence were coloured red, by inherit-

ance greil, md by ¡¡Eiage, treary or pwchase yellow. The owerall effect, howewer,

\¡/âs very cruqe.

38 Maps and Hßtory

ThemapofGennanyalsoemployedacolourcodetodifferentiateAustria,Bavaria, Sa*ony and Prussia: 'cyptrers above each province indicate the order in

which those piovinces *"re ""{t'ittd'' Again, the effect was poor' The physical

background was essentially igttoåa and the execution v/as Poor' The -map

of the

Rorri"r, empire offered .rå d""r.. That of the British Isles 'exhibiting all the batde

places, landi^ngs, civil wars etc' was a confused map that showed the campaigns of^Ch",l..I,CharlesllandBorrniePrinceCharlie,thefirstlookingespeciallymessy.

Again, no physical background was provided'

Las Cases's references Io problems he faced with his sources indicate his limitations

and prejudices. For the map of Africa he wrote:

There are scarcely any two nations, or indeed eny two geogaphen',who agree in the

division of Africa, tire inland perti being entirely unknown' and the coâsts very

imperfectly explored. . . a buming climate' desolate wastes' moving sands' inhabitants

either barbarous or brutish, ferocious animals, venomous reptiles' all conspire to

exhibit Africa es the refuse of the world' and the maledicdon of nature'

For the map of the .Barbarian' invasions of the Roman empire, in which the routes

were colour-coded, Las Cases wrote:

Several authon, both ancient and modern ' ' ' offer much upon the origin' name' and

history of these different nations, but they seldom agree in their opinions' and an

"*.-pa ,o reconcile them would be but loss of time ' ' ' While endeavouring to trece

the oãgin of these fugitive rribes, we seem srill pursuing them through their impen-

etrable woods and dihcuk moresses, where as we advance' the treces of their foot-

steps disappear. The attempt to class them scrupulousþ is vain' and equally so to fix

withexactitudethepointofthtitdeparture'How'indeed'canitbeotherwise?Theiroriginislostinthenlghtoftimt;eheirnamemusthàvebeenoftenconfoundedwiththat of their conquerors or their allies'

His map of the barbarian invasions of the Roman empire was in fact especially

weak.loNeweditionsoflasCasesbroughtchanges.Theprefacetotherszgedition

emphasized the value of the work L ,p"t-ittg the divide tretween classical and

modemtimes,athemethatwasintellectuallyandcommerciallyfarmorerelevantinthenineteenththanintheprecedingcentury'Theprefacealsounderlinedthevalueof the simultaneity of visual image:

Il perðe l'obscurité des temps fabuleux' et traverse' sans s'égarer'.les ténèbres qui

,êp"r"ot la civilisation """iå"t de la civilisation moderne' Le même coup d'oeil

embrasselaformationetla,pertedesdynasties,leberceau,lesprogrèsetledéclindesnations.

The new edition offered more maPs of Germany' including ones of the.Confedera-

don of the Rhine, è",-""y in r8rz and Germany in r8r5' the las1 showing the

r8r3 camPalgn against Napoleon' 't political map of Europe ,in rtz6' in which

Britain was referred to as 'the dictator of the seas" was produced to provide a

comparison with the situation in rSrz'AnumberofotherimportantFrenchhistoricalarlasesappearedinthisperiod,but

none had the impact of-L", c"r"r. The Atlas de Ia géographie uníuerselle ancienne et

5. 'Europe in r77o' from the Atlæ de la géographíe uníuenelle arcienne et modem (Pzris, r8ró) byEdmé Mentelle and Connd Malte-Bron. This provided the base for a certogrephic presentation ofrecent history, for it could be coftmted with mps of the situation in r8o3 md 1816. Polmd wæ

still an importmt säte end Rusúa lacked a Black Sea coastline. The map is amchronistic in its

depiction of Ialy.

moderne (Paris, 1816), by Edmé Mentelle and Conrad Malte-Brun, continued the

practice of jumping from the Classical to the modem world, in this case maps ofEurope in r77o, r8o3 and r816, and of ignoring the intervening period. A.H. Brué's

Atlas uniuersel de géographie physQue, politique et historíque, ancíenne et tnoileme @an¡Åzz) hrd few maps in the historical section and all were devoted to the ancient

world: the dispersion of peoples until the time of Moses, the world known to the

âncients, the empire of Alexander the Great, ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, Asia

Minor and Gaul and the Roman empire under Constantine. The second edition,

published in 1838, added maps of tÏe world known to the Hebrews, an interesting

variant on the world known to the ancients, which meant the Greeks and the

Romans; ancient Spain, Britain and Germany; and a map of Europe at the time ofCharlemagne, a vital point of reference for French commentetors, but there was

nothing betvveen that map and that of Europe in t789. A note on the latter Platecommented:

Sur ce øbleau des divisions politiques de I'Europe en r78g, nous indiquons les liens

q.ui se râttachent à l'histoire depuis la fn du 9-' siècle jusqu'en 1789. Ne voulmt pâs

multiplier, dans notre Atlas, les cartes historiques, nous avons surchargê de noms

40 Maps anil Hßtory

quelques parties de cette certe, ainsi que l¿ carte présentant le démembrement de

l'Empire de Charlemagrre afin que le lecteur puisse suivre facilement les divisions

politiques intermédiaires entre les époques représentées par les deux cartes.

The gap was still unfilled in the r8ó9 and'r875 editions, thé second of which was

extensively revised by Levasseur in order to take note of research on the ancient

world, not least the information presented in the adases by Spruner-Menke and

Kiepert, and the work of the Commission des Gaules.

The Atlas universel de géographie ancimne et modeme @aris, r8z9) was a work withofficial credentials. Dedicated to Charles X, it was produced by P. Lapié, 'Premier

Géographe du Roi' and head of the topographical section of the Ministry of 'War,

and A.E. Lapié, professor at rhe military academy of Saint-cyr. The introductionemphasized the importance of geography and the atlas devoted considerable atten-

tion to the Classical world before making what was to be the coÍìrnon omission

after the map of Charlemagne's Europe: after a plate devoted to Europe in 8oo, the

following maps tackled r5oo and 1789. The atlas also adopted the customary

teleological prejudice against the medieval world. The discoveries of the fifteenth

century, such as printing, v/ere presented with the reflection 'L'Europe secoura

insensiblement le joug de la barbarie, de la superstition et du fanatisme'.ll

The same year, also in Paris, Maxime-Auguste Denaix began the publication ofhis Atlas physique, politique et hístoríque de I'Europe. He rejected the technique Kruse

adopted of including meps at regular time intervals and. instead concentrated on the

periods of greatest change in Europe's political divisions. Denaix emphasized the role

of environmental considerations. His wvelfth map, 'Divisions Anciennes et Modemes

de I'Europe comparées entre elles et déterminées par les circonstaûces physiques les

plus remarquables" employed a hydrographic analysis ro mâp Europe on the basis ofits river basins, and then related political divisions to this analysis. Denaix also

published ¿n Atlas physique, politique et hístoique de Ia Frunce ín t836-37. Antoine-

Philippe Houzé publùheð hís Atlas uniuersel hístorique et géogtaphíque in t837-38'

Houzê's atlas began with a map of Eden, ur, Babel and Ararat, followed by another'showing the division of the earth among the three sons of Noah. It also, however,

provided numerous detailed maps of France, as well as a large number of maps

ãevoted to the history of other parts of Europe: for example, ten for Britain, twelve

for Germany and eight for Spain. Asian history, in contrâst, received only three

mePs.

ihe gro*th in the market for historical atlases was reflected by the fact that in

some years more then one was published in Paris. Thus in r84o there appeared

Auguste-Henri Dufour and Th. Duvotenay's I¿ Tene. Atla hßtoríque et uniuersel de

géographie and E. Soulier and. J. Andriveau-Goujon's Atlas élémentairc simplfié de

géographíe ancienne et modeme. The former included sixteen historical maps, thirteen

ãf inà CUsical world ard one each of fifth-century Europe, the Mongol empire and

the empire of Charlemagne. This was a somewhat conventional choice, but the

introduction emphasized the need for novelty: 'abandonnant la vieille routine de

reproduire sans cesse les nouvelles cartes d'après les anciennes, ce qui perpétue les

erreurs'.l2 The Soulier and Andriveau-Goujoun work included a map,,'Migrations

des Peuples" that showed all peoples as diffused from the caucasus, Mongolia orEthiopia: 'these three nces confìm the Mosaic text'; a map trhat thereby satisfied

nineteenth-ientury interest in ethnic origins in biblical terms. ,tside from the

An erly attempt ât cartognphic enviroment¿lism. A map of ancient md modem divisions of Europe relaæd tobæiro from Atlas physique, politQue et hístoique de I'Eyrope (Pare, r8z9) by Mxime-Auguste Demix. The ruplittle sare of modem Britain, Russia md SÞain.

ba¡børire¡r invasions, post-Classical Europe was depicted in 8oo, at the time of the

Crusades, in r55ó, 1789 and rSrz and France in 48t, 5o7,888, 987, tt52, t422,

t4f¡,, t648 znd t7t5.In contrast, the edition of Charles V. Monin's Atlas classíque de

la géographie, ancienne, du Moyen age, et Modeme (Pari$ published for the 1847-48

school year included no maps covering Europe for the period bewveen the tenthcenttry and r8r3. Yet there were fourteen stand¿rd maps of the Classical world, all

of them centred on the Mediterraneen, whereas the maps of the modem worldincluded Africa and the New'World.

Kratse aød Nineteenth-century Cerman Publications

CÍ{ristiæl Kruse (1753-1827) was a schoolmaster, then tutor to the sons of the Dukeof Olldenhrrg, and then Professor of History

^t Leipztg. f{is Atlas und Tabellen zur

Uberskht det Geschí¡hte aller europöí¿chen Iiinder und Staaten {-eipztg, r8oz-r8), pro-duced wid:r his son Friedrich, omitted antiquiry and, using the same base map ofEulope and the Near East, produced sequential maps covering each century ûom4oo to rToo! and then 1788, rSrr md 1816. Kruse's maps focused on territorialaomtrol, presenting blocks ofterritory separated by clear frontien - a misleading view

7- Migradon was of great interest in the nineteenth century. As a study of roots and movements, this mp fron the

AtIæ éllmentairc simptífé de géographie ancíenne et modeme by E. Soulier andJ. ,\ndriveau-Goujon (Paris, r84o) was

eccompânied by a àote thai aiknowledged sources md drew attention tÕ the role of climate in ethnographic history.

The migratioro were not dated: the pat ws Presented æ a single iroge.

of the medieval and (though ro a lesser exrent) eaÙ-modern period. The physical

background, especially the depiction of mountain rânges, had deûciencies. Never-

theless, however much it is nécessary to be cautious about adopting a 'progressive',

teleological and judgmental attitude, Kruse's atlâs was more impressive than that ofLas Cases with its ãiagrammatic images and cruder maps, pert of the progressiïe

development of a particular tradition. The-publication of maps at regular chronologi-

cal intervals was an important innovetion, âs was the exclusion of most of Asia and

of antiquity.Kruse's arlas was successfirl, the fifth edition eppearing in 1834. It was also

translated inro French and published in Paris in r83ó as tíe Atlas historique iles ëtats

européens. The preface by the translator, Philippe Lebas, criticized Las Cases's atlas for

irs concenrrarion on genealogy arrd the lack both of sufficient historical detail and

adequate meps. Lebâs emphâsized.the imparrialiry of Kruse's adas and stated that ithad not been composed to 'satisfi any national vanity'.

,\ number of other imporant historical atlases appeæed in Gemæy in t}¡e rSzos

and rg3os, a period in which a large number of such works appeared in Europe, and

The Nineteenth Century 43

in which there w¿s growing interest in geography and modern history as subjects foracademic and intellectual consideration.l3 Friedrich Wilhelm Benicken's Historisclrcr

Sehulatlas oder (Jbersícht der allgemeínen Weltgeschichte flffeimar, r8zo) devoted only

four of its fourteen maps to the Classical world. Anotfrer four covered the medieval

period, including the reign of Charles V, and the last six were devoted to more

recent hisrory. Benicken's adas was followed by a library venion that differed fromtlre school book, his Historíscher Hand-Atlas zur Versinnlichung der allgemeínen

c,eschichte nller völleer unil staaten (weimar, r8z4). His atlases were at the technologi-

câl cutting edge - drawn on stone by Anton Falger and lithographed - but they

were comnercial failures: unwieldy, printed on grey paper and unettractive to use,

although there was also an edition printed on good pâper- In addition, the maps

were nor large enough to provide adequete intelligibiliry for the detail. JuliusLöwenberg also tackled the post-Classical world in hís Hßtorísch-Ceographßcher Atlas

zu den allgemeinen Geschkhßwerþen uon c.v. Rottecþ, PöIítz und Becþer ín 4o coloirtm

Karten (Frelburg, 1839) and the Hístoischer Taschenatlas da Preuszischen Stadts,

bestehend aus 16 Histor. Cxographischen Karten, mit erl¿iutemdem Texre @erlin, r84o).

His 1839 atlas began with the world at the time of Cyrus and then the Roman

empire under Augustus, before providing e series of maps of Europe, the Nea¡ East

and North Africa, followed by a number of detailed maps. The atlas included a map

of rhe'-War of Liberation'against France of r8r3-r5 with an inset plan of the battle

of Leipzíg. The atlas was Eu¡ocentric, elthough Löwenberg added maps for the

empires of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane and for the New 'W'orld in the r84z

edition. There was corsiderable detail and use of colour inJohn Valerius Kutscheitls

Volständiger Historkch-Geographkcher Atlas des deutschen I-andes und Volkes (Berlin,

r84z): the mâps r¡/ere orgenized by medievai dioceses. Two years later he produced

a specialized atlas of the medieval period, a sign of increasing differentiation inhistorical atlases. The fifteen maps of Kutscheit's Handatlas der Ceogtaphie des

Mittelalters (Berlin, 1844) gave due weight to eastern Europe, and its maps ofGermany and northern ltaly provided considerable detail on territorial control.

Spruner

The siruation was thus already changing when in Gotha in r84ó there appeared the

Historixh-geographkcher Hand-Atlas zur Geschichte der Staaten Europa's uon AnJang iles

Mittelalters bis auf die neueste Zeit by Karl von Spruner (r8o3-92), a Bavarian army

ofücer. Spruner, described in rgoz by R.L. Poole as 'the founder of the mode¡n

historical atlas',1a produced an atlas depicting the development of Europe primarily

from the perspective of the growth and interaction of its states. If he was the

'founder', it was in metlod and rigour, emphasis on maps and insistence on sound

sources. Spruner had litde time for Las Cases's work.Theodor Menke (r8rg-g2) wes responsible for a heavily revised third edition of

Spruner's work, egain published by the Gotha house ofJustus Perthes. The Sprunet-

Menke Hand-Atla fir die &schkht< iles Míttelalters und die neueren Zeít (Gothe, t88o)

wâs particularly influential. Maps of European history were treated together and

before those of individual states, so that there was no consolidated chronologicalsequence of maps. The atlæ included linguistic maps and townplms' but social and

economic topics were neglected. The maps were detailed, sometimes greâtly so. For

8. 'Southern Gemny in the Thineenth Century' from the Sprunø-Mmke Hand.Atlæ flr die Ceyhíchte des Mitteldlteßund die neæm kít (Gorha, r88o). A great medieval past wæ depicted. The rup spread to Lyon and Venice. Thetom-plan of Strassburg wæ a reminder of the long-Gemn identicy of Stræbourg. Detailed teritoriel maps of themedieval Empire were, and still are, a chæcteristic feature of Gem historical atlases.

exâmple, a full two peges were devoted to north ltaly rr37-r3oz, tmarp that showedthe different fieß. Germany wes mapped in great detail, capturing the multipliciry ofterritories. For the thirteenth century, Germany was split into north end south, themap of the former including the Low Countries, that of the latter Lorraine andSwiøerland. This was an accurate reflection of the Holy Roman Empire of theperiod, but also arguably a reflection of a late nineteenth-cenrury attitude that didnot emphesize the territorial circumscription of Germany.

As with Spruner's original work, rnilitary themes were stressed. Thus the plate onGermany at the beginning of the nineteenth century included battle or cempeignmaps for [Jlm, Austerlitz, Auerstadt, Jena, Eylau, Friedland, Eggmühl, Essling and'Wagram. Two alone were devoted to the battle of Leípzig. In contrast, BelleAlliance (Waterloo) was covered in only one map, which stressed the Prussian role,md a map of a similæ size wæ dewoted to the Fmco-Prussian engagement at Ligrryrwo days earlier. The plate of Germany in the age of Frederick the Great included

The Nineteenth Century

maps of eighteen battles and one siege, while that of Germany 1648-1742 includedmaps of the Prussian victory at Fehrbellin and of the Pelatinate in order to illustrate

the French invasions of 1674 and ró89-7o. The mapping of battles concentrated

heavily on those in which German rulers had been involved, and, in addition, there

was e big map of the war zone oî r87a-7r. Flowever, other battles, includingAntioch, Bannockburn, Vama, Pavia and Mohacs, were depicted. The batde plans

were weekened by their general failure to show movement. The amount of space

devoted to the Byzentine empire was a positive aspect of the atlas. The Spruner-

Menlee Atlas Antiquus had already been published in Gotha in 1865.

G. Droysens's Allgetneíner histoischer Handatlas (Bielefeld andLeipzig, r88ó) drewheavily on the Spruner-Menke atlas. Droysens's was a world historical atlas that was

heavily dominated by German themes. Most striking were the precise and bigtrly

coloured double-page maps of German history. They were an excellent demonstra-

tion of what the historical atlas could offer in terms of aesthetic appeal, interest and

information. Fine lines and t}le plentiful use of colour permitted the clear presenta-

tion of complex territorial situations. This was a conquest of the complexiry of the

past by the clarity of modem cartography, comparable to tåe way in which the

contemporary non-European world was being tackled by nineteenth-century

European mapping.Droysens's atlas included no Íraps on economic history and the territorial maps

did not include economic mâteriel, but space wes devoted to military topics. There

were plans of the siege of Magdeburg (ró3r) and the battle of Leipzig (r8r3) and

two pages were given over to battle plans of the German Wan of Unification fromr8ó4 to r87r, including a detailed plan of Sedan, and a whole page for the Franco-

German war zone.The influence of Spruner's works in the. nineteenth century was important, and

was acknowledged, for example, by British historical atlases. John Sherren Brewer,Professor of English History and Literature at King's College, London, in the

introduction to hís Elementary Atlas oJ History and Cæography pondon, 1854), claimed

that Spruner had'most ably executed'the cartographic dimension of lnsrory. The

Hístoic Geographícal Atlas of the Middle and Modem Agn . 'Based on the Historisch-

Geographßcher Hand-Atlas of Dr Spruner (London) was published in 1853 and WilliamHughes's A Popular Atlns of Conparatíue Ceography: Comprehending a Chronological

Seies of Maps of Europe anil Other Itrtds . . . Based upon the Histoisch-Ceographíschet

Hanil-Atlas of Dr Spruner (London) in r87o. In his preface, Hughes wrote:

the work of Dr Spruner, upon which the present Atlas is based, is one of the most

esteemed authorities on the subject of comparative Geography. The elaborate

research, and minute precision of detail, which characterise the 'Historisch-

Geographischer Hand-Atlas', have deservedly made it a standard of reference in our

own country. These qualities, however, though admirable when regarded fiom a

German point of view, or with reference to the study of ecclesiastical history, are (not

unnaturally) carried to an extent which, to the general reader of history, involves

needless complication of det.il. r

The authorized English edition of Spruner had been published by the German-bornLondon publisher Nicholas Trübner in r8ór. It wæ desigrred to thwrt an uneuthor-

ized edition and was published at'the unprecedendy moderate price'of 15 shülings

4S

9. .The Fmco-Gerrun wer Zone'from G. Droysens's Allgemeíner histoischer.Handattas @ietefeld and Iæipzig' 188ó)'

prussim greatness and Germm *il rt.¿ b..r *oo âr the eùense of Fmnce it r87o-7r. The map helped both to

chart the coune of the .*p"igr, ;od to remind the reader that they had been conducted,in Fmnce, not Gemny'

This implied contmst to the Napoleonic Wan was possibly a coment on Prussim leadenhip'

(75 pence) in order to make 'it accessible to the large and increasing class ofhistoricâl

ri"¿."u and to general readers of the most moderate means'' The preface presented

-"p, 'r, a read;imeans of inculcating historical facts" while the appeal of history' at

once full of narrative interest and exemplary, was referred to when the atlas was

described âs .âppealing to rhe eye' and exhibiting 'vividly the consequences of

diplomati" ,r"gotl"tiorrl the violent changes of war, and the gradual progress of

cJlonization Ãd ci.rilization', the two clearly seen as equivalents. An Americen

edition was published in New York the seme year by B' 'Westermann and- Co' In

rgó6 Trübnår also published an English edition of Menke's Orbis antíqui desaiptio'

Sp*n r', map of Saìron England was=, however, -ciic'cized

by Charles Peenon' in his

ä¡rto¡rol Ma)s oJ England (Ii.rdorr, r8ó9), for adding 'a few arbitrary conjedures' to

its source.

Battles and the Military

Spruner's atlases reflected an ermy training and career' a military emphasis that was

ciraracteristic ofhistorical atl"ses in the laæ nineteenth century, although it scarcely

beganthere.Thecartographictreatmentofmilitary.historywasdividedbetweenthe,.róping of, long-past caàpaigns, such as those of Hannibal and Caesar' and the

Jqrìii,i." of *"ñ th"t *"rË ,o" ,"""rr, thar ir is unclear how far the tem 'kristorical'

The Níneteenth Century

is heþful. Thus in 176o Heinrich Count von Bünau had published hís Essai il'unatlas historique, geographíque, topographique et milítaire, clntenant en XVil mrtes tnilítaires

tous les mouuetners, marches, campeffiens, positions et batailles, et tout ce qui s'est passé

d'ínteressant dans la campagne de t757 entre l'armée Jrançoíse et celle des alliés. In the

nineteenth century historical atlases were also produced to cover recent wars. Thus

the Peninsular-War gave rrse to Atlas Militaíre. Mémoíres sur les opérutions militaires iles

Françaß en Galice, en Portugal, et dans Ia Vallée du Tage en tSog paÅs, no date) ând to

James'Wyld's Maps and Plans, Showíng the hincipal Mouements, Battles and Sieges, in

which the Britísh Army Was Engaged d.uríng the War from t8o8 to t8t4 ín the Spankh

Península (London, r84o). Based on the surveys by Thomas Mitchell, this was a

detailed work dedicated 'to the British Army es a tribute humbly offered to its

merito¡ious services and its high character'. In the keys the French were referred to

as'the Enemy'. The adas itself was a source of conflict: Mitchell and his publisher,

the cartographer '[/yld, quarrelled over morìey and acknowledgments-ls 'William

Sibome's successful History of the War in France and Belgíum in t8t5 (London, 1844)

appeared with a folio adas that offered an effective combination of contoured

battlefields and army positions indicated by colour. In addition, battles were clarified

by the use of a number of maps for individual battles, for example three for'Waterloo. Dufour and Duvotenay's Atlas de l'histoirc du consulat et ile I'empíre (Peis,

1859) contained very detailed maps of batde sites. An Atlas hktóñco y topográfuo de Ia

Guena de Africa en 1859 y 1860 was published in Madrid in r8ór.The centennial of American independence and the recent spur to inte¡est in

miJitary cartography provided by the American Civil War, the coune of which had

been recorded by newspaper maps,16 led to the production of the first American atlas

of military history. This was compiled by Henry B. Carrington' an academic at'wabash college, and was based on the maps in his lengthy Battles oJ the Ameñ¡an

Reuolution . . . with Topographical Illusfiation (1876). In r88r carrington published the

maps in Battle Maps and Chaús of the Atnerican Reuolution-l1

The crucial role of the military in nineteenth-century cartography extended to the

creators and subjects of historical atlases. For example, the Atlas physique, politi4ue et

hßtoique de I'Europe (Paris, r8z9) by Maxime-Auguste Denaix was published by a

graduate of the École Polltechnique who had gone into the army before moving to

the Dépôt Général de la Guerre, was engraved by Richard-Wahl who had been

trained at the Dépôt Générat, and was published under the sponsonhip of the

Vicomte de Caux, the Minister of 'War. The atlas devoted considerable sPace to

depicting the territorial shifts of r7g2-I8t5, the crucial consequence of the warfare

of the period, and ro marking the sites of batrles. By the time of the 1836 edition,

which was published with the approval of Caux's successor as Minister of War,

Denaix was head of the administration at the Dépôt. Benicken, author of the

Historischer Schulatlas ?d¡td Hand-Atla, was a retired Prussian captain. He also pub-

lished an edition of Poþius on v/er as well as his own Die Elemente der Militär-

CeographíevonEutopa (Weimar, rSzr).TheFreiherrvonKausler, ^*horof theAtlat

iles plus menorables batailles, combaß et sieges (Dessau, 1847), was a major-general in the'Württemberg army. Louis EtienneÐussieux was professor of history at the military

academy at Saint-Cyr. He produced historical atlases in the r84os that he emphasized

were not compilations; originaliry was clearly seen as important for intellectual and

coreercial reæons-

47

ro. The field of Waterloo Êom William Sibome, Hístory of the War in France añ &þíum in rdr5 (London, 1844). Aneffective combimtion of contoured batdefields æd army positioro indicated by colour. This mp of the last stâge ofthe batde showed the Prussiaro (in green) advancing on the French. Captain Sibome had earlíer produced a model ofthe batdefreld, based upon a persoml suney, that wæ publicly exhibited.

However, even âtlâses that lacked military sponsorship devoted considereble space

to warfare. JJ. Hellert's Nouvel atlas physique, politique et hístoríque de I'empíre ottotnan

(Paris, 1843) had a historical section solely devoted to eight full-page battle plaru andûve sieges. There were no mâps of the development of the empire, e toPic thatmight have been treated. The maps of the contemporary situetion reflected anotheraspect of the relationship with the military es they were based on those at t}letopographical depot at the Russian

.War Ministry. A New Classícal and Historical Atlas,

which was published in Edinburgh in 1849, included maps to illustrate the Trojan'W'ar, Alexander the Great's campaigns, the siege of Syracuse, the March of the Ten '..Thousand, Hannibal's campaigns, and the batdes of Salamis, Plataeae, Issus and

A¡bela.

New Technology

The nineteenth was the century in which the historical atlæ was established lìrmlyon the European scene. This development reflected a number of factors, which can

The Nineteenth Century +g

be summarized es push and pull, supply ând demand. Reliable maps became easier

to provide and to publish. Most of the world had been mapped, and the politicalbound¿ries in Europe, and increasingly in the European political world as a whole,were now precise. The printing of colour became easier, and thus more informationcould be presented. As more historical atlases were produced, so a growing fund ofinformation for further works was created.

Technological changes were of greet consequence. Mechanized papermakingbecame commercially viable in the r8oos, leading to the steam-powered productionof plentiÍìrl quentities of inexpensive paper, ând the steam-powered princing press

developed in the same period. Although there were no significant developments intypesetting until the r88os, these chenges created e much larger potential audience

for the cartographer and ensured that cartography had to adapt to the challenge.

Numerous maps had to be produced, their specifications had to be eppropriate

and it was necessary to ensure that a new readership was interested in maps and

carto-iiterate.Aside ûom the changes resulting from the mass production of printed material,

there were also specific changes in map production which resulted in a greater

process of specialization that encouraged and reflected the creation of specialized

map publishen such as W. and A.K. Johnston (r8zó) andJohn Bartholomew and

Son (r8zos) in Edinburgh, George Philip and Son (1834) in London and JustusPerthes (1785) in Gotha.18 Map-colouring ceased to be a manual Process end v/es

insteed transformed by the onset of common colour printing.Lithography made a major impact in the rSzos and was partly responsible for an

increase in the quantity and range of maps produced, not least the development ofthematic mapping. Lithography was able to produce inexpensive maps for teaching.

Historical atlases produced by lithography in the rSzos included Antoine Schneider's

Nouuel atlas pour sewir à I'hísøire d.es Iles loniennes (Paris, r8z3) and the Atlas der ahen

Weh in XVI illuminirten Charten (Düsseldod r8z9). There was a transitional periodin mid-cencury. For example, the Atlas des campagnes de l'empereur Napoleon en

Allemagne et en Franæ paris, 1844), prepared under the direction of Lieutenant-General Jean-Jacques Pelet, head of the Dépot, consisted of eleven folded maps ina sþcase. Eight were engraved and three lithographed. British and Americanpublishers were slow to take up lithography: George Philip introduced it in 1846,'W'. and A.K. Johnston in about r8ó5 and John Bartholomew and Son in r88o.

Lithography itself was developing: metel pletes were substituted for stone, and

lithography came to include the transfer technique and eventually photolithogra-phy.1e In lithographic trarufen the design from an engraved plate was transferred toa litho stone, on which alterations could be made (such as insertion of historical

information, redrawing of boundaries, etc.) without aft-ecting the original plate. Thusthe'same plate could be used as the basis for a whole series of maps printed fromlitho stones, with variant features - for example, for different historical periods -imposed on each. Alterations might be m¿de on the stones between different

printings of the map; and maps might still be printed direct from the original plate.

The plate itself might be altered, ¡nd these alteracions would appear on any lit}lotransfer made subsequently. From the late r85os plates were being engraved whichseem never to have been printed from directly - they were used solely as e sourceof lithographic transfere- The adwantage wæ a much fine¡ line md neater letteringthan could eâsily be achieved by drawing on the litho stone.

50 Maps and Hßøry

The impact of new technology was seen in works such as William Hughes's Tke

Illuminateil Atlas of Suipture Geography (London, r84o), a work that benefited fromthe earþ use of colour printing. The maps were by Charles Wright and used colourwoodblock and letterpress. Hughes prided himself on his 'Patent Illuminated Maps':'by a novel method of printing, the various divisions of the countries are coveredwith distinct coloun, so that the boundaries are clearly perceived at the first view.'Using gum arabic, Hughes depicted the rnountains in white rather than the usual

black, 'distincdy and prominently relieved by the coloured ground', and thus

ensured that t}ley did not clash with the names printed on the maP which were inblack.20

Historical atlases benefited from the general advances in cartographic production.For example, the Edinburgh map-publisherJohn Bartholomew fint introduced whatwas terrned 'contour layer colouring' in a commercial series of maps. They were puton show at the Pâris Exhibition of 1878.21 Colour ceme to play e more prominentrole in mapping, and was seen as both a commercial opportunity and challenge.

Multi-colour printing from more than one plate had become possible with the

advent of engraving, although it was never common. Colour became more impor-tant in the nineteenth century when it was used to define appeal. Thus in r83o the

London publisher Jones and Co. produced Jones' Classical Atlas, on an Entírely New

Plan; The Ancient and Modem Names oJ Places Being Gíuen on the Same Map, but

Prínted, Jor the Saþ.e oJ Perspíaity, in Dffercnt Coloured Ink. Aliútographed edition was

published in 1853. A major reason for the success of the most popular Germanschool historical atlas, F.W. Putzgels Historischer Schul-Atlas, first published inBielefeld and Leipzig ín t877, was its relatively low price: r.5 marks. This was in partdue to the fact that the coloun were printed, rather than coloured by hand, a moreexpensive process.22

Colour-conventions also developed. For example, the use of pink or red todenote the British empire began in the fint hal-f of the century. Henry Teesdale's

New Brítßh Atlas (t84t), which showed only areas of India under British control, was

one of the fint recorded examples of the use of red to show British possessions. Ther84r edition of this atlas was the first to use the red convention for all B¡itishcolonies. The colour was probably chosen for its striking efFect. It did not come

into general usage, however, until after r85o with the development of chromo-lithography (colour printing) and thematic mapping, and was popularized by school

wall maps and atlases. Foreign atlases, nevertheless, continued to use other colours

for the British empire. Clausolles and Abadie's Atlas hktoríque et géographique de Ia

France (Pats, r84ó) used colour to distinguish bewveen royal domaiis and fieß thatwere in effect independent. Dufour and Amari used black for relief and modernplace names and red for Arab names in their Carte compaúe ile la Sicile modeme auec

Ia Sicile au XIß síècle d'après Edrísi et d'autres géograþhes arabes (1859). The map vividlymade the point that Sicily had an Arab past and also presented the Arab geographenin a readily comprehensible fashion.

.|J

r 7 7.lJationalism and Eurocentrism inIJineteenth-century Historical Atlases

Nationalism

The establishment of mass schooling organized on a national basis increased the

demand for national history, and the growth of academic history and geography at

university level and in public consciousnessr further created a pedagogic demand foratlases. The pedagogic value of historical maps was emphasized in works such es The

Publíc Schools Historícal Atlas (London, t885) by C. Colbeck, Assistant-Mester at

Harrow School. Published by a major publisher - Longman - this work v/ent intoa third edition in rSgr and many of the maps were used by S.R. Gardiner in his

School Atlas oJ English History (London, t899).Publíshen responded to the demand and the number of historical atlases greatly

increased. Thus in France Victor Duruy's Atlas de géographíe hisøri4ue uníverselle

(?aris, r84r) was followed by Louis Dussieux's Céographie histoique ile la Fnnce ou

histoire de laþrmation du tetitoireJrançads @aris, 1843) and his other atlas of history, the

Atlas général de géographie physíque, politíque, hístoique (Paris, 1849), C.F. Delamarche's

Atlas de géographie histoiqøe du Moyen Age pens, 1844), Drioux arrd Lercy's Atlas

universel et classique de géographíe ancíenne, rcmaine, du Moyen Age et moileme (Patis,

r878) and P. Foncin's Géographie hßtoríque (Paris, r888), a book that provided lessons

on the history and territorial formation of countries, each accompanied by a map.

The 1836 edition of Denux's Atlas physique, politíque et historique formed, as the title-page noted, 'les X" XI" et XII" livr¿isons du nouveau cours de géographie gênérùe'.The 1855 edition was published with the approval of the Minister of PublicInstruction.

Drioux and Leroy's Atlas d'hßtoire et de géogruphie (Pans, 1867) appeared indifferent versions related to the requirements of particular school yean. One tackled

ancient and medieval history, although the maps had their deficiencies. That of the

Near East, which shared plate one with a map of Palestine; was designed to show the

principal placei meritioned in the Bible. It was confusing, since it showed, with no

overþs and no hint that they were not simultaneous, Penia, Media, Assyria and

Mesopotamia, the latter two divided by the Tigris and with Nineveh on thebo..ã"ry- The lmp for Europe 8t4_l4s3 was supposed to cover the partition oftCharlemagne's empire, the ¿{¡ab conquests and the Crusades. A¡other volume