John O.E. Clark - Maps That Changed the World

Joan Blaeus map of Ghent (1649). The Blaeu familys atlas of city maps, Theatrum Urbium Belgicae, contained dozens of maps in the same style and with the same meticulous skill. The Bleaus quickly became renowned for the great beauty and high standard of workmanship shown in their maps, and their printing house grew into the largest press in Europe (see ).

Edited by O. E. Clark

Introduction by Professor Jeremy Black

M aps have the capacity to open worlds of reality and imagination. Their lines, points and spaces depict both hopes and fears, and urge the wanderings, and wonderings, of the mind. This collection exemplifies how cartography is both a science and an art. Maps existed before the written word and today exploit the most up-to-date computer technology and imaging systems. Many inform us about the cosmological beliefs of the people who made them, as much as they do about geophysical reality. Maps are also representations of social and political aspiration and power, making statements about the ownership and control of territory. The history of the development of cartography, both east and west, is indivisible from the history of grasping space, both imaginatively and in reality, from depictions of human relations with the heavens to the worlds of invasion and conquest. Cartography also responds to technological developments, from cuneiform to computer-aided design. It is hoped that this collection of varied maps, and the stories of their creation, will illuminate the ever-changing relationship between cultures and their graphic representation through cartography.

The basic Mercator projection (this is not actually standard Mercator, but close) is no longer a map, its a kind of world logo. You could stretch it, or maybe add a half-inch strip in the Pacific, and you might accidentally create something more accurate, particularly with regards to area representation.

This cannot be a complete history of maps. As some kind of indication of just why not, The History of Cartography, published by the University of Chicago Press, had its first volume (of six), Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, published in 1987. The final instalment, the 1,960-page Cartography in the Twentieth Century was published in 2015. Maps that Changed the World is emphatically not an academic treatise, but the maps featured should enthuse and intrigue.

Many maps are simply beautiful, and though it would be desirable to understand the science behind, say, von Humboldts maps of the earths magnetic field, or NASAs survey of Venus, its not essential to enjoy them visually. On the other hand, for those who see cartography as more of an aesthetic endeavour than a scientific one, here is a timely caveat: x = tan-1(tancosp + sinpsin (z-zo)) over cos (z-zo) where z is longitude and is latitude is a simple coordinate calculation for a basic oblique Mercator projection.

Some of the maps assessed are neither beautiful, nor technically or scientifically accomplished. They are included for other reasons. Examples of propaganda mapping are a reminder that the language of cartography demands careful reading. Drafting a General map of that part of North America which has been the seat of war wherein is distinguished the roads rivers new forts, Colonel James Montressor in 1760 was certain that it will be very acceptable, as well to the ministry as the military, reminding us that maps of exploration were designed to serve the needs of trade and territorial gains. Social issues have also been depicted here, as in John Snows cholera map.

Maps have always posed a series of graphic challenges. The accurate depiction of a large sphere in two dimensions on a small scale entails formidable problems, and means that mapmaking is about compromises. Aside from this basic point, there are major issues for particular types of map: in finding the relevant information, in locating it spatially, so that it can be reproduced at a different scale, and in depicting it accurately. This varies by type of map. It is easier to show rail routes than to indicate landscapes of fear (which parts of cities people are reluctant to enter), and yet the latter are as much part of our spatial world as the former. It is possible to show majority religious affiliation Italy as Catholic, Israel as Jewish and so on but far harder to depict degree of religious commitment.

This flamboyant 1786 map by Charles Louis Desnos (17251812) does not follow the dictum less is more. The hemispheres show the voyages of Captain Cook. The detailed notes inform us that Africa is the hottest continent, Asia the least-known and richest.

These gores for a 13-inch (33-centimetre) globe (1790) by Giovanni Maria Cassini (17541824), printed in Rome, show Captain Cooks voyages. This map and the Desnos map on the previous page were created at the same time, on the same evidently saleable subject, yet they could not be more different. Cassinis globes enjoyed widespread success, as did his Nuovo Atlante geografico delineato sulle ultime osservazioni, in which the gores were printed.

Maps are a tactile form of spatial perception, and the shifting, unfixed quality of the latter greatly affects how the maps themselves are understood. The extent to which maps are capable of multiple meanings adds to their fascination, complexity and importance. The range of meanings is dramatized in the issue of which way up the world should appear.

The idea that the northern hemisphere should appear at the top of the map has been challenged, not least by McArthurs Universal Corrective Map of the World (Artarmon, 1979), which carries a caption ending Long live Australia Ruler of the Universe. There is no reason why the map should centre on the Greenwich meridian, with Europe in the middle. Indeed, many early maps did not. Many American maps put the western hemisphere at the centre.

Many of the maps in this collection were originally in atlases; the works of Ortelius and the Blaeu family, for example, feature strongly; the beauty of their creations reason enough. Historical atlases that is, atlases about history, rather than old atlases provide an interesting insight into how cartography has changed. Until the 20th century, historical atlases content was predominantly defined in terms of international relations particularly warfare and shifts in control over territory. The state was assumed to be the crucial unit (and objective) in the historical process, and atlases were accordingly concerned with changing state boundaries, especially the rise and fall of empires. The apparently cyclical character of the rise and fall of empires, especially the Roman empire, gave historical atlases the character of morality tales, mirroring historical works of this period, such as Edward Gibbons