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Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570-1641) : characteristics and development of a sample of on verso map texts (TOP LEVEL AGGREGATION)
Abstract
The reason why the texts on verso of the atlas maps written by one of the best studied cartographers, viz. Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) of Antwerp in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of which the first edition appeared in 1570 have never been studied in the course of 450 years will probably remain an enigma. The research presented here tries to demonstrate that these texts contain many innovations in 16th century historical cartography. For this purpose, a sample of on verso texts as occurring on ten atlas maps from Ortelius’ Theatrum atlas has been examined and translated into modern English. In the course of making these translations, it became clear that these texts are a much more accurate method to date loose maps than by referring to the states of maps whose versos they adorn. It also became apparent that these texts belong to two types: scholarly texts which were written for the Latin atlas editions and for the Spanish, post-1573 German, Italian and English editions translated from Latin. Next to these texts, Ortelius also wrote popular or vernacular texts for all the Dutch, the 1572/1573 German and all the French atlas editions. These two types of texts were tuned to the audience for which they were intended: the Latin on verso texts and their derivatives aimed at an academic renaissance public that knew its classics. The popular or vernacular texts aimed at non-academics such as affluent merchants and civil servants. These atlases were among the most expensive but also among the most popular books of the 16th century. The texts which occur on some of the maps themselves never refer to the text on verso but the on verso texts refer continually to information on the map itself. The scholarly texts increased in size and information content with every new edition until Ortelius’ decease in 1598, while the vernacular texts hardly changed at all. The translations are well intended efforts to represent texts of the source language in the target language, but there are impediments: place names and personal names, particularly first names, were at the time translated as exonyms (Milano instead of Milan) and ‘exonames’ (Johannes, Jean, Jan, John, Giovanni etc.), which does not benefit transparence between languages. Ortelius was well aware of this disadvantage and on verso of his Low Countries map he provides a lengthy list of place names in as many as six different languages to prevent confusion. Moreover, differences between different language areas of a cultural, social or political nature often require a translation that is true to function, rather than to form. An inventory of all bibliographical sources mentioned by Ortelius in his on verso texts together constitute a part of Ortelius’ large personal library. This inventory shows that Ortelius had greatest confidence in his classical authors, less confidence in his contemporaries, and least confidence in medieval authors in terms of their reliability and credibility. The influence exerted by Ortelius’ on verso on his successors is diverse. For some cartographers, including his good friend Mercator, there was no influence at all. But other cartographers such as Hondius, Janssonius and the Blaeu family, correspondences are clearly evident, and sometimes entire paragraphs have been copied verbatim, (as were some of his maps). The conclusion of this study is that texts on verso of Ortelius’ atlas maps are of an innovative nature, and have been ignored for a long time without good reasons, for they present a vivid picture how Ortelius, a self-made encyclopaedic Renaissance scholar, experienced the world he lived in. Finally, Ortelius was also the first to popularise academic knowledge by fine-tuning his texts to the interests and mental grasp of his prospective readers.
[This publication is primarily intended for Ukrainian readers]
Atlas cartography of the XXI century is losing its «flagship» status in cartography. Paper atlases have become less attractive in the age of information society. At the same time, electronic atlases either lose competition to other cartographic applications or dissolve among them without having their own unique features. In search of ideas and meanings for new EA concepts, we turned to the history of the first atlases to understand their essence, reasons for creation, and success factors. The article, based on contemporary works by historians of cartography and cultural geographers, clarifies the answers to the following questions: 1) What is the origin of the word «atlas»? Who was the first to use this word to describe a «collection of maps»? 2) Which atlas should be considered the first, in particular the first atlas in the modern sense? Who originated with the idea of the first atlas? 3) What was the concept of the atlas «Theatrum Orbis Terrarum» by A. Ortelius? 4) What was the concept of G. Mercator's «Atlas sive Cosmographicæ Meditationes De Fabrica Mundi Et Fabricati Figura»?
Historical cartography is an important source of data on the early periods of exploration of the Himalayan natural environment. The chapter provides an overview of the development of Himalayan mapping. Twenty old maps have been analysed. The Greeks plotted the Himalaya as a barrier of mountains designated as Imaus mons or Emodi montes. Medieval circular maps present a string or waves of mountains. Greek names were adopted, among others, by the Dutch, and the cartographer A. Ortelius added the name Dalanger. An entirely new image of the high mountains was presented by J. B. d’Anville in 1733 on his map of Tibet. His work was an inspiration for other representatives of French, German and Austrian cartography. In 1788, J. Rennell marked the mountains as Himmaleh. In 1802, geodetic triangulation of the Indian Peninsula began, and the mountain peaks were measured remotely across the borders. Since the nineteenth century, the Himalaya has been depicted by hachures. Special maps of the Himalaya were published in German atlases. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Peak XV was named Mount Everest. Triangulation was completed in 1863 by J. T. Walker. Other cartographic representations to be found in the summary table.
The atlas of Gerardus Mercator (Gerard de Cremer), or the Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura, is one of first modern atlases and one of the most famous of those compiled in the Netherlands. The first (unfinished) edition was published in 1595, but the copperplates were later acquired by Jodocus Hondius (Joost de Hondt) and his business associates. The revised Mercator-Hondius Atlas was published for the first time in 1606 with added maps and texts. The texts printed on verso of the maps were written by Petrus Montanus (Pieter van den Berg), who was a brother-in-law of Hondius and a Latin teacher. Many subsequent editions of the atlas were produced in the years that followed. The first editions were in Latin, but versions in European vernaculars such as French, German and Italian were produced later as well.
The present article focuses on the multilingual nature of the Mercator-Hondius Atlas (1613, editio quarta) by discussing language choice, language alternation and code-switching patterns in different parts of the atlas. The dominant language of the descriptive texts is Latin, but there are also switches into many other languages, including Greek (written in Greek script) and several vernaculars. Furthermore, the map pages tend to indicate the names of different types of area (e.g. cities, seas, and oceans) in different languages. The aim of the present article is to provide a preliminary exploration of the possibilities of approaching the atlas with the aid of concepts and ideas derived from modern code-switching studies. I demonstrate how these concepts can be used to describe the language choice patterns in the text and discuss some of the challenges the data poses for a linguistic approach.
Drawing upon Claude Lévi-Strauss, historian Peter Burke has described as ‘information’ “what is relatively ‘raw’ …, while ‘knowledge’ denotes what has been ‘cooked’, processed or systematized by thought.” This essay argues that cartographic commentaries provide an important link between ‘raw’ information as collected by geographers, cartographers or travellers, and its condensed form provided in maps. Since the early modern era, most maps were accompanied by commentaries, explications, or descriptions. In the 19th century map descriptions became increasingly valuable, in particular because maps gained a wider audience among scholars and the broader public. These descriptive texts have long been neglected by historians and geographers alike. Based on the numerous commentaries printed in Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen, the most renowned German-speaking geographic periodical of the 19th century, the essay argues that commentaries illustrate the contemporary meanings of a map as well as the decision-making process behind its production. They not only offer insights into the cartographer’s choice of scholarly information, but also include rhetorical strategies and aesthetic categories in order to familiarize readers with a map and with more or less exotic regions. Furthermore, they provide information on expectations and strategies of publishing a specific map at a particular time. Cartographic commentaries include hopes of how a map should be used in the future, illuminating geographical and environmental world views and imperial strategies, ethnocentrist concepts as well as economic aspirations. Not only do they link text and image, but they also connect maps with the history of global knowledge and expansion.
Today's European Union is keen to point out that one of Europe's main characteristics is its linguistic diversity. Some early-modern scholars, however, emphasised the notion of European monolingualism, even though Europe's linguistic diversity was as obvious in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries as it is today. These scholars advanced the argument that, in a distant past, Europeans had spoken one single language. This article focuses on the first scholar to really substantiate this idea. In his voluminous Germania antiqua (1616), the Leiden founder of historical geography, Philippus Cluverius, set out to prove that Europe had once largely been populated by people who shared one single language and a set of distinctive customs. After analysing Cluverius' argument and his linguistic image of Europe, the article will outline the intellectual background behind his claims and map his work's impact on later representations of Europe in terms of language. Even when most early-modern scholars admittedly rejected the idea of Europe as a historical linguistic unity, the paper will show that the notion of Europe was a crucial point of reference in the linguistic scholarship of the early-modern period.
Nikolaos Sophianos's Totius Graeciae Descriptio, an early regional map of Greece, was a cartographical bestseller of the late sixteenth century. The first editions of the map (1540, 1544, 1545) were hitherto believed to be lost, and contemporary references are few. Such references as could be found were collected and published by Émile Legrand14.
Legrand , Émile . 1885–1906. Bibliographie Hellénique ou description raisonnée des ouvrages publiés en Grec par des Grecs au XVe et XVIe siècle … Paris vols 1–4 View all references in 1885, and his data, enhanced by information derived from later reissues of the map (1552 and 1601), provided the foundation for recent bibliographical entries. This material has now been supplemented by recently rediscovered examples of the 1545 edition of Sophianos's map. By combining the new evidence with the material accompanying the various editions of the map (geographical introductions, indexes and gazetteers), it has proved possible to reconstruct the map's publishing history, to analyse its content and to investigate certain issues related to the methodology, uses and functions of early modern antiquarian cartography of Greece.
Abraham Ortelius suggested the basic elements of the continental
drift theory in 1596, thus antedating by more than 150 years other writers
credited with early fomulations of the theory.