Curious Map Book project report

Professional assignment report The Curious Map Book, British Library Vidhushri Ladha Masters Book Design 2014 University of Reading

Working with the British Library as my client, the professional assignment aimed to offer an experience in handling real-time projects. The brief provided was to design a book on some interesting maps put together by the British Library and called ‘The Curious Map Book’. The aim of the project was to work in collaboration with the client and towards the needs of the market.

The design process for this project has been documented under the following headings — Project brief 2 Discovery 4 Transformation 12 Design and making 30

project brief The client For this project, I was assigned to work with David Way from the British Library. In the first meeting, he briefed me on the nature of the project and provided me with the content – ­ the manuscript for the book and image files. The British Library is a major publisher of books of a wide range of categories. I looked at some of the books by them on their website as well as examples in the University library. This helped me get an idea about the nature of their books.

The curious map book The content of this project was interesting and I looked at it as a rare opportunity to work with a book on such a topic.

This book brings together a collection of some interesting maps which illustrate more than just the place. These maps are divided into game maps, maps as objects, maps in the human form, maps in animal form and social and political maps. When I looked at the images provided, they were so attractive and unusual, that they made me believe that this could be a beautiful book.

Constraints Along with the content, I was also given some of the specifications and details for this book. The format and the number of pages were decided by the client. I also received a file with the rough costing for the book along with other details like the printing technique on the cover and suggested paper.

Format: 280mm by 220mm (portrait) A hardbound book Jacket with flaps Price: 25 pounds Brief After meeting with the client, I had to make my own brief for this project listing down my aims and plans for it. This can be viewed on the opposite page. The main challenge, as described by the client, was to move away from the conventional way of designing books on maps and doing something that is not monotonous and grabs the attention of the reader.

Deliverables A complete narrative structure for the book Template for the text and image pages One section designed The page plan Jacket design Guidelines for type, sizes, placing maps

2  Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Opposite page A part of the brief formed. The brief also included the timeline and details of the deliverables.

Vidhushri Ladha Project Brief Professional assignment MABD 2014 The Curious Map Book Client: David Way, British Library The project British Library has put together a collection of interesting maps, which they have called curious maps, from 1493 onwards. These maps are from various parts of the world and have a second level information attached to them that makes them different from regular maps. The brief is to design a book that contains these maps and their descriptions.

From the client The client has provided a set of images of the maps along with a manuscript that contains description for each one of them. Along with the content, the format, information to go on the jacket and the spine, additional information about the book and the cost constraints have been supplied as well: • Format: 280mm by 220mm (portrait) • A hardbound book • Jacket with flaps • Price: 25 pounds Aims and challenges • To understand how image and the descriptive text can work together • To work within the given constraints • To form a narrative structure for the provided content • To move away from conventional methods of depicting maps and explore new ideas • To understand the requirements of the client and balance them with those of the design The process • Research on other books on maps in the market and by the British Library • Looking at several ways of depicting maps within books • A thorough study of the manuscript and images provided • Put together a narrative structure for the content • Decision making – how the maps will be shown, where will the dates be placed, what part of the content is to be highlighted in each case, what shall be the constant visual elements throughout the book • Exploring layouts for the maps and the description • Type and hierarchy explorations • Jacket design ideas • Finalise page plan

Project brief 3

discovery Other books on maps Since I had not looked at map books closely before, the discovery phase for this project began with observing range of books under this topic. I researched books from the library, a local bookstore, the British Library bookstore and also received some books in the form of pdfs from my client.

Within these books, I analysed the way maps were depicted, the image-text relationships, the captions and details and the overall feel of these books. Many of the books I referred to had a similar approach to the layout and design. The spread-wise display of a map and its corresponding text was a common feature in many books. Some of them seemed monotonous to me in terms of their structure and the grid for the book.

A book I found in the University of Reading library, on large maps. The layout of the book was simple and followed a fixed structure, breaking the tone with some full spread images of maps.

4 窶ケrofessional assignment / The Curious Map Book

This book had similar content as the book being worked on. The layout and structure was not interesting to me.

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51 Fig. 29 An unusual method to catch a whale illustrated on Mecia de Viladestes’s nautical chart of 1413 (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Rés. Ge AA 566).

have been paid for painting the decorative illustrations on the maps, the largest of which was a stupendous 3.7 × 3.7 m (12 × 12 feet), larger than any surviving medieval map, and included 165 figures and animals, 25 ships and galleys, 100 fishes large and small, 340 flags on cities and castles, and 140 trees.121 The 100 fishes large and small was a substantial increase from the two fishes on the model map supplied by Baldassare degli Ubriachi, and we can be confident that at least some of the 100 fishes large and small were sea monsters. The map does not survive,122 but it must have been a rich compendium of marine creatures. The idea of an artist being paid specifically to paint many sea monsters on a map raises interesting issues.123 It seems likely that

Sea Monsters Maps on Medieval and Renaissance

when an artist was paid to paint a large number of sea monsters on a map, he would do so without seeking information in works of natural history about where a particular sea monster had been seen. That is, payment for a large number of sea monsters changed their nature, tending to separate them from their geographical or historical sources, and thus reducing their geographical significance on the resulting map. This change in nature is confirmed by the sea monsters in the maps of a manuscript of Ptolemy’s Geography, examined below (pp. 61–66).

Chet Van Duzer

Whaling Between Myth and Reality In 1413 the Catalan chartmaker Mecia de Viladestes created a large (85 × 115 cm or 3 × 4 feet) and particularly richly-decorated nautical chart (see fig.

23), using gold quite liberally to embellish some of the islands, mountains, place names, flags, and the clothes of

THE BRITISH LIBR ARY

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17 Fig. 4 A marine chicken on the Gerona Beatus mappamundi (Museu de la Catedral de Girona, Num. Inv. 7 (11), ff. 54v–55r).

Fig. 5 A man, probably Jonah, inside a large sea monster on the Gerona Beatus mappamundi (Museu de la Catedral de Girona, Num. Inv. 7 (11), ff. 54v–55r).

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sovereigns.124 In the North Atlantic there is an image of a whale (fig. 29) which, together with that on the Gough Map (see fig. 22), is one of the earliest realistic images of a whale on a map, and rather than showing it as something distant and exotic, the cartographer depicts it as being approached and used by men.125 This is a monster that at least to some extent can be controlled by humans. The legend accompanying the image is a curious mixture of myth and practical information.

Most of the legend recounts the story that whales could be mistaken for islands, which we saw in a legend on the lost mid fifteenth-century Genoese chart discussed above, and the latter part of the legend discusses the uses of the creature’s skin:126 Aquesta mar es apelada mar hocceano e trobasi de grans pesos que los marines se pensen que sien iletes e fan sierbages damunt lo dits pesos e los marines deualen en las dites iletes e fan fochs e quynen tont que lo pes sent la calor e mou-se e no son atens de muntar en la nau e perdense e aquels que aço saben deualen sobre lo dit pex e aqui el fan aragalam scarpres sobra las qena e donen cap al anquil e la nau e per aquesta manera li aranquen la quyre de que ils fan sraianes a les lurs naus a d’aque quyr se fan los bons fuats d’arar.

This sea is called “mar bocceano,” and therein are found great fish, which sailors take to be small islands and take up their quarters on these fish, and the sailors land on these islands and make fires, and cause such heat that the fish feels it and sets itself in motion, and they have no time to get

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15 Fig. 3 The Gerona Beatus mappamundi, dated 975 (Museu de la Catedral de Girona, Num. Inv. 7 (11), ff. 54v–55r).

covered with polished ivory, and the double doors reflected the light from their silver surface.

Their workmanship was even more wonderful than their material: for on them Mulciber had engraved the seas that hold the earth in their embrace, the earth itself, and the heavens above the earth. The waves contained the gods of the sea, tuneful Triton, Proteus, who has no settled shape, and Aegeon, supporting himself on two huge whales, his arms thrown across their backs.

Doris and her daughters were there also, some of them swimming, some riding fishes, some perched on rocks, drying their sea-green hair.

They were not all exactly alike, but there was a resemblance, such as sisters should have. On the earth, men and cities were to be seen, woods and wild beasts, rivers and nymphs and other spirits of the countryside; above these was a picture of the shining sky, with six signs of the zodiac on the right-hand door, and the same number on the left.

“O” of the surrounding ocean.23 These maps illustrate manuscripts of Isidore’s On the Nature of Things (De natura rerum) and Etymologies; the Venerable Bede’s On the Nature of Things (De natura rerum) and a work incorrectly attributed to him, De ratione computandi; Sallust’s The Jugurthine War; and Lucan’s On the Civil War (Pharsalia); the maps of the same period which illustrate manuscripts of Macrobius’s Commentary on the Dream of Scipio are larger and offer slightly more geographical detail, but almost none of these maps is illustrated with sea monsters.24 Most of them are simply

too small to accommodate monsters, but even in the larger examples where there is some room for small monsters, there was simply no tradition of adding them to these maps. As T-O mappaemundi are by far the most numerous medieval maps, the majority of medieval maps do not have sea monsters.

A group of larger and much more detailed and artistically elaborate world maps produced from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries does include illustrations of sea creatures and sea monsters, namely the mappaemundi illustrating manuscripts of the

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Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana (c. 730–c. 800).25 Beatus’s work includes a map in order to illustrate the evangelization of the Apostles throughout the known world. In fact the map is followed by a list indicating which Apostle went to which part of the world, and a few of the maps indicate this graphically with a bust of each apostle located where he went to preach. Each of the surviving maps is spread across two folios, and is oriented with east at the top, with an image of the Garden of Eden there, represented either by the four rivers of Paradise or an image of Adam, Eve,

and the serpent. The maps have artistic renderings of mountains and rivers, and in some cases, of cities (fig. 3).

The abundant sea life on most of these maps is remarkable, particularly in contrast with the complete absence of land animals. Of the seventeen maps of this group, three do not include any fish or sea monsters,26 but all of the other maps include at least fish in the circumfluent ocean, and three of the maps display more exotic sea creatures.

On the map in the manuscript of Beatus’s Commentary now in Gerona, Spain, which is dated 975,27 the northern

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It is tempting to think that this description was inspired by a circular Roman world map Ovid had seen that included depictions of sea monsters.22

The Earliest Medieval Maps with Sea Monsters: Beatus Mappaemundi The earliest surviving medieval world maps date from the eighth to tenth centuries, and are mostly simple, schematic “T-O” maps, so called because the Mediterranean, Nile, and Tanais are shown forming a “T” that separates Europe, Africa, and Asia within the

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S E A M O N S T E R S O N M E D I E VA L A N D R E N A I S S A N C E M A P S

This was one of the books sent across by the client. A two-coloumn grid followed throughout with various ways of inserting pictures within. Though there is an underlying grid, there is a difference in each page one flips over.

Discovery 5

C h a p t e r

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Ma PPiNG ThE TEr r iTOry aLeSSaNDrO SCaFI In that empire, the art of cartography attained such perfection that a map of a single province occupied the entirety of a city, and the map of the empire the entirety of a province. In time, those unconscionable maps no longer satisfied, and the cartographer guilds struck a map of the empire whose size was that of the empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following generations, who were not so fond of the study of cartography as their forebears had been, saw that that vast map was useless, and not without some pitilessness was it that they delivered it up to the inclemencies of sun and winters.

In the deserts of the west, still today, there are tattered ruins of the map, inhabited by animals and beggars; in all the land there is no other relic of the disciplines of geography.

JORGE LUIS BORGES, DEL RIGOR EN LA CIENCIA (‘ON EXACTITUDE IN SCIENCE’), 1946, ANDREW HURLEy, TRANS.

THE BRITISH LIBRARy

Visual Prelude

A Luminous Ascension

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he holiest place in Islam is the Kaaba in Mecca. At the easternmost corner of the building lies the Black Stone, believed to have been placed there by Abraham and his son Ishmael. The prophet Muhammad once kissed the stone and so do Muslim pilgrims (Fig 9). White when it fell to earth at the beginning of time, the stone turned black because of human sin, yet its message to the faithful tells of darkness leading to light and of the transcendence of evil. For it was at this sacred spot that the Prophet Muhammad met the archangel

Gabriel who took him on a miraculous journey – first to Jerusalem (known as the isra or ‘night journey’) and then from Jerusalem to the seven levels of heaven in turn (known as the miraj or ‘ladder’).

The miraj was portrayed around 1540 by one of the greatest sixteenth-century Persian painters, Sultan Muhammad. He was the leading artist of the Turkoman school that flourished in Western Iran at that time. The miniature, considered to be his masterpiece, was part of a sequence created to illustrate a copy of a classical Persian work, the

Khamsa (‘Quintet’, comprising one didactic text and four romances), by the twelfth-century poet Nizami (Fig 11).

Sultan Muhammad’s manuscript illumination turned out to be a luminous image. The Prophet Muhammad is depicted ascending to paradise mounted on his steed Buraq (‘lightning’). The human-headed horse had come down from heaven to transport him first from Mecca to Jerusalem, almost 800 miles, and then from Jerusalem to paradise, a distance known only to God, and back to Mecca – all in a single night. The Prophet is represented with his face covered, surrounded by angels and engulfed by sacred fire. Buraq is shown with a human head and the rump of a horse, while his tail and hoofs are like those of a camel. The brief and mysterious allusion in the Qur’an (Sura 17) to that memorable night was early embellished by a wealth of detail. From those supplementary writings about the life of the Prophet we learn that the extraordinary heavenly creature ridden by Muhammad had an emerald saddle, pearl reins and turquoise stirrups. When Sultan Muhammad embarked on his illumination he painted each figure in brilliant, vivid, almost violent colours, staging them with dynamic verve against a heaven packed with billowing clouds and flying angels.

Paradise itself is not depicted in Sultan Muhammad’s painting. In the tradition of Islamic manuscript illumination relating to the miraj,

only the Prophet’s journey to and from heaven is represented; the viewer is given no direct glimpse into paradise, since the miraj is the Prophet’s experience of transcending in his body the physical world. In Mecca the journey is re-enacted by the pilgrims undertaking the hajj (the pilgrimage) as a stage of their own journey towards paradise. The Kaaba, with the Black Stone within, is draped in black, and as they move towards the dark point each pilgrim is robed in white. The Kaaba is circumambulated seven times, in an anti-clockwise direction. Should the density of the crowds prevent pilgrims from reaching, and kissing, the Black Stone, they may point to it on each circuit. The goal of this ritual is to lead the faithful to paradise, a feast of light that the Prophet of Islam has reached through the darkest of nights. In the same way, the believer progresses through darkness into light.

Fig 9 (opposite) Depiction of the Holy City of Mecca, from Muhammad ibn Sulayaman al-Jazuli, Dala’il al-khayrat (‘Guide to Goodness’), India, nineteenth century. London, British Library, MS Or. 16211, fol.15r.

Fig 10 (right) Detail of a fifteenth-century pilgrimage certificate, origin unknown, 1432–3. London, British Library, Add. MS 27566.

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Pa r a di S E iN Th E T Ex T

Fig 18 (right) Creation of Adam, from Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica (orig. compiled twelfth century), Bohemia, early fifteenth century.

Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat. 5697, fol.13r.

The Bible opens with the story of the creation of the world by God. The first chapter of the Book of Genesis records how God completed his work in six days. On the first day God created light, separating it from darkness. On the second day he formed the firmament, or expanse of the sky. On the third day he created the land, with its plants and trees, distinguishing it from the sea (Fig 17). On the fourth day the stars, the sun and the moon were created, and on the fifth day the fish and the birds. Man was fashioned on the sixth day, together with the animals. Finally, on the seventh day, as described at the beginning of the second chapter, God finished his work and rested, creating nothing new thereafter.

Later in the second chapter of Genesis, God is once again described fashioning a human being, a man into whose nostrils he breathes life (Fig 18). It is in this second account that we read how God created a garden for the nurturing of this human creature (verse 8), and how he ordained that all kinds of trees should grow there,

MAP S

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PARAD ISE

PARAD ISE

N OwhE RE

AN D

E lSE whE RE

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regarded as a necessary condition of historical writing (Bibliotheca historica, X.20.43.7).

The ambition to attempt to record a complete series of contemporary events, to create an authentic history, is surely as foolish as impossible. Likewise it is impossible to map the fullness of geographical space, as the Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges demonstrated 2,000 years after Diodorus. In Borges’ famous short story about the relationship of map and territory, the writer imagines an ancient empire where a group of cartographers conceive a plan: to draw a topographical map on the scale of 1:1 of all the empire’s lands, showing its towns and cities and every detail of the landscape – mountain ranges, islands, rivers and lakes (Del rigor en la ciencia, ‘On Exactitude in Science’, 1946). Of course the project was ridiculous. It was not only difficult to achieve, but the resultant map was of no use to anyone. The zealous imperial mapmakers’ descendants did not know what to do with an awkwardly vast map that was impossible to handle. So the torn and worn map was abandoned, left to lie on the desolate desert sands, where its fragments were occasionally used for shelter by wild beasts and the homeless.

No history can ever offer a truly comprehensive account of the events it describes.

Nor can any map ever be identical with the territory it portrays. Any serious attempt to map the historical process or the geographical landscape in all completeness would be madness. yet we still need and use maps, and write and read histories. Even if some reality is lost from the historical account or the geographical map through selection, something is gained at the same time from both the history and the map. The jungle of visions and beliefs about paradise may be confusing, but it is possible to map a way out. To help us follow that trail, maps of paradise come to our assistance.

M a P S Of Pa r a d i S E

Previous page: Map of the world, from a manuscript of Beatus of Liébana’s In Apocalypsin, Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, 1106 (detail of Fig 27). London, British Library, Add. MS 11695, fol.40r.

Fig 17 (left) Creation, Third Day, from Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica (orig. compiled twelfth century), Bohemia, early fifteenth century.

Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat. 5697, fol.7r.

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M A P S

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Christians have been drawing maps representing paradise for the last two millennia.

They all concern a quite specific paradise: that of the Garden of Eden as described in the Book of Genesis, with which the Bible begins the Judaeo-Christian account of human history. Genesis was probably written down in the ninth or tenth century bc, but it must have incorporated a wealth of oral tradition handed down across possibly thousands of generations. The book tells how God planted a special place on earth as a home for the first human couple. It was an enchanting garden, into which Adam and Eve were placed by their Creator to live in a blissful state of total perfection. This was the earthly paradise. It marks the beginning of human time, just as the heavenly paradise (or Heavenly Jerusalem), described in Revelation, the final book of the Christian Bible, stands for its end. Both of these paradises (which border the space–time continuum of human history at either end) can be seen decorating a page of a fifteenth-century manuscript of Augustine’s City of God (Fig 13). Here the primordial Garden of Eden is sited in the distance on the map in the centre; above it radiates the Heavenly Jerusalem coming down to earth in its full glory, with Christ bathed in light and surrounded by angelic choirs and precious stones. The scenes on

trees that were ‘pleasant to the sight and good for food’ (verse 9). In the middle of the garden were two special trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and four rivers sprang forth to water the garden. Then God noticed that of all the creatures he had created, man alone lacked a mate. He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and then shaped a woman from one of his ribs (Fig 19). When Adam awoke, he found himself with a companion, Eve. Entrusting to Adam the care of a garden that provided the perfect conditions for human life (Fig 20), God ordered the pair never to touch the fruit growing on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve, however, yielded to the serpent’s temptation, plucked a forbidden fruit, ate of it and gave some to her husband (Fig 21). For their disobedience, man and woman were expelled forever from the Garden of Eden (Fig 22).

This account has left biblical commentators with puzzling questions. Did Adam and Eve’s garden really exist on earth? What exactly was it, and where was it?

The interpretation was made more difficult by a complex textual transmission. An ancient oral tradition was probably written down in Hebrew in the ninth or tenth

PA R A D I S E

Observing elements used, the use of colour to bring in hierarchy and highlight, images fitted into a single column grid, use of full bleed images to bring out pauses in the narrative.

6 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

M A P P I NG

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MA P S

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Fig 13 Illuminated page from a manuscript of Augustine’s De civitate Dei, Île de France or Normandy, c.1473–80.

Mâcon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS Franç. 2, fol.19r.

MA P P ING

ThE

the parts of a globe

pointer

ecliptic

T h e A rT A n d h i sTo ry of

or

index

hour circle

meridian ring

equinoctial line

pointer

ecliptic

colure

equator

or

index

hour circle

meridian ring

quadrant of altitude

quadrant of altitude

Glob es syLviA s umi rA

Th e Bri T i sh Li BrAry

high res on way

horizon ring

horizon ring

celestial

terrestrial

opposite left Fig. 2 Islamic celestial globe, c. 1275.

24 cm (9½ in.).

British Museum, London. opposite right Fig. 3 Ottoman astronomers at work at the Istanbul Observatory, late 16th century.

Istanbul University Library.

THe Globes

this page, right Fig. 4 Title page from Ptolemy’s Geographia, edited by Mercator, 1578.

British Library, London.

Outside Christian Europe, celestial globes emerged in the Islamic world in the ninth century. They usually took the form of engraved hollow metal spheres. Although they have little relevance to the type of globe explored in this book, as they were not widely known about in Europe, they are a reminder that it was Arabic, Persian and Indian astronomers and mathematicians who developed the work of Ptolemy, until an interest in technical astronomy was rekindled in the West.

In the West, sparse references to celestial globes resurface from the tenth century and one purchased by Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) in 1444 survives in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. There are records of terrestrial globes made in the fifteenth century but the earliest extant example, from 1492 (Globe 1, p. 42), was by Martin Behaim (1459–1507) of Nuremberg, a cultural centre for scholars, artists and instrument-makers, and a crossroads for all types of trade and commerce.

Globes made before 1500 were all manuscript globes – that is, they were unique items, drawn, painted or engraved by hand.

They were slow and costly to make and could not be easily replicated. The Behaim globe was an expensive one-off, but unlike previous globes, it had a public impact. The costs of producing the globe were met by the Nuremberg city council and it was displayed in the Town Hall for many years after its completion.

It seems likely that the public nature of this ambitious project

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to represent the whole world in its proper shape created an influential precedent for subsequent globe-making.

After 1500 globe-making changed dramatically, and the idea of making models of the earth and the heavens for a wider public gained momentum for several reasons. The technical innovation of printing with moveable type in the 1450s had enabled the wider circulation of all types of text and of knowledge in general. Interest in the classical world had been rekindled in the Renaissance; old knowledge was looked at afresh, and new ways of thinking and seeing flourished. At the end of the fifteenth century and in the early years of the sixteenth, some seminal texts, such as latin translations of Ptolemy’s Geographia and Almagest, were printed for the first time and so became more accessible.

These comprehensive books were of particular interest to scholars and stimulated an intellectual and scientific curiosity to know more about the world and the cosmos.

Furthermore, the age of exploration was truly under way.

Navigation became a crucial skill for the advancement of trade and conquest, and constantly expanding geographical and astronomical knowledge fuelled the demand for maps and sea charts. By the end of the fifteenth century printing had begun to be used for mapmaking, and therefore the availability and circulation of maps was greatly increased. Map-makers became concerned with new ways of representing the constantly changing view of the earth and heavens.

A BRIEF HISTORy OF GlOBES

a brief history of globes

1 TerresTrial Globe, 1492 Martin Behaim Painted, 51 cm (20 in.)

Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

Martin Behaim’s globe, made in 1492, is thought to be the oldest surviving terrestrial globe. Behaim (1459–1507), a native of Nuremberg, travelled widely for commercial reasons. Trade took him to Portugal and he claimed that he had accompanied Portuguese sailors on voyages down the west coast of Africa. He returned to Nuremberg around 1490 and, conscious of the importance of these new discoveries and perhaps of the trading opportunities they might bring, he produced the globe to make them known, with the aid of local artisans. The sources for the globe are many and various. They include Ptolemaic and medieval maps, and the more up-to-date maps of the time: navigational charts known as portolan charts, which showed the latest Portuguese discoveries. Other sources of information on the globe were taken from Marco Polo (1254–1324), whose travel accounts had by then appeared in print, and Sir John Mandeville, the putative compiler of a number of travel stories written in the late fourteenth century. A map was drafted by Behaim and transferred onto the surface of the globe, in paint, by the artist George Glockenthon (d. 1514). The globe was also known as the Erdapfel (earth-apple or earth-ball). It was a colourful mixture of credible new knowledge and incredible stories from previously unknown parts of the world. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the globe is that America is not shown, for the globe was completed before Christopher Columbus (1451– 1506) returned from his westerly voyage.

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2 TerresTrial Globe Gores, 1507 Martin Waldseemüller Woodcut James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota Facsimile globe made by Sylvia Sumira, 2007, 12 cm (4¾ in.)

Private collection

Martin Waldseemüller (1470–1521), who worked in Saint Dié in France, is probably best known for his large world map Universalis Cosmographia published in 1507.

He also made the earliest extant printed gores, although no set mounted on a globe survives. Cartographically, both map and globe are of great significance for they show the word ‘America’ for the first time. Whereas Waldseemüller’s map was large (248 x 136 centimetres/8 feet 1½ inches x 4 feet 5½ inches), the globe is essentially a tiny distillation of the map, with a diameter of about 12 centimetres (4¾ inches). Only a few copies of the flat gores, printed using the woodcut technique, have survived. They look crude compared with later globes, but Waldseemüller’s gores show the introduction of a completely new technical and practical aspect to globe-making. To accompany the map and globe, Waldseemüller wrote a text, Cosmographiae introductio, which gave an introduction to cosmography, explained the principles of geometry and astronomy, and described the recent geographical discoveries illustrated on his map and, in reduced form, on his globe. The globe seen here is a modern replica made to show how the gores would have looked mounted on a sphere.

the globes

the globes

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Use of both double and single columns for text, a fixed template for showing globes, hierarchy and a drop for the headings, full bleed images used as section openers. I found this to be a good book to study at as an example of handling text and image.

Discovery 7

A look at similar books Apart from looking at books on maps, I also researched books that catalogued prints and other artifacts to study the way images are handled. Even though there is a considerable amount of text in the book, it is the maps that dominate the content, and hence it was important to research various ways of integrating pictures into text and handling images in a layout.

Treasures of the British Library Some spreads from this book which show how images have been integrated with text and captions.

8 窶ケrofessional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Florence in the 1470s The hierarchy produced within the text here is very detailed and interesting.

This book keeps the text and image seperate rather than integrating them.

Leonardo Da Vinci­– The mechanics of man Another interesting treatment of a tall format book using a single column of text.

The Painted Page This book follows a two-column grid and paintings are shown integrated within.

Discovery 9

Analysing the content provided My research for the project also included a thorough understanding of the content provided, in the form of both the images and the manuscript. It was important at this stage to give the manuscript a read and look at the various kinds of maps to be included in the book. While the manuscript listed descriptions of 120 maps, I was provided with the images of 19 of these. I arranged the content in order with every map along with its text. In the process I also identified the longest and shortest essays. This helped me while developing the structure for the text. The maps were very interesting and justified the title of the book. They were a mix of sizes and formats, but the structure in which the content was written, was constant – name of the map, the maker, the place where it was printed, the location where it is preserved now, and a detail description.

The year, name of the person who made the map and the place Bibliographical text from the map including the title in some cases

1770: JEFFERYS, Thomas sr. - London ‘THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL PASTIME Exhibiting A COMPLETE TOUR ROUND THE WORLD in which are delineated the NORTH EAST and NORTH WEST PASSAGES into the SOUTH SEA, and st

other modern Discoveries, By Thomas Jefferys, GEOGRAPHER to the KING’ ‘LONDON. 1. January th

.D

s

1770. Published according to the Statute of the 7. of GEORGE III by Tho. Jefferys at the Corner of S. Martin's Lane.’ ‘Entered in the Hall Book of the Stationers Company, and whoever presumes to Copy it will be prosecuted by the Proprietor, who will reward any Person that shall give Information of it.’

t

[Welsh Feathers] ‘To His Royal Highness GEORGE PRINCE OF WALES, DUKE OF CORNWALL, &c. &c. and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. This Plate is BY PERMISSION most humbly Dedicated By his Royal Highnesses most Obedient and Devoted humble Servant T. Jefferys.’ [printed on a separate label, and pasted-over a blank space]

Other details including the place to where the map belongs and the printing specification

From: London : Thomas Jefferys sr., 1770 (separate publication) Copper engraving, border: 484 x 472; with the side-panels of text: 505 x 695 mm.

While Jefferys was initially slow to add cartographic games to his repertoire of stock, once he did, he quickly introduced three game maps in three years: the previous entry, this map and the next entry.

Essay describing the story behind the creation of the map and other details. This ends with inforamtion regarding the location and the references in most cases

Example of one of the essays, dissecting the structure of information. I have deliberately taken one of the longest and complicated texts.

Of the three, this is the most cartographically interesting. As described in the map - “Note This MAP is drawn upon a Stereographic projection, of which LONDON is the Centre. The Horizon is greatly extended, to exhibit the distant parts of the World at one View. ...” - the map is drawn on an unusual (to our eyes anyway) projection, by which all the world is visible in one plane, although the map extends outside the circular frame of the hemisphere. This is achieved by placing London at the heart of the world, and may well be a response to rival French mapmakers who frequently constructed their world maps with France at the centre. It is actually, and notwithstanding its purpose as a game, one of the best world maps to originate in England at the time.

Another interesting feature is that this one of the earliest printed maps to deliberately chose red as the colour for the British Empire, as noted in the key: “The Tour round the World is coloured _ _ _ Blue. The British Empire in America _ _ _ Red. The Russian Empire with their Discoveries in America. Brown.”

The ‘tour round Europe’ is a Game of Goose race; the side panels contain an explanation of the theme of the game, the manner in which is played, rules and description of the stops that each traveller could or would make in his passage round the board.

The winning stage is ‘103. LAND’S END - being the first pleasant place in England which is seen by mariners in their return from long voyages, and is equally wished for by the players - IS THE GAME’, but “The players attending to the instructions hereafter given, will proceed regularly towards No. 103, which is at the Land’s End; and he who is fortunate enough to gain this number, wins the game: But as the chances of the play will oftener carry him beyond than exactly to it, he is then to return back to No. 89, which is at Oroonoko-River: where he must remain till it comes to his turn to spin and try his fortune again; and this method is to be pursued by all the players, till one of them hits the lucky number”.

10 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Some of the maps that were provided.

They illustrate the range of formats and sizes.

Discovery  11

transformation Meetings with the client This project functioned different as compared to the past projects. Various meetings with the client along with the requirement and feedback of each meeting are what dictated the pace of this project. In the first meeting I was briefed about the project. From then three other meetings followed over five weeks. The various stages of the transformation phase correspond to the developments made for each of the meetings.

One of the meetings with David Way at the British Library.

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

1518: Thomas - Basel Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra From More De optimo reip. statu deque noua insula Utopia Publication details Basel : Johannes Froben, 1518 Woodcut; border 181 x 120 mm.

Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy.

Thomas More (1478-1535) was one of the foremost English thinkers of his period. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, he earned Henry VIII’s grave displeasure when he opposed that king’s divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon. The divorce proceeding set in motion the English Reformation, and led to More’s execution on tru mped-up charges.

More’s Utopia is one of the great political tracts, and gives its name, to this day, to an earthly paradise. Although written in England, for various reasons the different editions of the book were published on the Continent, first Antwerp and then in Basle, this edition.

Froben’s printing is the third edition of the text, but the second with a map. The map described here is a more elaborate version of the map from the first edition; it is generally attributed to the woodcutter Ambrosius Holbein, but may equally be the work of Hans the younger, his brother, who signed the woodcut used on the titlepage.

In the bottom left corner of the map is a scene depicting Hythlodeaus, who had voyage there, describing Utopia to More, the righthand figure, a description that More then recounted in the Utopia.

The geography of the island of Utopia is described on page 70, in a section labelled ‘Sit’ & forma Vtopiæ nouæ insulæ.’ (the location and shape of the new island of Utopia). The significance here is the map, at first glance a nicely performed map of this imaginary

island, with large ship in the foreground. However, that is not all to be seen. Concealed in the image, and best seen with one eye halfclosed, is a death’s head-skull, memento mori, possibly suggested to the mapmaker / woodcutter by the wordplay with More’s surname.

While the map in the first (Antwerp) edition seems to have been intended to resemble a skull, the execution was not so successful, and it can be more easily seen in this second map.

The skull should be imagined as facing slightly to the right of the viewer; the figures of Hythlodeaus and More, with the left hand ship form the neck and right ear; the segmented sides of the ship are the teeth, with the prow and stern the jaw bone, the lower bay below the ship the chin, and the central mast is the nose. The island itself gives outline to the skull proper, with ‘Fons Byndri’ and ‘Ostium ayndri’, with their surround hills creating the effect of eyes and sockets; ‘Amarotū urbs’, with its label, the forehead.

While this image has been studied for many years, it was the research of a dentist, with his highly technical understanding of the bones around the jaw area that identified the skull, an element also found in other of the Holbeins’ works, notably Hans’ painting, The ambassadors.

Reference: Matthew Bishop, Ambrosius Holbein’s memento mori map for Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. The meanings of a masterpiece of early sixteenth century graphic art, British Dental Journal 2005, 199: 107–112.

1598: DEUTECUM, Johannes van jr. - Amsterdam ‘LEO BELGICUS.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’ ‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’ [text:] ‘Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliū qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt.’ (“Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries) ...”)

From: Amsterdam : Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (Separate publication) Copper engraving, border: 436 x 554 mm. Location: Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour.

Georg Matthaüs Seutter (1678-1757) was founder one of the two most prominent German publishing houses of the eighteenth century; he was apprenticed to Johann Baptist Homann, founder of the other publishing house, in 1697, before setting up his own firm.

In this attractively drawn map, Seutter has recast typical contemporary town plans into an allegorical map of the siege of the Castle of Love. Unusually for a map of love, the plan is drawn from a male perspective: the castle of love is the male heart, while the fairer sex are the ones shown trying to break through the male’s outer defences.

The male heart is shown in the keep of a fortified town, reminiscent of the siege maps from the War of the Spanish Succession and thus very familiar to a male audience, surrounded by a moat, labelled ‘Mer Glacee Sans Passion’ (Frozen Sea without passion).

Both the title and the key allude to the many (military) strategems that the (male) defender might employ to defend his heart against the advances of (female) attackers.

Around the castle are arrayed the female forces of love, represented by the artillery batteries, on the mainland, and the naval forces on the glacial sea, bombarding the defences. Each of the guns has an individual female charm: ‘Enchantment’, ‘Tendresse’ ‘Un certain je ne Sais quoi’ ‘Surprises’, ‘Charmes’ (a fuller list is

given in the key) while the defenders shelter in their bastions among them ‘Precaution’, ‘Prudence’, ‘Experience’, ‘Indifference’ and ‘Resolution’. The attacking forces are commanded from their headquarters at bottom left, labelled the ‘CAMP DE L’AMOUR’, wherein are the tents of its ‘General Cupido’, settled in with his forces until the defences are breached and the besieged brought to surrender.

As the defences are slowly breached by the female wiles, the defender is forced to retreat out of the keep through the Gates of Wisdom, to successive hideouts along the lake: ‘Conseil des fideles amis (Counsel of faithful friends), ‘Deliberation’ and ‘Inspiration de nos propres sens’ (Inspiration of our right senses) onward to the ‘Jardin de Plaisir ...’ where the first pleasant meeting takes place, and then finally, in desperation, takes flight by an underground to ‘Le Palais de L’Amour’ (the Palace of Love), lured by the song of the sirens who inhabit the lake, where the final surrender to the lady takes place and, from whence there is no return without loss of your liberty.

All this is expanded in the detailed key along the lower border of the map while, Venus (or Aphrodite in the Greek mythology), the goddess of love, looks down on the campaign from the finely engraved title cartouche at top right.

1735: SEUTTER, Georg Matthaüs sr. - Augsburg ‘Representation Sÿmbolique et ingenieuse projettée en Siege et en Bombardement comme il faut empecher prudemment les attaques de L’AMOUR. Sÿmbolische Sinnreiche in einer Belagerung u. Bombardirung entworffen Vorstellung wie man den anfällen und Verschungen der LIEBE Klug und tapffer zu begegnen, zur Belustigung u. Sittlicher Belehrung verfertiget von MATTH. SEUTTER S.C. Maj. Geogr. in Augsp. [key:] Methode pour defendre et conserver son coeur contre les attaques de l’amour. Die Methode sein Hertz wider die Angriffe der Liebe zu bewahren [key in ten columns:] Noms des Bastions et d’autres ouvrages Die Namen derer Boll u: anderer wercke. ... [repeated in German] From: Augsburg : Georg Matthaüs Seutter sr. (separate publication) Copper engraving, border: 489 x 568 mm.

Location: Maps C.26.f.4.(42): original body colour.

Initial ideas I started with placing some maps with their corresponding text and exploring the layouts within the format. One of the ideas was to show details within each map. I felt it was important for the reader to view the intricacy of each map and thus was exploring various ways of doing so. This exercise also made me realise that I had two levels of information within the text – the caption about the map and a detailed essay on the making and the explaination of each map. At this stage the struggle was with the size at which these maps should be shown.

12 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Spreads showing the idea of pulling out and enlarging details from maps

Printing all maps at actual size One of the most helpful steps in this project was to print all the given maps at actual size within the given format and observe what each one of them had to show. This made me realise that the beauty of these maps lied in their actual sizes. When they are made to fit into a layout or into the chosen format they loose the effect. I now started looking at layout options for the book wherein I keep each map at its actual size or at least closest to its actual size. I also discovered that the maps could be divided into groups depending on their sizes and their relation with the format – maps that fitted on a single page, maps that fitted on a spread, maps that were larger than a spread, and some odd sized maps which were nearly fitting the page or spread. My further explorations took all these factors into consideration.

Maps slightly larger than the page Maps that are larger than the spread

Showing the different sizes of maps in relation to the page-seze Maps that are larger than the page but fit into a spread

Maps that fit into the page

Transformation  13

I took inspiration from the kind of typography in the maps

14 窶ケrofessional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Typefaces used The two main requirements of the typeface here was for the body text and the headings. While I tried several typefaces ideal for body type, I was looking for one that worked well for the headings, had a distinctive italic and also considerable number of weights to manage the hierarchy required in the captions. I started with exploring some conventional typefaces used in text heavy publications like various versions of Garamond, Caslon, Kepler, Scala, Plantin.

However, I found my reason for making a choice in the kind of typefaces used in the maps itself. When put together, these imparted a characteristic feel. Many script, decorative and display type were used here. Keeping the requirements in mind I decided to use Bulmer MT Std for this book. To further add to the look of the book, I incorporated Snell Roundhand for the headings at a later stage.

Bulmer MT Std Bulmer MT Std Bulmer MT Std Bulmer MT Std Bulmer MT Std Snell Roundhand Snell Roundhand Snell Roundhand Snell Roundhand Bulmer MT Std

Bulmer offers a range of weights which helped in creating distinct hierarchy where required. The italics is beautiful and merges well with the roman when used at smaller point sizes as well. The small caps has been used for details.

Snell Roundhand was chosen to be used for the titles of the text pages. This typeface added some amount of ornamentation to the text pages and worked in harmony with the feel of the maps.

The fact that these typefaces work well together made them the final choice. I used them for the headings in combination with each other.

Transformation  15

Stage 1 The layouts at this stage were divided into the three kinds of maps as mentioned earlier. I picked two of each kind and composed these maps at their actual size along with the corresponding text. For the text, I divided the information into what goes along with the image and what stays on the text page. I was experimenting with the placement of both these pieces of text and the use of single and double column as well. Here, I took into consideration the map with the longest essay and worked on it along with the ones which had lesser amount of text.

1518 More, Thomas - Basel Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra From More De optimo reip. statu deque noua insula Utopia Publication details Basel, Johannes Froben, 1518 Woodcut; border 181 x 120 mm.

Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy.

Reference Matthew Bishop, Ambrosius Holbein’s memento mori map for Sir Thomas More’s Utopia.

The meanings of a masterpiece of early sixteenth century graphic art, British Dental Journal 2005, 199: 107–112.

More, Thomas

Thomas More (1478-1535) was one of the foremost English thinkers of his period. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, he earned Henry VIII’s grave displeasure when he opposed that king’s divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon. The divorce proceeding set in motion the English Reformation, and led to More’s execution on trumped-up charges.

More’s Utopia is one of the great political tracts, and gives its name, to this day, to an earthly paradise. Although written in England, for various reasons the different editions of the book were published on the Continent, first Antwerp and then in Basle, this edition.

Froben’s printing is the third edition of the text, but the second with a map.

The map described here is a more elaborate version of the map from the first edition; it is generally attributed to the woodcutter Ambrosius Holbein, but may equally be the work of Hans the younger, his brother, who signed the woodcut used on the title-page.

In the bottom left corner of the map is a scene depicting Hythlodeaus, who had voyage there, describing Utopia to More, the right-hand figure, a description that More then recounted in the Utopia.

The geography of the island of Utopia is described on page 70, in a section labelled ‘Sit’ & forma Vtopiæ nouæ insulæ.’ (the location and shape of the new island of Utopia).

The significance here is the map, at first glance a nicely performed map of this imaginary island, with large ship in the foreground. However, that is not all to be seen. Concealed in the image, and best seen with one eye half-closed, is a death’s head-skull, memento mori, possibly suggested to the mapmaker / woodcutter by the wordplay with More’s surname. While the map in the first (Antwerp) edition seems to have been intended to resemble a skull, the execution was not so successful, and it can be more easily seen in this second map.

The skull should be imagined as facing slightly to the right of the viewer; the figures of Hythlodeaus and More, with the left hand ship form the neck and right ear; the segmented sides of the ship are the teeth, with the prow and stern the jaw bone, the lower bay below the ship the chin, and the central mast is the nose. The island itself gives outline to the skull proper, with ‘Fons Byndri’ and ‘Ostium ayndri’, with their surround hills creating the effect of eyes and sockets; ‘AmarotÛ urbs’, with its label, the forehead.

While this image has been studied for many years, it was the research of a dentist, with his highly technical understanding of the bones around the jaw area that identified the skull, an element also found in other of the Holbeins’ works, notably Hans’ painting, The ambassadors.

Basel, 1518

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra From More De optimo reip. statu deque noua insula Utopia Publication details Basel : Johannes Froben, 1518 Woodcut; border 181 x 120 mm Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy.

Reference Matthew Bishop, Ambrosius Holbein’s memento mori map for Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. The meanings of a masterpiece of early sixteenth century graphic art, British Dental Journal 2005, 199: 107–112 Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy

00

Thomas More (1478-1535) was one of the foremost English thinkers of his period. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, he earned Henry VIII’s grave displeasure when he opposed that king’s divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon. The divorce proceeding set in motion the English Reformation, and led to More’s execution on trumped-up charges.

More’s Utopia is one of the great political tracts, and gives its name, to this day, to an earthly paradise. Although written in England, for various reasons the different editions of the book were published on the Continent, first Antwerp and then in Basle, this edition.

Froben’s printing is the third edition of the text, but the second with a map.

The map described here is a more elaborate version of the map from the first edition; it is generally attributed to the woodcutter Ambrosius Holbein, but may equally be the work of Hans the younger, his brother, who signed the woodcut used on the title-page.

In the bottom left corner of the map is a scene depicting Hythlodeaus, who had voyage there, describing Utopia to More, the right-hand figure, a description that More then recounted in the Utopia.

The geography of the island of Utopia is described on page 70, in a section labelled ‘Sit’ & forma Vtopiæ nouæ insulæ.’ (the location and shape of the new island of Utopia).

The significance here is the map, at first glance a nicely performed map of this imaginary island, with large ship in the foreground. However, that is not all to be seen. Concealed in the image, and best seen with one eye half-closed, is a death’s head-skull, memento mori, possibly suggested to the mapmaker / woodcutter by the wordplay with More’s surname. While the map in the first (Antwerp) edition seems to have been intended to resemble a skull, the execution was not so successful, and it can be more easily seen in this second map.

The skull should be imagined as facing slightly to the right of the viewer; the figures of Hythlodeaus and More, with the left hand ship form the neck and right ear; the segmented sides of the ship are the teeth, with the prow and stern the jaw bone, the lower bay below the ship the chin, and the central mast is the nose. The island itself gives outline to the skull proper, with ‘Fons Byndri’ and ‘Ostium ayndri’, with their surround hills creating the effect of eyes and sockets; ‘Amarotû urbs’, with its label, the forehead.

While this image has been studied for many years, it was the research of a dentist, with his highly technical understanding of the bones around the jaw area that identified the skull, an element also found in other of the Holbeins’ works, notably Hans’ painting, The ambassadors.

00

00

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra From More De optimo reip. statu deque noua insula Utopia Publication details Basel : Johannes Froben, 1518 Woodcut; border 181 x 120 mm Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy.

Reference Matthew Bishop, Ambrosius Holbein’s memento mori map for Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. The meanings of a masterpiece of early sixteenth century graphic art, British Dental Journal 2005, 199: 107–112 Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy

More, Thomas

1793

Basel, 1518

Dighton, Robert Sr. London

Thomas More (1478-1535) was one of the foremost English thinkers of his period. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, he earned Henry VIII’s grave displeasure when he opposed that king’s divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon. The divorce proceeding set in motion the English Reformation, and led to More’s execution on trumped-up charges.

More’s Utopia is one of the great political tracts, and gives its name, to this day, to an earthly paradise. Although written in England, for various reasons the different editions of the book were published on the Continent, first Antwerp and then in Basle, this edition.

Froben’s printing is the third edition of the text, but the second with a map.

The map described here is a more elaborate version of the map from the first edition; it is generally attributed to the woodcutter Ambrosius Holbein, but may equally be the work of Hans the younger, his brother, who signed the woodcut used on the title-page.

In the bottom left corner of the map is a scene depicting Hythlodeaus, who had voyage there, describing Utopia to More, the right-hand figure, a description that More then recounted in the Utopia.

The geography of the island of Utopia is described on page 70, in a section labelled ‘Sit’ & forma Vtopiæ nouæ insulæ.’ (the location and shape of the new island of Utopia).

The significance here is the map, at first glance a nicely performed map of this imaginary island, with large ship in the foreground. However, that is not all to be seen. Concealed in the image, and best seen with one eye half-closed, is a death’s head-skull, memento mori, possibly suggested to the mapmaker / woodcutter by the wordplay with More’s surname. While the map in the first (Antwerp) edition seems to have been intended to resemble a skull, the execution was not so successful, and it can be more easily seen in this second map.

The skull should be imagined as facing slightly to the right of the viewer; the figures of Hythlodeaus and More, with the left hand ship form the neck and right ear; the segmented sides of the ship are the teeth, with the prow and stern the jaw bone, the lower bay below the ship the chin, and the central mast is the nose.

The island itself gives outline to the skull proper, with ‘Fons Byndri’ and ‘Ostium ayndri’, with their surround hills creating the effect of eyes and sockets; ‘Amarotû urbs’, with its label, the forehead.

While this image has been studied for many years, it was the research of a dentist, with his highly technical understanding of the bones around the jaw area that identified the skull, an element also found in other of the Holbeins’ works, notably Hans’ painting, The ambassadors.

00

‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature map of England and Wales.’ ‘Dighton Del.’ ‘London Printed for Bowles & Carver, No. 69 St Paul’s Church Yard.’

From London, Henry Carington Bowles & Samuel Carver, [ca. 1795] (separate publication) Copper engraving, image 181 x 156 mm Location Maps C.27.f.15.(1)

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Layout explorations for maps that fit on a single page For maps that comfortably fitted on a page at their actual size, I tried layouts where the essay is on the opposite page and the information regarding the map, its location and printing details go along with the map.

16 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

00

Robert Dighton (1751-1814) was a talented artist, illustrator and etcher, who exhibited his portraits at the Free Society of Artists and at the Royal Academy in years from 1769 to 1799. He enrolled in the Royal Academy School in 1772; after graduating he established himself as a drawing-master and painter of miniature portraits.

However, Dighton’s career in London came to an unhappy end; he was also a collector of old master prints, and was a well-known researcher in the British Museum, even before the Print Room opened. Dighton became firm friends with the head of the Print Room, the Reverend William Beloe. Trusted by Beloe, Dighton abused the unfettered access that this allowed him to steal prints from the Museum; some he kept but others he sold, and this was to prove his undoing.

In 1806 a dealer who bought a print from Dighton went to the British Museum to compare his purchase with the Museum’s exemplar, and found it missing.

Further searches found other prints that Dighton had sold came from the BM; faced with exposure, Dighton confessed, and made a bargain; he would return all the prints he had and identify all the others he had sold, and to whom they went. The British Museum’s Trustees accepted the arrangement; he avoided jail but Dighton’s reputation was destroyed, and he had to leave London to live an itinerant life, struggling to make a living, while Beloe was summarily dismissed.

The great shame of it was that Dighton was a talented artist and caricaturist, as exemplified by this item, and its sibling, the next entry. They were published first

by Carington Bowles in about 1793, and then reprinted by his successors, the partnership formed by his son Henry Carington Bowles and former apprentice Samuel Carver, leading printsellers of the period, from their shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard.

England and Wales are depicted in whimsical fashion; although the delineation is not so familiar, this is John Bull, the popular allegory for England, Great Britain or the British Isles (as necessary) popular from the eighteenth century well into the twentieth, akin to America’s ‘Uncle Sam’. Southern England is formed by a sea-monster; its head is East Anglia, its mouth the Thames Estuary, and its tail formed by the south-western extension of England: Cornwall and Devon. The north of England is a rather portly, jolly fellow, smoking a pipe and raising a frothing jug of ale as if to toast the viewer; Wales is formed by his cloak, blowing in the wind. The pair seem to be leaping from the sea, like a dolphin with rider, while the seascape below has any number of ships.

This triptych are among the most famous of all satirical maps, and spawned a host of imitations for the next thirty years; indeed, such was their popularity that in 1806, the rival firm of Laurie and Whittle appended these lines to their ‘Whimsical Map of Europe ...’, ‘OFT we see in the shops, a print set up for sale, England colour’d, an old fellow striding a whale: Yes! Old England’s a picture, the sea forms its frame, And Hibernia and Scotia they class with the same.

00

1770 1518

1598, Amsterdam

Deutecum, Johannes Van Jr.

Jeffreys, Thomas Sr. Pastime The Royal Geographical ThomasLondon Sr. Jeffreys , London

‘Leo Belgicus.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’ ‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’ [text:] ‘Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliû qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt.’ (“Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries)”) From Amsterdam Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (Separate publication) Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm.

Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour.

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands.

Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original.

The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitû Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

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While jefferys initially to add cartographic games While jefferys was was initially slowslow to add cartographic games to to his repertoire of once stock,heonce he quickly introduced his repertoire of stock, did,he he did, quickly introduced three three game mapsyears: in three the entry, previous thisthe map game maps in three the years: previous this entry, map and the next entry. nextand entry.

Of the three, is the most cartographically interesting.

Of the three, thisthis is the most cartographically interesting.

AsAs described in the - “note map is drawn upon a stereodescribed in the mapmap - “note thisthis map is drawn upon a stereographic projection, of which london is the centre.

The horizon graphic projection, of which london is the centre.

The horizon is greatly extended, to exhibit distant parts world is greatly extended, to exhibit thethe distant parts of of thethe world at at view.

- The is drawn unusual oureyes eyes oneone view. ...” ...”

- The mapmap is drawn onon an an unusual (to(to our anyway) projection, which world visiblein inone one anyway) projection, by by which all all thethe world is is visible plane, although the map extends outside the circular plane, although the map extends outside the circular frameframe of of the hemisphere. is achieved by placing at the the hemisphere.

This isThis achieved by placing london london at the heart heart of the andbemay well be to a response to rival french of the world, andworld, may well a response rival french mapmakmapmakers who frequentlytheir constructed their world ers who frequently constructed world maps with francemaps at france the centre. is actually, and notwithstanding the with centre.

It isatactually, andItnotwithstanding its purpose as aits purpose one ofmaps the best world maps to originate game, one ofasthea game, best world to originate in england at thein england at the time. time.

Another interesting feature is that thisthis oneone of ofthetheearliest Another interesting feature is that earliest printed mapsmaps to deliberately chosechose red asred theas colour for thefor brit-the printed to deliberately the colour ish british empire,empire, as noted in the in key: the world is as noted the“the key: tour “the round tour round the world coloured blue. The america The red. russian is coloured blue.british The empire british in empire in red. america The empire withempire their discoveries in america. Brown.” russian with their discoveries in america. Brown.”

TheThe ‘tour round europe’ is aisgame of of goose race; thetheside ‘tour round europe’ a game goose race; side panels contain an an explanation of the theme of of thethegame, panels contain explanation of the theme game,thethe manner in which is played, rules andand description of of thethestops manner in which is played, rules description stops thatthat eacheach traveller could or or would make in in hishis passage traveller could would make passageround round the board. the board.

TheThe winning stage is ‘103.

Land’s endend - being thethe first pleaswinning stage is ‘103.

Land’s - being first pleasant ant place in england which is seen by by mariners in in their return place in england which is seen mariners their return fromfrom longlong voyages, and and is equally wished for byforthebyplayers - is voyages, is equally wished the players the -game’, “thebut players to the instructions hereafis thebut game’, “theattending players attending to the instructions ter given, willgiven, proceed 103, Which is atWhich the hereafter willregularly proceedtowards regularlyno. towards no. 103, land’s end; he who fortunate enough to gainenough this number, is at theand land’s end;isand he who is fortunate to gain winsthis thenumber, game: but as the of the playchances will oftener carry wins thechances game: but as the of the play himwill beyond thancarry exactly it, he is than then to returntoback 89,to oftener himtobeyond exactly it, hetoisno. then Which is atback oroonoko-river: whereisheatmust remain till itwhere comeshe return to no. 89, Which oroonoko-river: to his turnremain to spin try histofortune and this is must tilland it comes his turnagain; to spin and trymethod his fortune to be pursued by all the players, tillpursued one of them luckytill again; and this method is to be by allhits the the players, number”. one of them hits the lucky number”.

TheThe descriptions of the different destinations give anan abbredescriptions of the different destinations give abbreviated but but stillstill interesting account andand history of of each viated interesting account history eachplace, place, for example ‘6. Goeree - here the traveller must stay one turn.

island‘6.was taken-from in must 1759,stay andone restored forThis example Goeree here the the french traveller turn. to them the peace in 1763.’, ‘45. Manilla - the of the This islandatwas taken from the french in 1759, andcapital restored to philippine-islands, was taken by the english fromofthe them at the peace in 1763.’, ‘45. Manilla - the capital thespanphiliards in 1762,was who ransomed from plunder. ransom, ippine-islands, taken by the itenglish from the The spaniards in however, is not yet paid’. the pacific (not new 1762, who ransomed it fromInplunder.

Thenorth-west ransom, however, is york foundnorth-west ‘51. Long-island - lately discovered not yet city) paid’.could In thebepacific (not new york city) could conquered by the russians, from whence may be seen beand found ‘51. Long-island - lately and discovered and conquered by asia and The may natives tradeboth in canoes both theboth russians, and america. from whence be seen asia andtoamercontinents; andtrade thereiniscanoes all theto reason the worldand to suppose ica.

The natives both in continents; there is asia by of thiswas island.

Five allthat the america reason inwas thepeopled world tofrom suppose thatway america peopled of the to be esquimaux were brought from asianatives, by waythought of this island.

Five of the indians, natives, thought to be down to petersburg in 1764.

Here the traveller must stay three esquimaux indians, were brought down to petersburg in 1764. turns.’

‘58.must Thestay north west passage intoThe the north south west seas Here the And traveller three turns.’

And ‘58.

- discovered nich.

Shapley, from by new-england, through passage into theby south seas - discovered nich. Shapley, from hudson’s baythrough and by hudson’s admiral debay fonte, spanish admiral, froma new-england, andaby admiral de fonte, the south sea, through archipelago of st.the Lazarus, in 1640. spanish admiral, from thethe south sea, through archipelago of traveller, whoThe has traveller, been so who fortunate as tosofind his way st.The Lazarus, in 1640. has been fortunate as tothrough find his this waypassage, throughshall this be passage, shall removed to 79.’ cape removed to be cape horn, no. horn,Some no. 79.’ of the descriptions are perhaps not so accurate - ‘60.

Some of the perhaps not sodwell accurate - ‘60.

California - thedescriptions inhabitants are having no houses, in arbours California - theand inhabitants dwell- But in arbours in summer, creep intohaving cavesno in houses, the winter.’ would innonetheless summer, andappeal creep to into caves inaudience the winter.’

- But would nonea young conscious of britain’s theless appeal to across a youngthe audience conscious of the britain’s dominant role world, highlighting great domivictonant theempire. world, highlighting the great victories that riesrole thatacross won the won As thealways, empire.there are the hazard stops, notably ‘99. Bahama As always, there the hazardand stops, islands - noted forare shipwrecks, oftennotably fatal to‘99. the Bahama spanish islands - noted fatal to the galleons; and tofor theshipwrecks, traveller, whoand willoften be shipwrecked onspanthese ishislands, galleons; thechance traveller, be But shipwrecked on andand losetohis forwho the will game.’ perhaps the these his chance for theNewfoundland game.’ But perhaps the mostislands, “fun” and stoplose sounds to be “102.

- famous most “fun” stop sounds “102. the Newfoundland - famous for its cod-fishery, whichtoisbereputed greatest yet known in forthe itsworld. cod-fishery, which is reputed theone greatest yeteatknown Here the traveller must stay turn, to a dish in of thechauder world. *, Here traveller must stay one†.turn, eat a dish of andthe drink a cup of black strap (Thetosymbol referchauder and drink‘*a acup of black strapboiled †. (Thewith symbol referring to*,footnotes: large fresh cod, a piece of ring ‘* a large fresh with with a piece of fat fat to saltfootnotes: pork. † Spruce-beer andcod, rum,boiled sweetened treacle). salt pork. † Spruce-beer and rum, with treacle).

An interesting device, often sweetened seen on early maps is that An interesting device, hidden often seen on the early maps is that new new guinea is partially under decorative frame, to guinea is partially the decorative frame, to disguise disguise jefferys’hidden lack ofunder knowledge of the region. jefferys’ lack of knowledge of the region.

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1598

1770

Deutecum, Johannes Van Jr. Amsterdam

The Royal Geographical Pastime

The curious map book

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Thomas Sr. Jeffreys , London

‘Leo Belgicus.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’

‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’ [text:] ‘Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliû qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt.’ (“Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries)”) From Amsterdam Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (Separate publication) Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitû Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

the royal geographical pastime Exhibiting a complete tour round the world in which are delineated the north east and north west passages into the south sea, and other modern Discoveries, By Thomas Jefferys, geographer to the king london. 1st January 1770. Published according to the Statute of the 7.th of george iii.d by Tho.s Jefferys at the Corner of St Martin’s Lane. Entered in the Hall Book of the Stationers Company, and whoever presumes to Copy it will be prosecuted by the Proprietor, who will reward any Person that shall give Information of it.

[Welsh Feathers] To His Royal Highness george prince of wales, duke of cornwall, &c. &c. and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. This Plate is by permission most humbly Dedicated By his Royal Highnesses most Obedient and Devoted humble Servant T. Jefferys. [printed on a separate label, and pasted-over a blank space] From London : Thomas Jefferys sr., 1770 (separate publication) Copper engraving, border 484 x 472; with the side-panels of text: 505 x 695 mm.

Location BL, Maps * 950.(22.): original wash colour, previously dissected, now joined and laid on linen backing.

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While Jefferys was initially slow to add cartographic games to his repertoire of stock, once he did, he quickly introduced three game maps in three years: the previous entry, this map and the next entry.

Of the three, this is the most cartographically interesting. As described in the map – “Note This MAP is drawn upon a Stereographic projection, of which LONDON is the Centre. The Horizon is greatly extended, to exhibit the distant parts of the World at one View. ...” – the map is drawn on an unusual (to our eyes anyway) projection, by which all the world is visible in one plane, although the map extends outside the circular frame of the hemisphere. This is achieved by placing London at the heart of the world, and may well be a response to rival French mapmakers who frequently constructed their world maps with France at the centre. It is actually, and notwithstanding its purpose as a game, one of the best world maps to originate in England at the time.

Another interesting feature is that this one of the earliest printed maps to deliberately chose red as the colour for the British Empire, as noted in the key: “The Tour round the World is coloured _ _ _ Blue. The British Empire in America _ _ _ Red. The Russian Empire with their Discoveries in America. Brown.”

The ‘tour round Europe’ is a Game of Goose race; the side panels contain an explanation of the theme of the game, the manner in which is played, rules and description of the stops that each traveller could or would make in his passage round the board.

The winning stage is ‘103. LAND’S END – being the first pleasant place in England which is seen by mariners in their return from long voyages, and is equally wished for by the players – IS THE GAME’, but “The players attending to the instructions hereafter given, will proceed regularly towards No. 103, which is at the Land’s End; and he who is fortunate enough to gain this number, wins the game: But as the chances of the play will oftener carry him beyond than exactly to it, he is then to return back to No. 89, which is at Oroonoko-River: where he must remain till it comes to his turn to spin and try his fortune again; and this method is to be pursued by all the players, till one of them hits the lucky number”.

The descriptions of the different destinations give an abbreviated but still interesting account and history of each place, for

example ‘6. GOEREE – here the traveller must stay one turn.

This island was taken from the French in 1759, and restored to them at the peace in 1763.’, ‘45. MANILLA – the capital of the Philippine-Islands, was taken by the English from the Spaniards in 1762, who ransomed it from plunder. The ransom, however, is not yet paid’. In the Pacific North-West (not New York City) could be found ‘51. LONG-ISLAND – lately discovered and conquered by the Russians, and from whence may be seen both Asia and America. The natives trade in canoes to both continents; and there is all the reason in the world to suppose that America was peopled from Asia by way of this island. Five of the natives, thought to be Esquimaux Indians, were brought down to Petersburg in 1764. Here the traveller must stay three turns.’ and ‘58.

THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE into the South Seas – discovered by Nich. Shapley, from New-England, through Hudson’s Bay and by Admiral de Fonte, a Spanish admiral, from the South Sea, through the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, in 1640. The traveller, who has been so fortunate as to find his way through this Passage, shall be removed to Cape Horn, no. 79.’

Some of the descriptions are perhaps not so accurate – ‘60.

CALIFORNIA – the inhabitants having no houses, dwell in arbours in summer, and creep into caves in the winter.’ – but would nonetheless appeal to a young audience conscious of Britain’s dominant role across the world, highlighting the great victories that won the empire.

As always, there are the hazard stops, notably ‘99. BAHAMA ISLANDS – noted for shipwrecks, and often fatal to the Spanish galleons; and to the traveller, who will be shipwrecked on these islands, and lose his chance for the game.’ but perhaps the most “fun” stop sounds to be “102. NEWFOUNDLAND – famous for its cod-fishery, which is reputed the greatest yet known in the world. Here the traveller must stay one turn, to eat a dish of chauder *, and drink a cup of black strap †. (the symbol referring to footnotes: ‘* A large fresh cod, boiled with a piece of fat salt pork. † Spruce-beer and rum, sweetened with treacle).

An interesting device, often seen on early maps is that New Guinea is partially hidden under the decorative frame, to disguise Jefferys’ lack of knowledge of the region.

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Layout explorations for maps that fit on a single page For the second category of maps I decided to use one spread to show a part of the map at actual size and the second spread to show the enitre map at a smaller size along with all its corresponding text. I was working on both these kind of maps parallely to come up with a structure that suited both.

Transformation 17

[ca. 1772] T.P. London

This is a very unusual map of the path of true love, attributed to one ‘T.P. Hydrographer, to his Majesty Hymen, and Prince Cupid.’ The mariner - for his path lies over the water - has to pass from the ‘Sea of Common Life’ (at the left of this engraving) to ‘Felicity Harbour’ and the ‘Land of Promise’ (at right), navigating the many false turns and hazards marked on the map, such as ‘Rocks of Jealousy’, ‘Henpeckd sand’ and ‘Whirlpool of Adultery’. It is notable that ‘Felicity Harbour’ could be attained only after ‘The Harbour of Marriage’ had been successfully traversed.

The would-be lover is given advice on making this hazardous journey, ‘Directions for Sailing into Felicity Harbour. Your Virtue must your Pilot be; Your Compass, Prudence, Peace your Sea; Your Anchor, Hope; your Stoage [sic], Love; (To your true Course still constant prove) Your Ballast, Sense, and Reason pure, Must ever be your Cynosure.’

A lengthier account is engraved along the lower border describing the route, ‘Explanation. From the Sea of Common Life, we enter the Road of Love thro’ Blindmans Straits, between two noted Capes or Headlands; steering first for Money, Lust, and sometimes Virtue, but many Vessels endeavouring to make the latter are lost in the Whirlpool of Beauty; from this Road are many outlets, yet some Mariners neIther steer through these, nor continue their Voyage but come to their Moorings at Fastasleep Creek. Those who proceed reach Cape Ceremony, pass into the Harbour of Marriage through Fruition Straits and touch at Cape Extasy; care must be taken to keep still to the Starboard, lest we run upon sunken Rocks which lye about Cape Repentance; a good Pilot will also keep clear of the Rocks of Jealousy & Cuckoldom Bay and at least get into that of Content, some have past pleasant Straits and have arrived safe at Felicity Harbour, a Monsoon constantly blows from Fruition Straits quite up the Road, which renders a Passage back impracticable; a Tornado also arises sooner or later in those Parts and drives all Shipping tho moor’d at Content & even Felicity itself, thro the Gulf of Death, the only Outlet, terminating in the Lake of Rest.’

This engraving, although independent in production, is closely linked to a contemporary satire, composed by Henry Carey, first issued in 1745 and reprinted in 1772, entitled ‘Cupid and Hymen; a voyage to the isles of love and matrimony. Containing a most diverting account of the inhabitants of those two vast and populous countries, their laws, customs, and government. interspersed with many useful directions and cautions how to avoid the dangerous precipices and quicksands that these islands abound with, and wherein so many thousands, who have undertaken the voyage, have miserably perished. By the facetious H. C. and T. B. To which are added, a map of the island of marriage; The Batchelor’s Estimate of the expences attending a married life. The Married Man’s Answer to it; None but Fools Marry, a vindication of the estimate; and a boulster lecture ...’

A map or chart of the road of love, and harbour of marriage.

Laid down from the latest and best Authorities & regulated by my own Observations; The whole adjusted to the Latitude 51o 30 N. by T.P. Hydrographer, to his Majesty Hymen, and Prince Cupid. NB. The Long:de is reckon’d from y.e Meridian of Teens.’ ‘London. Printed for Rob.T Sayer, N.o 53, Fleet Street.’

From: London : Robert Sayer, [ca. 1772] (Separate publication) Copper engraving, widest: 181 x 292 mm

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T.P.

1 772

[ca. 1772], London

A map or chart of the road of love t.p., london

A map or chart of the road of love, and harbour of marriage.

Laid down from the latest and best Authorities & regulated by my own Observations; The whole adjusted to the Latitude 51o 30 N. by T.P. Hydrographer, to his Majesty Hymen, and Prince Cupid. NB. The Long:de is reckon’d from y.e Meridian of Teens.’ ‘London. Printed for Rob.T Sayer, N.o 53, Fleet Street.’

From: London : Robert Sayer, [ca. 1772] (Separate publication) Copper engraving, widest: 181 x 292 mm

This is a very unusual map of the path of true love, attributed to one ‘T.P. Hydrographer, to his Majesty Hymen, and Prince Cupid.’ The mariner - for his path lies over the water - has to pass from the ‘Sea of Common Life’ (at the left of this engraving) to ‘Felicity Harbour’ and the ‘Land of Promise’ (at right), navigating the many false turns and hazards marked on the map, such as ‘Rocks of Jealousy’, ‘Henpeckd sand’ and ‘Whirlpool of Adultery’. It is notable that ‘Felicity Harbour’ could be attained only after ‘The Harbour of Marriage’ had been successfully traversed.

The would-be lover is given advice on making this hazardous journey, ‘Directions for Sailing into Felicity Harbour. Your Virtue must your Pilot be; Your Compass, Prudence, Peace your Sea; Your Anchor, Hope; your Stoage [sic], Love; (To your true Course still constant prove) Your Ballast, Sense, and Reason pure, Must ever be your Cynosure.’

A lengthier account is engraved along the lower border describing the route, ‘EXPLANATION. From the Sea of Common Life, we enter the Road of Love thro’ Blindmans Straits, between two noted Capes or Headlands; steering first for Money, Lust, and sometimes Virtue, but many Vessels endeavouring to make the latter are lost in the Whirlpool of Beauty; from this Road are many outlets, yet some Mariners neIther steer through these, nor continue their Voyage but come to their Moorings at Fastasleep Creek. Those who proceed reach Cape Ceremony, pass into the Harbour of Marriage through Fruition Straits and touch at Cape Extasy; care must be taken to keep still to the Starboard, lest we run upon sunken Rocks which lye about Cape Repentance; a good Pilot will also keep clear of the Rocks of Jealousy & Cuckoldom Bay and at least get into that of Content, some have past pleasant Straits and have arrived safe at Felicity Harbour, a Monsoon constantly blows from Fruition Straits quite up the Road, which renders a Passage back impracticable; a Tornado also arises sooner or later in those Parts and drives all Shipping tho moor’d at Content & even Felicity itself, thro the Gulf of Death, the only Outlet, terminating in the Lake of Rest.’

This engraving, although independent in production, is closely linked to a contemporary satire, composed by Henry Carey, first issued in 1745 and reprinted in 1772, entitled ‘Cupid and Hymen; a voyage to the isles of love and matrimony. Containing a most diverting account of the inhabitants of those two vast and populous countries, their laws, customs, and government. interspersed with many useful directions and cautions how to avoid the dangerous precipices and quicksands that these islands abound with, and wherein so many thousands, who have undertaken the voyage, have miserably perished.

By the facetious H. C. and T. B. To which are added, a map of the island of marriage; The Batchelor’s Estimate of the expences attending a married life.

The Married Man’s Answer to it; None but Fools Marry, a vindication of the estimate; and a boulster lecture ...’

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Layout explorations for some odd-sized maps The third type of maps were ones which were oddly sized and neither fitted on a page nor were as big as the spread. These took some time to make a decision on.

18 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

‘The Avenger An Allegorical War Map For 1877.’ ‘London. Published by G.W. Bacon & C.o 127, Strand. Copyright.’ ‘All Rights Reserved.’

This is a second allegorical map relating to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877; on stylistic grounds and based on the publisher, George Washington Bacon, it too is attributed to Frederick W. Rose. The text is presented in two languages: English and German, presumably intended also for export there.

However, it presents a diametrically opposed political take on the war from the previous entry.

Here Russia is the ‘Avenger’, a winged, cloaked figure with shield bearing the Russian Romanov double-headed eagle.

Round his neck, he wears a heavy chain with motto ‘Liberation of the Serfs’, while his sword bears the ‘Protection to the Oppressed’. Here Russia is the hero coming to the rescue of the Balkan countries, with Rumania on her knees pleading for help, while Turkey recoils in shock, his scimitar still wet with the blood from the Bulgarian atrocities, symbolised by the two sculls and the body, pierced by a sword, on his lap.

The cartoonist commented, ‘Russia, represented by an allegorical figure of Progress, is punishing ‘the sick man’ Turkey, for the wanton outrages he has committed. On his breast is a bright jewel, and in his hand a sword, which is likely to prove successful. Hungary, alarmed at the disturbance and pointing out their common danger, is rousing her brother Austria, and asking him whether it would not be advisable for them to interfere in the fray.’

From London : George Washington Bacon, [1877] (separate publication) Chromolithograph, border 447 x 601 mm Location Maps 1035.(302.): original colour, with the BL Acquisition stamp ‘15 Mar [18]80’ with Bacon’s map of Turkey in Europe and Greece printed on the verso

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In the south, Greece eagerly awaits the outcome, reading the note ‘God helps those who helps themselves’, apparently eager to see what spoils might come his way from the war; ‘Candia’ (Crete) has her hands bound, prisoner of the cruel Turks.

France is preoccupied; Power, the government, is struggling with the people, wearing the cap ‘Liberty Equality Fraternity’, apparently a left-over of the civil unrest after the Franco-Prussian War; Germany, heavily armed, seems more preoccupied by France than Russia; his formidable array of artillery is aimed in that direction.

Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Holland are unconcerned by these distant events, while Switzerland is shown as a land of clockmakers! Italy is depicted as the devil, and a puppet-master, dangling the pope on strings, while the Sicilians are more interested in the ransoms to be collected from travellers through the island.

Of the countries of the British Isles, it seems that of these only England is concerned with the outcome of the war; depicted as St. George, England’s patron saint, England is trying to slay the dragon, here the ‘Eastern Question’ – the consequences of the decline of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, commonly known as the ‘sick man of Europe’ – while Scotland is carrying a collected volume of the novels of Sir Walter Scott.

Exploring layouts for the text pages While deciding on a system to display maps within the book, I also explored various ways in which the text could be composed. The challenge was the varying lengths of the essays for the various maps. Hence while it was about coming up with an interesting layout, it was also about deciding on a template that would work for all lengths of text. Initially, I was going to have all text pages in single columns, with the longer texts set in double columns.

However, as the design evolved, I realised using a two column setting for all essays gave the book a balanced and clean look.

1598 Deutecum, Johannes van jr.

Amsterdam ‘Leo Belgicus.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’ [text:] ‘Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliū qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt.’ (“Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries)”) From Amsterdam Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (Separate publication) Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm.

Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour.

1598 Deutecum, Johannes van jr. - Amsterdam

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt.

In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

1598 Deutecum, Johannes van jr.

Amsterdam

‘LEO BELGICUS.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’

‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved

by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

00

1598 Deutecum, Johannes van jr.

Amsterdam ‘Leo Belgicus.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original.

The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

[text:] ‘Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliū qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt.’ (“Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries)”) From Amsterdam Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (Separate publication) Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm.

Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour.

00

1598 Deutecum, Johannes van jr. -Amsterdam

1518 The Royal Geographical Pastime

‘Leo Belgicus.’ ‘Iohann van Doetechum fecit.’

‘CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650.’

[text:] ‘Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliū qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt.’ (“Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries)”) From Amsterdam Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (Separate publication) Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm.

Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour.

Thomas Sr. Jeffreys , London

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ - the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands.

Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries - the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the “body” of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy - Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico ..., 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original.

The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland).

Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

This island was taken from the french in 1759, and restored to them at the peace in 1763.’, ‘45. Manilla - the capital of the philippine-islands, was taken by the english from the spaniards in 1762, who ransomed it from plunder. The ransom, however, is not yet paid’. In the pacific north-west (not new york city) could be found ‘51. Long-island - lately discovered and conquered by the russians, and from whence may be seen both asia and america. The natives trade in canoes to both continents; and there is all the reason in the world to suppose that america was peopled from asia by way of this island. Five of the natives, thought to be esquimaux indians, were brought down to petersburg in 1764. Here the traveller must stay three turns.’ And ‘58. The north west passage into the south seas - discovered by nich. Shapley, from new-england, through hudson’s bay and by admiral de fonte, a spanish admiral, from the south sea, through the archipelago of st. Lazarus, in 1640.

The traveller, who has been so fortunate as to find his way through this passage, shall be removed to cape horn, no. 79.’

Some of the descriptions are perhaps not so accurate - ‘60.

California - the inhabitants having no houses, dwell in arbours in summer, and creep into caves in the winter.’ - But would nonetheless appeal to a young audience conscious of britain’s dominant role across the world, highlighting the great victories that won the empire.

As always, there are the hazard stops, notably ‘99. Bahama islands - noted for shipwrecks, and often fatal to the spanish galleons; and to the traveller, who will be shipwrecked on these islands, and lose his chance for the game.’ But perhaps the most “fun” stop sounds to be “102. Newfoundland - famous for its cod-fishery, which is reputed the greatest yet known in the world. Here the traveller must stay one turn, to eat a dish of chauder *, and drink a cup of black strap †. (The symbol referring to footnotes: ‘* a large fresh cod, boiled with a piece of fat salt pork. † Spruce-beer and rum, sweetened with treacle).

An interesting device, often seen on early maps is that new guinea is partially hidden under the decorative frame, to disguise jefferys’ lack of knowledge of the region.

While jefferys was initially slow to add cartographic games to his repertoire of stock, once he did, he quickly introduced three game maps in three years: the previous entry, this map and the next entry.

Of the three, this is the most cartographically interesting. As described in the map - “note this map is drawn upon a stereographic projection, of which london is the centre. The horizon is greatly extended, to exhibit the distant parts of the world at one view. ...” - The map is drawn on an unusual (to our eyes anyway) projection, by which all the world is visible in one plane, although the map extends outside the circular frame of the hemisphere. This is achieved by placing london at the heart of the world, and may well be a response to rival french mapmakers who frequently constructed their world maps with france at the centre. It is actually, and notwithstanding its purpose as a game, one of the best world maps to originate in england at the time.

Another interesting feature is that this one of the earliest printed maps to deliberately chose red as the colour for the british empire, as noted in the key: “the tour round the world is coloured blue. The british empire in america red. The russian empire with their discoveries in america. Brown.”

The ‘tour round europe’ is a game of goose race; the side panels contain an explanation of the theme of the game, the manner in which is played, rules and description of the stops that each traveller could or would make in his passage round the board.

The winning stage is ‘103. Land’s end - being the first pleasant place in england which is seen by mariners in their return from long voyages, and is equally wished for by the players - is the game’, but “the players attending to the instructions hereafter given, will proceed regularly towards no. 103, Which is at the land’s end; and he who is fortunate enough to gain this number, wins the game: but as the chances of the play will oftener carry him beyond than exactly to it, he is then to return back to no. 89, Which is at oroonoko-river: where he must remain till it comes to his turn to spin and try his fortune again; and this method is to be pursued by all the players, till one of them hits the lucky number”.

The descriptions of the different destinations give an abbreviated but still interesting account and history of each place, for example ‘6. Goeree - here the traveller must stay one turn.

00

The curious map book

The curious map book 00

Exploring layouts for the text pages.

Transformation 19

Details within type Treatment of captions After the first meeting it was decided to divide the text into the main text and the caption. Hence the caption to be placed along with the images included all the information apart from the detailed essay on each map. These captions needed hierarchy and the correct treatment in order to serve the purpose. I explored several ways of treating the captions.

A discussion with Paul made me realise that a part of each caption was the bibliographical description of the map and ideally needs to be set in a particular manner to match the way the title is set on the actual map.

‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature map of England and Wales.’ ‘Dighton Del.’ ‘London Printed for Bowles & Carver, No. 69 St Paul’s Church Yard.’

‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature map of england and wales.’ ‘Dighton Del.’ ‘London Printed for Bowles & Carver, No. 69 St Paul’s Church Yard.’

From London, Henry Carington Bowles & Samuel Carver, [ca. 1795] (separate publication) Copper engraving, image 181 x 156 mm Location Maps C.27.f.15.(1)

From London, Henry Carington Bowles & Samuel Carver, [ca. 1795] (separate publication) Copper engraving, image 181 x 156 mm Location Maps C.27.f.15.(1)

‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature MAP OF ENGLAND and WALES.’ ‘Dighton Del.’ ‘London Printed for Bowles & Carver, No. 69 St Paul’s Church Yard.’

‘Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature Map of England and Wales.’ ‘Dighton Del.’ ‘London Printed for Bowles & Carver, No. 69 St Paul’s Church Yard.’

From London, Henry Carington Bowles & Samuel Carver, [ca. 1795] (separate publication) Copper engraving, image 181 x 156 mm Location Maps C.27.f.15.(1)

From London, Henry Carington Bowles & Samuel Carver, [ca. 1795] (separate publication) Copper engraving, image 181 x 156 mm Location Maps C.27.f.15.(1)

Explorations showing variations tried out for hierarchy within captions.

20 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Titles Titles play the most important role for the navigation of this book. Since the structure for the image and the text would nearly be the same for each map, it is the titles that would direct the reader. Initially I began with the question of what would be the titles for each essay and in what order. What was provided within the text apart from what I was including in the captions, was the year, name of either the creater or the artist of the map and the place where it was made.

Hence, my first explorations were with these three elements.

However, further in the next weeks I realised that every essay needed an essential heading apart from these three elements, something that gives the reader a hint about the map. I took an editorial decision here to generate headings for the text on each map which was either the name of the map or picked up from the text itself. The client agreed to this idea and said it was a reader-driven approach to design, which would be helpful.

1518

1518

1518

vtopiae insvlae figvra thomas more, basel

vtopiae insvlae figvra

vtopiae insvlae figvra

1518 vtopiae insvlae figvra

Thomas More, Basel

Thomas More, Basel

thomas more, basel

1518

1518 vtopiae insvlae figvra thomas more, basel

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra Thomas More, Basel

Some initial explorations with Bulmer Mt Std. Exploring various ways of creating hierarchy.

1518

1518

1518

Vtopis Insvlae Figvra

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra

Thomas More, Basel

Thomas More, Basel

thomas more, basel

Use of Snell Roundhand for the titles.

Combining it with Bulmer. Use of colour for the years.

Transformation  21

Introduction section The introduction spreads were worked on from the first meeting itself. Though the manuscript included only text for the introduction, I decided to include pictures of maps that were discussed in order to make it more interesting and engaging. The options discussed for these spreads explored various ways of integrating the images of these maps within the text.

game maps

game maps

London in or about 1762.

Maps certainly lent themselves to being used as jigsaw puzzles, even if the early makers struggled with the intricacies of faithfully following the boundaries of counties or countries in the dissection process. With mechanisation these processes became easier but this was coupled with a decline in the overall quality of the jigsaws, away from the heavier wooden backing to the lighter and flimsier cardboard of modern games.

The first published cartographic-based games seem to have emerged in England, which is somewhat of a surprise, as relatively England was a publishing backwater at the period in question the 1590s.

The earliest set of geographical playing cards were published in London in 1590; they were much reduced copies of the maps of the counties of England and Wales taken from Christopher Saxton’s atlas of 1579; the cards were engraved by Augustine Ryther, one of the principal engravers for Saxton; the pack is of considerable rarity but the British Library was able to add a complete set to its collections as recently as 2013. A second set of map cards, attributed to the same man, appeared in 1605.

On 16th June, 1597 John Wolfe “Entred for his Copie vnder master Hartwelles and both the wardens handes ‘the new and most pleasant game of the goose’ ...” in the Registers of the Stationers’ Company, the City of London guild that supervised and regulated printing in London (Arber, Stationers’ Company Registers, 1554-1640 III. 77; p.17). The game of the goose is a spiral race game that was suited to presentation in map form by the movement from square to square. Whether Wolfe’s game was map-based, we do not know: there is no known extant example; nor, so far as we can tell, are there later printings or even later copies by other English publishers that might give a clue.

The earliest recorded board games featuring maps appeared in Paris, published by Pierre Duval from 1645 onwards, based on the game of the goose, in which the players moved round a spiral course composed of individual circles containing sections of a map. The maps were part of a general stock of maps aimed at a mature market: the game map of France (1659) is overtly a gambling game: the players decide upon the financial stake and play for money.

As said before, race games of this kind were particularly suited to map themes, and game of the goose maps predominate map races games, although by the mid-eighteenth century British publishers were discarding the more structured format of the goose game in favour of games based on travelling around actual maps, reflecting a change in emphasis. By the 1750s, and certainly by the 1780s, English game publishers were deliberately recasting their map games as for educational purposes, increasingly aimed at a junior audience by emphasising learning through pleasure.

Again in England, appeared the first commercially produced jigsaw maps, sold by John Spilsbury, although the creator may have been French. A London trade-directory of 1763 contains an entry for a Leprince who styled himself “Inventor of the dissection of maps on wood”; this may refer to Jeanne-Marie le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780), a French tutor and educationalist who was certainly both using and supplying dissected wooden maps in her school but who returned to France in 1762, or one of her half-brothers: the engraver Jean-Baptiste le Prince (1734-1781) or Jean-Robert le Prince, a geographer who died in

maps in animal form The most frequently encountered of these maps is the depiction of countries in animal - anthropomorphic - form; the most famous of these form a tight grouping: the Leos. During the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, Amsterdam publishers produced a series of propaganda maps - Leo Belgicus [Maps xx and xx] - representing the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) as an invincible lion, standing firm against the oppressor; the lion, a common symbol in the arms of the towns and cities of the Low Countries, encapsulated the armed struggle of the (small) Netherlands against the might of the Spanish Empire. As the struggle evolved a subsidiary group emerged; it became clear that the southern provinces - modern Belgium - would not win their independence, while the northern provinces - modern Holland - might; as Holland’s cause advanced, Leo Hollandicus emerged, depicting the seven United Provinces as a triumphant lion [Map xx].

Later mapmakers popularised the octopus as a not too subtle means of portraying a country as evil and grasping, with Russia a frequent choice [see Map xx, for example], but Falmouth Town Council [Map xx] and the landowners of London [Map xx] were similarly portrayed, these two later in more overtly political maps.

Satirical maps from the First World War often portrayed countries as animals reflecting national characteristics: the British bulldog, the French poodle and Germany as either a dachshund [Map xx] or an eagle [Map xx], while the first map in this book exemplifies regions of the world through imagery created from legendary mediaeval accounts, travellers’ tales and the like.

maps in human form Maps in human form are more readily understood; Britain was oft-portrayed as John Bull, possibly with Churchillian features [Map xx], while the United States could appear as Uncle Sam [Map xx]. Earlier maps portrayed Europe as a queen [Map xx], while a Filipino cartographer sought to portray the Spanish Empire in similar form [Map xx].

Other mapmakers took their inspiration from shapes of continents, countries or regions: Bunting when he portrayed Asia as the winged horse Pegasus; Rudbeck when he depicted the Baltic Sea as Charon, the boatman from classical tale; Robert Dighton in his depiction of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in human form, but Lilian Lancaster is perhaps the most famous exponent of caricature maps, with several of hers represented

Johannes van jr., 1598, pg. 48

00

means of portraying a country as evil and grasping, with Russia a frequent choice [see Map xx, for example], but Falmouth Town Council [Map xx] and the landowners of London [Map xx] were similarly portrayed, these two later in more overtly political maps.

Satirical maps from the First World War often portrayed countries as animals reflecting national characteristics: the British bulldog, the French poodle and Germany as either a dachshund [Map xx] or an eagle [Map xx], while the first map in this book exemplifies regions of the world through imagery created from legendary mediaeval accounts, travellers’ tales and the like.

Vicente de Memije, 1761, pg.66

Edward Wallis, 1844, pg. 84

commemorative, for example this simple jug celebrating Nelson’s great triumph over the French at the Battle of Trafalgar [Map xx], but elaborate dinner services were made. Sadly because of the fragility of porcelain, very few of the oldest examples survive.

Hancock was also a pioneer of printing onto calico, an unfinished cotton cloth, suitable for souvenir maps, scarves and the like. Unfortunately, although the British Museum (and now) the British Library are a deposit library for printed materials, this does not include china items which are not considered part of the main stream collection and so, sadly, are greatly under-represented in the Library’s collections.

Another rare genre is map-screens: room-dividers of canvas stretched over wooden frames and decorated with maps. These were particularly popular in the eighteenth century as ostentatious personal display of wealth and culture, in which the most important element was the impression created, rather than the maps themselves. Today four screens with printed maps are known; the British Library has two, with the most dramatic described as [Map xx].

The first published cartographic-based games seem to have emerged in England, which is somewhat of a surprise, as relatively England was a publishing backwater at the period in question the 1590s.

The earliest set of geographical playing cards were published in London in 1590; they were much reduced copies of the maps of the counties of England and Wales taken from Christopher Saxton’s atlas of 1579; the cards were engraved by Augustine Ryther, one of the principal engravers for Saxton; the pack is of considerable rarity but the British Library was able to add a complete set to its collections as recently as 2013. A second set of map cards, attributed to the same man, appeared in 1605.

On 16th June, 1597 John Wolfe “Entred for his Copie vnder master Hartwelles and both the wardens handes ‘the new and most pleasant game of the goose’ ...” in the Registers of the Stationers’ Company, the City of London guild that supervised and regulated printing in London (Arber, Stationers’ Company Registers, 1554-1640 III. 77; p.17). The game of the goose is a spiral race game that was suited to presentation in map form by the movement from square to square. Whether Wolfe’s game was map-based, we do not know: there is no known extant example; nor, so far as we can tell, are there later printings or even later copies by other English publishers that might give a clue.

The earliest recorded board games featuring maps appeared in Paris, published by Pierre Duval from 1645 onwards, based on the game of the goose, in which the players moved round a spiral course composed of individual circles containing sections of a map. The maps were part of a general stock of maps aimed at a mature market: the game map of France (1659) is overtly a gambling game: the players decide upon the financial stake and play for money.

As said before, race games of this kind were particularly suited to map themes, and game of the goose maps predominate map races games, although by the mid-eighteenth century British publishers were discarding the more structured format of the goose game in favour of games based on travelling around actual maps, reflecting a change in emphasis. By the 1750s, and certainly by the 1780s, English game publishers were deliberately recasting their map games as for educational purposes, increasingly aimed at a junior audience by emphasising learning through pleasure.

Again in England, appeared the first commercially produced jigsaw maps, sold by John Spilsbury, although the creator may have been French. A London trade-directory of 1763 contains an entry for a Leprince who styled himself “Inventor of the dissection of maps on wood”; this may refer to Jeanne-Marie le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780), a French tutor and educationalist who was certainly both using and supplying dissected wooden maps in her school but who returned to France in 1762, or one of her half-brothers: the engraver Jean-Baptiste le Prince (1734-1781) or Jean-Robert le Prince, a geographer who died in

00

political, moral and religious maps Perhaps the smallest category represented here are those maps made for overt political purposes. A large number of propaganda maps were prepared at the time of World War II, by both Axis and Allied Powers, a number sufficient to form a study of their own, but with their unpleasant religious and racist overtones are not represented here.

The most spectacular of the maps included is very rare sixteen sheet wall-map of the world, a vicious Protestant attack on the (Catholic) Papacy, portraying the many “crimes” of the Catholic Church as the central part of the map, within the jaws of the Devil, while the (righteous) Protestant rulers have this Catholic world under siege.

King George IV and his consort Queen Caroline, during which she was barred from his Coronation - and physically locked out on the day - and ended only with her sad demise three weeks later.

If it is hard to see divorce as a subject of political humour, it is all the more perplexing that the outbreak of the First World War spawned a number of satirical maps and games, as if the rival powers were participating in an elaborate game of fancy dress; the harsh reality of an ever-increasingly brutal war of attrition saw these games disappear, but the war is depicted as a battle between different breeds of dog [map xx], John Bull against the German eagle [map xx], a throwing game, with Germany as the target [map xx] and a game of dexterity [map xx].

And yet it was so portrayed, but the boundaries of the uses that maps could be put to, seems only to have been limited by the imagination of their maker, as will be seen in the following pages.

maps on objects Having already mentioned jigsaws, another English invention was transfer-printing, a process whereby an image would be created on a flat-printing plate, printed to paper and while the ink was still wet transferred to a curved surface. The credit for this goes to Robert Hancock (1731-1817) working at the Worcester porcelain factory in the early 1750s; many of the maps of this type were

Other mapmakers took their inspiration from shapes of continents, countries or regions: Bunting when he portrayed Asia as the winged horse Pegasus; Rudbeck when he depicted the Baltic Sea as Charon, the boatman from classical tale; Robert Dighton in his depiction of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in human form, but Lilian Lancaster is perhaps the most famous exponent of caricature maps, with several of hers represented here, including two manuscript maps finding humour in the 1880 United States Presidential election campaign.

While one thinks of the Victorian age as being one of increasingly moralistic religious tone in both public and private life, the roots are often said to lie in the late Georgian period of the eighteenth century, where authors and mapmakers exhorted the reader to follow a narrow path through life, where diversion from the path was to risk one’s soul; yet the roots go back further; Sir Thomas More, in 1516, used a map to illustrate his description of Utopia [Map xx]; while John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progess ... was suited to illustration by a map, it was only in the eighteenth century that such depictions were inserted, and inspired subsequent generation of moralising authors.

Perhaps surprisingly, one subject that seems ideally suited to being mapped is the course of true love. Madame de Scudery, in 1655, created a map of the land of Tenderness as a moral guide for a young lady, although the emphasis was not on the reality of love as an emotion but on the spirituality: on the propriety of doing the right thing as dictated by the head not the heart. Later mapmakers, among them Robert Sayer in 1772 [Map xx], saw love as a journey by sea, through treacherous and uncharted waters. In contrast, Matthaus Seutter, in the 1730s, portrayed love as war: the heart as a castle besieged by an admirer, to be defended at all cost.

Then, maps could also be used to portray when things went wrong, as in Joseph Onwyn’s ‘Map of Green Bag Land’, [1820], a satire on the lengthy and increasingly bitter divorce battle between

22 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

maps in human form

The most frequently encountered of these maps is the depiction of countries in animal - anthropomorphic - form; the most famous of these form a tight grouping: the Leos. During the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, Amsterdam publishers produced a series of propaganda maps - Leo Belgicus [Maps xx and xx] - representing the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) as an invincible lion, standing firm against the oppressor; the lion, a common symbol in the arms of the towns and cities of the Low Countries, encapsulated the armed struggle of the (small) Netherlands against the might of the Spanish Empire. As the struggle evolved a subsidiary group emerged; it became clear that the southern provinces - modern Belgium - would not win their independence, while the northern provinces - modern Holland - might; as Holland’s cause advanced, Leo Hollandicus emerged, depicting the seven United Provinces as a triumphant lion [Map xx].

Later mapmakers popularised the octopus as a not too subtle means of portraying a country as evil and grasping, with Russia a frequent choice [see Map xx, for example], but Falmouth Town Council [Map xx] and the landowners of London [Map xx] were similarly portrayed, these two later in more overtly political maps.

Satirical maps from the First World War often portrayed countries as animals reflecting national characteristics: the British bulldog, the French poodle and Germany as either a dachshund [Map xx] or an eagle [Map xx], while the first map in this book exemplifies regions of the world through imagery created from legendary mediaeval accounts, travellers’ tales and the like.

Maps in human form are more readily understood; Britain was oft-portrayed as John Bull, possibly with Churchillian features [Map xx], while the United States could appear as Uncle Sam [Map xx]. Earlier maps portrayed Europe as a queen [Map xx], while a Filipino cartographer sought to portray the Spanish Empire in similar form [Map xx].

Other mapmakers took their inspiration from shapes of continents, countries or regions: Bunting when he portrayed Asia as the winged horse Pegasus; Rudbeck when he depicted the Baltic Sea as Charon, the boatman from classical tale; Robert Dighton in his depiction of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in human form, but Lilian Lancaster is perhaps the most famous exponent of caricature maps, with several of hers represented here, including two manuscript maps finding humour in the 1880 United States Presidential election campaign.

Edward Wallis, 1844, pg. 84

Johannes van jr., 1598, pg. 48

Vicente de Memije, 1761, pg.66

00

maps on objects

political, moral and religious maps

Having already mentioned jigsaws, another English invention was transfer-printing, a process whereby an image would be created on a flat-printing plate, printed to paper and while the ink was still wet transferred to a curved surface. The credit for this goes to Robert Hancock (1731-1817) working at the Worcester porcelain factory in the early 1750s; many of the maps of this type were commemorative, for example this simple jug celebrating Nelson’s great triumph over the French at the Battle of Trafalgar [Map xx], but elaborate dinner services were made. Sadly because of the fragility of porcelain, very few of the oldest examples survive.

Hancock was also a pioneer of printing onto calico, an unfinished cotton cloth, suitable for souvenir maps, scarves and the like. Unfortunately, although the British Museum (and now) the

British Library are a deposit library for printed materials, this does not include china items which are not considered part of the main stream collection and so, sadly, are greatly under-represented in the Library’s collections.

Another rare genre is map-screens: room-dividers of canvas stretched over wooden frames and decorated with maps. These were particularly popular in the eighteenth century as ostentatious personal display of wealth and culture, in which the most important element was the impression created, rather than the maps themselves. Today four screens with printed maps are known; the British Library has two, with the most dramatic described as [Map xx].

Perhaps the smallest category represented here are those maps made for overt political purposes. A large number of propaganda maps were prepared at the time of World War II, by both Axis and Allied Powers, a number sufficient to form a study of their own, but with their unpleasant religious and racist overtones are not represented here.

The most spectacular of the maps included is very rare sixteen sheet wall-map of the world, a vicious Protestant attack on the (Catholic) Papacy, portraying the many “crimes” of the Catholic Church as the central part of the map, within the jaws of the Devil, while the (righteous) Protestant rulers have this Catholic world under siege.

While one thinks of the Victorian age as being one of increasingly moralistic religious tone in both public and private life, the roots are often said to lie in the late Georgian period of the eighteenth century, where authors and mapmakers exhorted the reader to follow a narrow path through life, where diversion from the path was to risk one’s soul; yet the roots go back further; Sir Thomas More, in 1516, used a map to illustrate his description of Utopia [Map xx]; while John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progess ... was suited to illustration by a map, it was only in the eighteenth century that such depictions were inserted, and inspired subsequent generation of moralising authors.

Perhaps surprisingly, one subject that seems ideally suited to being mapped is the course of true love. Madame de Scudery, in 1655, created a map of the land of Tenderness as a moral guide for

Georg Matthaus sr., 1735, pg. 60 T.P., 1772, pg. 70

00

Spreads from the introduction section depicting four different ways of inserting images into the text.

maps in animal form

00

maps in human form Maps in human form are more readily understood; Britain was oft-portrayed as John Bull, possibly with Churchillian features [Map xx], while the United States could appear as Uncle Sam [Map xx]. Earlier maps portrayed Europe as a queen [Map xx], while a Filipino cartographer sought to portray the Spanish Empire in similar form [Map xx].

London in or about 1762.

Maps certainly lent themselves to being used as jigsaw puzzles, even if the early makers struggled with the intricacies of faithfully following the boundaries of counties or countries in the dissection process. With mechanisation these processes became easier but this was coupled with a decline in the overall quality of the jigsaws, away from the heavier wooden backing to the lighter and flimsier cardboard of modern games.

00

a young lady, although the emphasis was not on the reality of love as an emotion but on the spirituality: on the propriety of doing the right thing as dictated by the head not the heart. Later mapmakers, among them Robert Sayer in 1772 [Map xx], saw love as a journey by sea, through treacherous and uncharted waters. In contrast, Matthaus Seutter, in the 1730s, portrayed love as war: the heart as a castle besieged by an admirer, to be defended at all cost.

Then, maps could also be used to portray when things went wrong, as in Joseph Onwyn’s ‘Map of Green Bag Land’, [1820], a satire on the lengthy and increasingly bitter divorce battle between King George IV and his consort Queen Caroline, during which she was barred from his Coronation - and physically locked out on the day - and ended only with her sad demise three weeks later.

If it is hard to see divorce as a subject of political humour, it is all the more perplexing that the outbreak of the First World War spawned a number of satirical maps and games, as if the rival powers were participating in an elaborate game of fancy dress; the harsh reality of an ever-increasingly brutal war of attrition saw these games disappear, but the war is depicted as a battle between different breeds of dog [map xx], John Bull against the German eagle [map xx], a throwing game, with Germany as the target [map xx] and a game of dexterity [map xx].

And yet it was so portrayed, but the boundaries of the uses that maps could be put to, seems only to have been limited by the imagination of their maker, as will be seen in the following pages.

Game maps

Introduction Map-users are accustomed to looking and treating maps as geographical tools: for position-finding, way-finding and such like, but maps having long been used for other purposes. Many is the map that, by word or design, promoted the importance of a region, a country, a ruler through pictorial representation in the map.

This has long been part and parcel of map-making; until at least the late eighteenth century most mapmaking was conducted by private companies, reliant on generating income; it is really only from the nineteenth century that state-financed mapping agencies supercede the individual.

However, it was also found that maps could be used to serve other purposes.

If we regard the quest for geographical accuracy as the geographer at work, then this second vein of cartography might well be called the mapmaker at play: able to give full rein to his imagination to produce cartographic images that at one and the same time entertain the viewer, convey the message of the mapmaker, and all this while sometimes having little or no real useful geographical function.

There is no widely accepted umbrella term for such maps: colloquially they are often termed ‘cartographic curiosities’ as being both cartographic and curious but, perhaps, this casual term underplays the significance of many of the maps, particularly those with a overt political or religious agenda, and yet no better term has emerged for what is quite a disparate grouping – as will be seen in the selection of items in this volume.

The selection of maps can be broken down into broad bands, but which are not mutually exclusive: · as games · representing countries as animals · representing countries as people · as objects · the political, religious or moral

gambling game: the players decide upon the financial stake and play for money.

As said before, race games of this kind were particularly suited to map themes, and game of the goose maps predominate map races games, although by the mid-eighteenth century British publishers were discarding the more structured format of the goose game in favour of games based on travelling around actual maps, reflecting a change in emphasis. By the 1750s, and certainly by the 1780s, English game publishers were deliberately recasting their map games as for educational purposes, increasingly aimed at a junior audience by emphasising learning through pleasure.

Again in England, appeared the first commercially produced jigsaw maps, sold by John Spilsbury, although the creator may have been French. A London trade-directory of 1763 contains an entry for a Leprince who styled himself ‘Inventor of the dissection of maps on wood’; this may refer to Jeanne-Marie le Prince de Beaumont (1711–1780), a French tutor and educationalist who was certainly both using and supplying dissected wooden maps in her school but who returned to France in 1762, or one of her half-brothers: the engraver Jean-Baptiste le Prince (1734–1781) or Jean-Robert le Prince, a geographer who died in London in or about 1762.

Maps certainly lent themselves to being used as jigsaw puzzles, even if the early makers struggled with the intricacies of faithfully following the boundaries of counties or countries in the dissection process. With mechanisation these processes became easier but this was coupled with a decline in the overall quality of the jigsaws, away from the heavier wooden backing to the lighter and flimsier cardboard of modern games.

The first published cartographic-based games seem to have emerged in England, which is somewhat of a surprise, as relatively England was a publishing backwater at the period in question – the 1590s.

The earliest set of geographical playing cards were published in London in 1590; they were much reduced copies of the maps of the counties of England and Wales taken from Christopher Saxton’s atlas of 1579; the cards were engraved by Augustine Ryther, one of the principal engravers for Saxton; the pack is of considerable rarity but the British Library was able to add a complete set to its collections as recently as 2013. A second set of map cards, attributed to the same man, appeared in 1605.

On 16th June, 1597 John Wolfe ‘Entred for his Copie vnder master Hartwelles and both the wardens handes ‘the new and most pleasant game of the goose’ . . .’ in the Registers of the Stationers’ Company, the City of London guild that supervised and regulated printing in London (Arber, Stationers’ Company Registers, 1554–1640 III. 77; p.17). The game of the goose is a spiral race game that was suited to presentation in map form by the movement from square to square. Whether Wolfe’s game was map-based, we do not know: there is no known extant example; nor, so far as we can tell, are there later printings or even later copies by other English publishers that might give a clue.

The earliest recorded board games featuring maps appeared in Paris, published by Pierre Duval from 1645 onwards, based on the game of the goose, in which the players moved round a spiral course composed of individual circles containing sections of a map. The maps were part of a general stock of maps aimed at a mature market: the game map of France (1659) is overtly a

Map produced to coincide with the great Crystal Palace Exhibition held in London in 1851. p. 45

8

9

Maps in animal form

Maps in human form

The most frequently encountered of these maps is the depiction of countries in animal - anthropomorphic - form; the most famous of these form a tight grouping: the Leos. During the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, Amsterdam publishers produced a series of propaganda maps – Leo Belgicus [Maps 3 and 8] – representing the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) as an invincible lion, standing firm against the oppressor; the lion, a common symbol in the arms of the towns and cities of the Low Countries, encapsulated the armed struggle of the (small) Netherlands against the might of the Spanish Empire. As the struggle evolved a subsidiary group emerged; it became clear that the southern provinces – modern Belgium – would not win their independence, while the northern provinces – modern Holland – might; as Holland’s

cause advanced, Leo Hollandicus emerged, depicting the seven United Provinces as a triumphant lion [Map 8].

Later mapmakers popularised the octopus as a not too subtle means of portraying a country as evil and grasping, with Russia a frequent choice [see Map 22, for example], but Falmouth Town Council [Map 99] and the landowners of London [Map xx] were similarly portrayed, these two later in more overtly political maps.

Satirical maps from the First World War often portrayed countries as animals reflecting national characteristics: the British bulldog, the French poodle and Germany as either a dachshund [Map 56] or an eagle [Map34], while the first map in this book exemplifies regions of the world through imagery created from legendary mediaeval accounts, travellers’ tales and the like.

Maps in human form are more readily understood; Britain was oft-portrayed as John Bull, possibly with Churchillian features [Map12], while the United States could appear as Uncle Sam [Map24]. Earlier maps portrayed Europe as a queen [Map xx], while a Filipino cartographer sought to portray the Spanish Empire in similar form [Map 55].

Other mapmakers took their inspiration from shapes of continents, countries or regions: Bunting when he portrayed Asia as

the winged horse Pegasus; Rudbeck when he depicted the Baltic Sea as Charon, the boatman from classical tale; Robert Dighton in his depiction of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in human form, but Lilian Lancaster is perhaps the most famous exponent of caricature maps, with several of hers represented here, including two manuscript maps finding humour in the 1880 United States Presidential election campaign.

Leo Belgicus, representing Belgium as an invincible lion, standing firm against the oppressor. p.16.

This striking map from 1761depicts the Spanish overseas possessions in the guise of a queen. p. 24

10

11

Spreads from the final introduction section. I decided on having one page per type of map explained.

Transformation 23

Cover explorations While briefing me for the project David expressed his views about the importance of the cover of such a book. He wanted the cover to be designed in a way that it is attractive when seen on websites as well. While I was researching how the cover for this book should be like, taking the name of the book into consideration seemed like a good idea. What could make people curious about the book? What could make customers pick it up the shelf and open and have a look inside? Most map books have a combination of maps on them. What should be different about this book? With these questions in mind I explored several cover designs.

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

The

CURIOUS MAP

Book

Explorations of typographic covers. I wanted to highlight the name of the book taking inspiration from the kind of typeforms used within the various maps in the book.

24 窶ケrofessional assignment / The Curious Map Book

The Curious MAP Book

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

The Curious Map Book

The Curious Map Book

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK Ashley Baynton-Williams

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

These were some explorations based on conventional covers. The one on the top brings together several maps from the book and the use of the label on the cover gives it the ‘old-book’ feel. The one below is more of a fun cover merging type and image.

Transformation 25

THE URIOUS MAP BOOK

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

The Curious Map Book The idea behind this series of explorations was to make use of sillhouettes of characters from within the maps and use them in varous ways on the cover to give it a ‘curious’ edge.

26 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK Ashley Baynton-Williams

The Curious Map Book

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK Ashley Baynton-Williams

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK Ashley Baynton-Williams

The

CURIOUS MAP

Book

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

I took the idea of having the lion on the cover forward and explored several ways of combining it with the map in the background.

Transformation 27

Working on the title page When I started off exploring title pages for this book, they were more simple and conventional. I was convinced with the Snell Roundhand working well at a large point size for the title page. It gave it the amount of ornamental look that I wanted. However, in the last weeks of the project, Paul introduced me to the book ‘The Universal Penman’, which inspired me to explore another direction for the title page.

Ashley Baynton-Williams

Ashley Baynton-Williams

The Curious Map Book

THE CURIOUS MAP BOOK

the british library

the british library

Initial explorations with the title page.

The Curious Map Book

The Curious Map Book

Ashley Baynton-Williams

Ashley Baynton-Williams

the british library

the british library

Some explorations with scanned strokes added to digital type.

Ashley Baynton-Williams

the british library

28 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

After drawing several swashes, I chose one and refined it to be added into the final title page. It was still not perfect, but gave the feel that I wanted to impart.

Trying my hand at adding swashes to type printed in Snell Roundhand. It took several tries to get a balance and rythm in the strokes.

Transformation  29

design and making The flat plan This flat plan shows some of the spreads of the maps in order starting with the title page, contents page and the introduction section.

Contents

preface

Introduction

7

introduction

8

curious maps from 1493 onwards index 156

14

Ashley Baynton-Williams

First published 2015 by The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB

Map-users are accustomed to looking and treating maps as geographical tools: for position-finding, way-finding and such like, but maps having long been used for other purposes. Many is the map that, by word or design, promoted the importance of a region, a country, a ruler through pictorial representation in the map.

This has long been part and parcel of map-making; until at least the late eighteenth century most mapmaking was conducted by private companies, reliant on generating income; it is really only from the nineteenth century that state-financed mapping agencies supercede the individual.

However, it was also found that maps could be used to serve other purposes.

If we regard the quest for geographical accuracy as the geographer at work, then this second vein of cartography might well be called the mapmaker at play: able to give full rein to his imagination to produce cartographic images that at one and the same time entertain the viewer, convey the message of the mapmaker, and all this while sometimes having little or no real useful geographical function.

There is no widely accepted umbrella term for such maps: colloquially they are often termed ‘cartographic curiosities’ as being both cartographic and curious but, perhaps, this casual term underplays the significance of many of the maps, particularly those with a overt political or religious agenda, and yet no better term has emerged for what is quite a disparate grouping – as will be seen in the selection of items in this volume.

The selection of maps can be broken down into broad bands, but which are not mutually exclusive: · as games · representing countries as animals · representing countries as people · as objects · the political, religious or moral

© in text 2015 Ashley Baynton-Williams © in images 2015 The British Library and other named copyright holders

the british library

British Library cataloguing in publication data A CIP record for this book is available from trh British Library ISBN 978 0 7123 006677 Designed by Vidhushri Ladha Printed in Great Britain

4

Title page

8

5

Contents page

Introduction section

1518

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra thomas more, basel

The significance here is the map, at first glance a nicely performed map of this imaginary island, with large ship in the foreground. However, that is not all to be seen. Concealed in the image, and best seen with one eye half-closed, is a death’s headskull, memento mori, possibly suggested to the mapmaker / woodcutter by the wordplay with More’s surname. While the map in the first (Antwerp) edition seems to have been intended to resemble a skull, the execution was not so successful, and it can be more easily seen in this second map.

The skull should be imagined as facing slightly to the right of the viewer; the figures of Hythlodeaus and More, with the left hand ship form the neck and right ear; the segmented sides of the ship are the teeth, with the prow and stern the jaw bone, the lower bay below the ship the chin, and the central mast is the nose. The island itself gives outline to the skull proper, with ‘Fons Byndri’ and ‘Ostium ayndri’, with their surround hills creating the effect of eyes and sockets; ‘Amarotū urbs’, with its label, the forehead.

While this image has been studied for many years, it was the research of a dentist, with his highly technical understanding of the bones around the jaw area that identified the skull, an element also found in other of the Holbeins’ works, notably Hans’ painting, The ambassadors.

Thomas More (1478–1535) was one of the foremost English thinkers of his period. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, he earned Henry VIII’s grave displeasure when he opposed that king’s divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon. The divorce proceeding set in motion the English Reformation, and led to More’s execution on trumped-up charges.

More’s Utopia is one of the great political tracts, and gives its name, to this day, to an earthly paradise. Although written in England, for various reasons the different editions of the book were published on the Continent, first Antwerp and then in Basle, this edition.

Froben’s printing is the third edition of the text, but the second with a map. The map described here is a more elaborate version of the map from the first edition; it is generally attributed to the woodcutter Ambrosius Holbein, but may equally be the work of Hans the younger, his brother, who signed the woodcut used on the title-page.

In the bottom left corner of the map is a scene depicting Hythlodeaus, who had voyage there, describing Utopia to More, the right-hand figure, a description that More then recounted in the Utopia.

The geography of the island of Utopia is described on page 70, in a section labelled ‘Sit’ & forma Vtopiæ nouæ insulæ.’ (the location and shape of the new island of Utopia).

Leo Belgicus. Iohann van Doetechum fecit. CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650 [text:] Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliū qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt. (Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries) . . . ) From Amsterdam : Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (separate publication) Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm

Vtopiae Insvlae Figvra From More De optimo reip. statu deque noua insula Utopia Publication details Basel: Johannes Froben, 1518 Woodcut; border 181 x 120 mm Reference Matthew Bishop, Ambrosius Holbein’s memento mori map for Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. The meanings of a masterpiece of early sixteenth century graphic art, British Dental Journal 2005, 199: 107–112 Location Rare Books, G.2398: the Grenville copy

14

15

16

17

18

Maps in chronological order

1 76 1

The Queen’s crown vicente de memije, manilla

This striking map depicts the Spanish overseas possessions in the guise of a queen; although the engraving is a little pale, the map is orientated with north (West Africa and Atlantic Ocean) at the top; the queen’s shoulders and upper torso are formed by the Americas, the sweep of the South American continent part of her robe; the Pacific region is shown as her dress, with the tracks followed by the Spanish fleets forming the folds in the dress, and her feet resting on the Philippine Islands – ‘I. Luzon’ and ‘I. Mindanao’. At left are the coasts of Tartary, with Japan and Korea.

Just to the right can just be discerned the coast of Australia, and part of the southern continent. ‘Isla de Borneo’ The Queen’s crown, labelled ‘Espagna’, bears the names of the Spanish provinces; at her throat, the jewel is actually a compass-rose, with the names of the winds, supported on a band composed of treasure galleons, the source of Spain’s wealth. One hand is reaching for a flaming sword, being passed to her by an angel symbolising Spain’s pre-ordained destiny to rule the world; in the other had she holds the Equator, which serves as a flagpole for the Spanish standard.

Above her head, the sun’s rays originate from Rome, with the Holy Spirit depicted as a dove (also a symbol of peace) at its centre, with various Catholic motifs, and bible quotations, representing God’s light shining on Spain and the empire.

The map was drawn by a Jesuit priest Vicente de Memije, as one of a pair of maps. The first, the ‘Aspecto Geographico’ was

a formal map of the Americas; the companion ‘Aspecto Symbolico . . . ’ is this allegorical depiction, clearly intended to depict all of Spain’s possessions, both at home and overseas, into one orbit, united by the queen, bound together by a physical unity, an empire both anointed and protected by the grace of the (Catholic) God, and with the duty of spreading the word of God to the ‘heathens’ within the spainshp possessions.

At the start of the age of discovery the two Iberian naval powers, vied for control of the world outside Europe. To avoid conflict, the two countries agrees to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) and the subsequent Treat of Zaragossa, which divided the world outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian (a line of longitude) 370 leagues west of the Canaries. By this Spain was granted much of North and South America, although Brazil fell within the Portuguese orbit, as did Africa and India.

Another area within the Portuguese half turned out to be the Philippines, which were settled by the Spanish; in the Treaty of Madrid (1750), the two sought to regularise things; Portugal was granted larger borders in Brazil, hence the expansion into the interior, while the Philippines were confirmed as Spanish.

Memije, based in the Philippines, clearly intended that his ‘Aspecto Symbolico’ map should emphasise to the dedicatee, Carlos III King of Spain, that the Philippines were an integral, and important, part of his overseas empire.

‘Aspecto Symbolico Del Mundo Hispanico, Puntualmente Arreglado Al Geografico, Que A Su Glorioso Catholico Rey D. Carlos Tercero El Magnanimo Dedica, Y Consagra D. Vicente De Memije, Con Ix. Theses, & Xc. Proposiciones, Que A Cerca De El Defiende: Presidiendo El R.p. Pasqual Fernandez, Publico Professor De Mathematicas Enla Universidad De Manila Dela Compañia De Iesvs Año De 1761.’

‘Laur.s Atlas sculp. Man[ill].a From Manilla: Vicente de Memije, 1761 (separate publication) Copper engraving, border 1000 x 635 mm, on two sheets joined Location BL, Maps K.Top. 118.19

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Game maps

Maps in human form

Maps in animal form gambling game: the players decide upon the financial stake and play for money.

As said before, race games of this kind were particularly suited to map themes, and game of the goose maps predominate map races games, although by the mid-eighteenth century British publishers were discarding the more structured format of the goose game in favour of games based on travelling around actual maps, reflecting a change in emphasis. By the 1750s, and certainly by the 1780s, English game publishers were deliberately recasting their map games as for educational purposes, increasingly aimed at a junior audience by emphasising learning through pleasure.

Again in England, appeared the first commercially produced jigsaw maps, sold by John Spilsbury, although the creator may have been French. A London trade-directory of 1763 contains an entry for a Leprince who styled himself ‘Inventor of the dissection of maps on wood’; this may refer to Jeanne-Marie le Prince de Beaumont (1711–1780), a French tutor and educationalist who was certainly both using and supplying dissected wooden maps in her school but who returned to France in 1762, or one of her half-brothers: the engraver Jean-Baptiste le Prince (1734–1781) or Jean-Robert le Prince, a geographer who died in London in or about 1762.

Maps certainly lent themselves to being used as jigsaw puzzles, even if the early makers struggled with the intricacies of faithfully following the boundaries of counties or countries in the dissection process. With mechanisation these processes became easier but this was coupled with a decline in the overall quality of the jigsaws, away from the heavier wooden backing to the lighter and flimsier cardboard of modern games.

The first published cartographic-based games seem to have emerged in England, which is somewhat of a surprise, as relatively England was a publishing backwater at the period in question – the 1590s.

The earliest set of geographical playing cards were published in London in 1590; they were much reduced copies of the maps of the counties of England and Wales taken from Christopher Saxton’s atlas of 1579; the cards were engraved by Augustine Ryther, one of the principal engravers for Saxton; the pack is of considerable rarity but the British Library was able to add a complete set to its collections as recently as 2013. A second set of map cards, attributed to the same man, appeared in 1605.

On 16th June, 1597 John Wolfe ‘Entred for his Copie vnder master Hartwelles and both the wardens handes ‘the new and most pleasant game of the goose’ . . .’ in the Registers of the Stationers’ Company, the City of London guild that supervised and regulated printing in London (Arber, Stationers’ Company Registers, 1554–1640 III. 77; p.17). The game of the goose is a spiral race game that was suited to presentation in map form by the movement from square to square. Whether Wolfe’s game was map-based, we do not know: there is no known extant example; nor, so far as we can tell, are there later printings or even later copies by other English publishers that might give a clue.

The earliest recorded board games featuring maps appeared in Paris, published by Pierre Duval from 1645 onwards, based on the game of the goose, in which the players moved round a spiral course composed of individual circles containing sections of a map. The maps were part of a general stock of maps aimed at a mature market: the game map of France (1659) is overtly a

The most frequently encountered of these maps is the depiction of countries in animal - anthropomorphic - form; the most famous of these form a tight grouping: the Leos. During the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, Amsterdam publishers produced a series of propaganda maps – Leo Belgicus [Maps 3 and 8] – representing the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) as an invincible lion, standing firm against the oppressor; the lion, a common symbol in the arms of the towns and cities of the Low Countries, encapsulated the armed struggle of the (small) Netherlands against the might of the Spanish Empire. As the struggle evolved a subsidiary group emerged; it became clear that the southern provinces – modern Belgium – would not win their independence, while the northern provinces – modern Holland – might; as Holland’s

cause advanced, Leo Hollandicus emerged, depicting the seven United Provinces as a triumphant lion [Map 8].

Later mapmakers popularised the octopus as a not too subtle means of portraying a country as evil and grasping, with Russia a frequent choice [see Map 22, for example], but Falmouth Town Council [Map 99] and the landowners of London [Map xx] were similarly portrayed, these two later in more overtly political maps.

Satirical maps from the First World War often portrayed countries as animals reflecting national characteristics: the British bulldog, the French poodle and Germany as either a dachshund [Map 56] or an eagle [Map34], while the first map in this book exemplifies regions of the world through imagery created from legendary mediaeval accounts, travellers’ tales and the like.

Political, moral and religious maps

Maps on objects

Maps in human form are more readily understood; Britain was oft-portrayed as John Bull, possibly with Churchillian features [Map12], while the United States could appear as Uncle Sam [Map24]. Earlier maps portrayed Europe as a queen [Map xx], while a Filipino cartographer sought to portray the Spanish Empire in similar form [Map 55].

Other mapmakers took their inspiration from shapes of continents, countries or regions: Bunting when he portrayed Asia as

the winged horse Pegasus; Rudbeck when he depicted the Baltic Sea as Charon, the boatman from classical tale; Robert Dighton in his depiction of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland in human form, but Lilian Lancaster is perhaps the most famous exponent of caricature maps, with several of hers represented here, including two manuscript maps finding humour in the 1880 United States Presidential election campaign.

Having already mentioned jigsaws, another English invention was transfer-printing, a process whereby an image would be created on a flat-printing plate, printed to paper and while the ink was still wet transferred to a curved surface. The credit for this goes to Robert Hancock (1731–1817) working at the Worcester porcelain factory in the early 1750s; many of the maps of this type were commemorative, for example this simple jug celebrating Nelson’s great triumph over the French at the Battle of Trafalgar [Map 56], but elaborate dinner services were made. Sadly because of the fragility of porcelain, very few of the oldest examples survive.

Hancock was also a pioneer of printing onto calico, an unfinished cotton cloth, suitable for souvenir maps, scarves and the like. Unfortunately, although the British Museum (and now) the

British Library are a deposit library for printed materials, this does not include china items which are not considered part of the main stream collection and so, sadly, are greatly under-represented in the Library’s collections.

Another rare genre is map-screens: room-dividers of canvas stretched over wooden frames and decorated with maps. These were particularly popular in the eighteenth century as ostentatious personal display of wealth and culture, in which the most important element was the impression created, rather than the maps themselves. Today four screens with printed maps are known; the British Library has two, with the most dramatic described as [Map 80].

as an emotion but on the spirituality: on the propriety of doing the right thing as dictated by the head not the heart. Later mapmakers, among them Robert Sayer in 1772 [Map 45], saw love as a journey by sea, through treacherous and uncharted waters. In contrast, Matthaus Seutter, in the 1730s, portrayed love as war: the heart as a castle besieged by an admirer, to be defended at all cost.

Then, maps could also be used to portray when things went wrong, as in Joseph Onwyn’s ‘Map of Green Bag Land’, [1820], a satire on the lengthy and increasingly bitter divorce battle between King George IV and his consort Queen Caroline, during which she was barred from his Coronation – and physically locked out on the day – and ended only with her sad demise three weeks later.

If it is hard to see divorce as a subject of political humour, it is all the more perplexing that the outbreak of the First World War spawned a number of satirical maps and games, as if the rival powers were participating in an elaborate game of fancy dress; the harsh reality of an ever-increasingly brutal war of attrition saw these games disappear, but the war is depicted as a battle between different breeds of dog [map 55], John Bull against the German eagle [map 92], a throwing game, with Germany as the target [map 47] and a game of dexterity [map 88].

And yet it was so portrayed, but the boundaries of the uses that maps could be put to, seems only to have been limited by the imagination of their maker, as will be seen in the following pages.

Perhaps the smallest category represented here are those maps made for overt political purposes. A large number of propaganda maps were prepared at the time of World War II, by both Axis and Allied Powers, a number sufficient to form a study of their own, but with their unpleasant religious and racist overtones are not represented here.

The most spectacular of the maps included is very rare sixteen sheet wall-map of the world, a vicious Protestant attack on the (Catholic) Papacy, portraying the many ‘crimes’ of the Catholic Church as the central part of the map, within the jaws of the Devil, while the (righteous) Protestant rulers have this Catholic world under siege.

While one thinks of the Victorian age as being one of increasingly moralistic religious tone in both public and private life, the roots are often said to lie in the late Georgian period of the eighteenth century, where authors and mapmakers exhorted the reader to follow a narrow path through life, where diversion from the path was to risk one’s soul; yet the roots go back further; Sir Thomas More, in 1516, used a map to illustrate his description of Utopia [Map 90]; while John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progess, was suited to illustration by a map, it was only in the eighteenth century that such depictions were inserted, and inspired subsequent generation of moralising authors.

Perhaps surprisingly, one subject that seems ideally suited to being mapped is the course of true love. Madame de Scudery, in 1655, created a map of the land of Tenderness as a moral guide for a young lady, although the emphasis was not on the reality of love

An allegorical map of the siege of the Castle of Love, by Seutter, 1735. p. 20

Leo Belgicus, representing Belgium as an invincible lion, standing firm against the oppressor. p.16.

This striking map from 1761depicts the Spanish overseas possessions in the guise of a queen. p. 24 A map from 1772 in which Robert Sayer saw love as a journey by sea, through treacherous and uncharted waters.

Map produced to coincide with the great Crystal Palace Exhibition held in London in 1851. p. 45

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Leo Belgicus

The Castle of Love

johannes van deutecum, amsterdam

georg matthaüs seutter, augsburg

again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland). Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ – the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries – the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the ‘body’ of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy – Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico . . . , 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began

Georg Matthaüs Seutter (1678–1757) was founder one of the two most prominent German publishing houses of the eighteenth century; he was apprenticed to Johann Baptist Homann, founder of the other publishing house, in 1697, before setting up his own firm.

In this attractively drawn map, Seutter has recast typical contemporary town plans into an allegorical map of the siege of the Castle of Love. Unusually for a map of love, the plan is drawn from a male perspective: the castle of love is the male heart, while the fairer sex are the ones shown trying to break through the male’s outer defences.

The male heart is shown in the keep of a fortified town, reminiscent of the siege maps from the War of the Spanish Succession and thus very familiar to a male audience, surrounded by a moat, labelled ‘Mer Glacee Sans Passion’ (Frozen Sea without passion).

Both the title and the key allude to the many (military) strategems that the (male) defender might employ to defend his heart against the advances of (female) attackers.

Around the castle are arrayed the female forces of love, represented by the artillery batteries, on the mainland, and the naval forces on the glacial sea, bombarding the defences. Each of the guns has an individual female charm: ‘Enchantment’, ‘Tendresse’ ‘Un certain je ne Sais quoi’ ‘Surprises’, ‘Charmes’ (a fuller list is

given in the key) while the defenders shelter in their bastions among them ‘Precaution’, ‘Prudence’, ‘Experience’, ‘Indifference’ and ‘Resolution’. The attacking forces are commanded from their headquarters at bottom left, labelled the ‘camp de l’amour’, wherein are the tents of its ‘General Cupido’, settled in with his forces until the defences are breached and the besieged brought to surrender.

As the defences are slowly breached by the female wiles, the defender is forced to retreat out of the keep through the Gates of Wisdom, to successive hideouts along the lake: ‘Conseil des fideles amis (Counsel of faithful friends), ‘Deliberation’ and ‘Inspiration de nos propres sens’ (Inspiration of our right senses) onward to the ‘Jardin de Plaisir . . . ’ where the first pleasant meeting takes place, and then finally, in desperation, takes flight by an underground to ‘Le Palais de L’Amour’ (the Palace of Love), lured by the song of the sirens who inhabit the lake, where the final surrender to the lady takes place and, from whence there is no return without loss of your liberty.

All this is expanded in the detailed key along the lower border of the map while, Venus (or Aphrodite in the Greek mythology), the goddess of love, looks down on the campaign from the finely engraved title cartouche at top right.

‘Representation Sÿmbolique et ingenieuse projettée en Siege et en Bombardement comme il faut empecher prudemment les attaques de L’amour. Sÿmbolische Sinnreiche in einer Belagerung u. Bombardirung entworffen Vorstellung wie man den anfällen und Verschungen der Liebe Klug und tapffer zu begegnen, zur Belustigung u. Sittlicher Belehrung verfertiget von Matth. Seutter S.C. Maj. Geogr. in Augsp. [key:] Methode pour defendre et conserver son coeur contre les attaques de l’amour.

Die Methode sein Hertz wider die Angriffe der Liebe zu bewahren [key in ten columns:] Noms des Bastions et d’autres ouvrages Die Namen derer Boll u: anderer wercke. . . [repeated in German] From Augsburg : Georg Matthaüs Seutter sr. (separate publication) Copper engraving, border 489 x 568 mm Location Maps C.26.f.4.(42): original body colour

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The Royal Geographical Pastime Exhibiting A Complete Tour Round The World in which are delineated the North East and North West Passages into the South Sea, and other modern Discoveries, By Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King.

London. 1st January 1770. Published according to the Statute of the 7th of george iiid by Tho.s Jefferys at the Corner of St Martin’s Lane. Entered in the Hall Book of the Stationers Company, and whoever presumes to Copy it will be prosecuted by the Proprietor, who will reward any Person that shall give Information of it.

[Welsh Feathers] To His Royal Highness george prince of wales, duke of cornwall, &c. &c. and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. This Plate is by permission most humbly Dedicated By his Royal Highnesses most Obedient and Devoted humble Servant T. Jefferys. [printed on a separate label, and pasted-over a blank space].

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The Royal Geographical Pastime

Geography Bewitched

thomas jeffreys, london

robert sr. dighton, london

While Jefferys was initially slow to add cartographic games to his repertoire of stock, once he did, he quickly introduced three game maps in three years: the previous entry, this map and the next entry.

Of the three, this is the most cartographically interesting. As described in the map – ‘Note This map is drawn upon a Stereographic projection, of which london is the Centre. The Horizon is greatly extended, to exhibit the distant parts of the World at one View. . . . ’ – the map is drawn on an unusual (to our eyes anyway) projection, by which all the world is visible in one plane, although the map extends outside the circular frame of the hemisphere.

This is achieved by placing London at the heart of the world, and may well be a response to rival French mapmakers who frequently constructed their world maps with France at the centre. It is actually, and notwithstanding its purpose as a game, one of the best world maps to originate in England at the time.

Another interesting feature is that this one of the earliest printed maps to deliberately chose red as the colour for the British Empire, as noted in the key: ‘The Tour round the World is coloured _ _ _ Blue. The British Empire in America _ _ _ Red. The Russian Empire with their Discoveries in America. Brown.’

The ‘tour round Europe’ is a Game of Goose race; the side panels contain an explanation of the theme of the game, the manner in which is played, rules and description of the stops that each traveller could or would make in his passage round the board.

The winning stage is ‘103. land’s end – being the first pleasant place in England which is seen by mariners in their return from long voyages, and is equally wished for by the players – ‘is the game’, but ‘The players attending to the instructions hereafter given, will proceed regularly towards No. 103, which is at the Land’s End; and he who is fortunate enough to gain this number, wins the game: But as the chances of the play will oftener carry him beyond than exactly to it, he is then to return back to No. 89, which is at Oroonoko-River: where he must remain till it comes to his turn to spin and try his fortune again; and this method is to be pursued by all the players, till one of them hits the lucky number’.

The descriptions of the different destinations give an abbreviated but still interesting account and history of each place, for

example ‘6. goeree – here the traveller must stay one turn. This island was taken from the French in 1759, and restored to them at the peace in 1763.’, ‘45. manilla – the capital of the Philippine-Islands, was taken by the English from the Spaniards in 1762, who ransomed it from plunder. The ransom, however, is not yet paid’. In the Pacific North-West (not New York City) could be found ‘51. long-island – lately discovered and conquered by the Russians, and from whence may be seen both Asia and America. The natives trade in canoes to both continents; and there is all the reason in the world to suppose that America was peopled from Asia by way of this island. Five of the natives, thought to be Esquimaux Indians, were brought down to Petersburg in 1764.

Here the traveller must stay three turns.’ and ‘58. the north west passage into the South Seas – discovered by Nich. Shapley, from New-England, through Hudson’s Bay and by Admiral de Fonte, a Spanish admiral, from the South Sea, through the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, in 1640. The traveller, who has been so fortunate as to find his way through this Passage, shall be removed to Cape Horn, no. 79.’

Some of the descriptions are perhaps not so accurate – ‘60. california – the inhabitants having no houses, dwell in arbours in summer, and creep into caves in the winter.’ – but would nonetheless appeal to a young audience conscious of Britain’s dominant role across the world, highlighting the great victories that won the empire.

As always, there are the hazard stops, notably ‘99. bahama islands – noted for shipwrecks, and often fatal to the Spanish galleons; and to the traveller, who will be shipwrecked on these islands, and lose his chance for the game.’ but perhaps the most ‘fun’ stop sounds to be ‘102. newfoundland – famous for its cod-fishery, which is reputed the greatest yet known in the world.

Here the traveller must stay one turn, to eat a dish of chauder *, and drink a cup of black strap †. (the symbol referring to footnotes: ‘* A large fresh cod, boiled with a piece of fat salt pork. † Spruce-beer and rum, sweetened with treacle).

An interesting device, often seen on early maps is that New Guinea is partially hidden under the decorative frame, to disguise Jefferys’ lack of knowledge of the region.

Robert Dighton (1751–1814) was a talented artist, illustrator and etcher, who exhibited his portraits at the Free Society of Artists and at the Royal Academy in years from 1769 to 1799. He enrolled in the Royal Academy School in 1772; after graduating he established himself as a drawing-master and painter of miniature portraits.

However, Dighton’s career in London came to an unhappy end; he was also a collector of old master prints, and was a wellknown researcher in the British Museum, even before the Print Room opened. Dighton became firm friends with the head of the Print Room, the Reverend William Beloe. Trusted by Beloe, Dighton abused the unfettered access that this allowed him to steal prints from the Museum; some he kept but others he sold, and this was to prove his undoing. In 1806 a dealer who bought a print from Dighton went to the British Museum to compare his purchase with the Museum’s exemplar, and found it missing. Further searches found other prints that Dighton had sold came from the BM; faced with exposure, Dighton confessed, and made a bargain; he would return all the prints he had and identify all the others he had sold, and to whom they went. The British Museum’s Trustees accepted the arrangement; he avoided jail but Dighton’s reputation was destroyed, and he had to leave London to live an itinerant life, struggling to make a living, while Beloe was summarily dismissed.

The great shame of it was that Dighton was a talented artist and

caricaturist, as exemplified by this item, and its sibling, the next entry. They were published first by Carington Bowles in about 1793, and then reprinted by his successors, the partnership formed by his son Henry Carington Bowles and former apprentice Samuel Carver, leading printsellers of the period, from their shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard.

England and Wales are depicted in whimsical fashion; although the delineation is not so familiar, this is John Bull, the popular allegory for England, Great Britain or the British Isles (as necessary) popular from the eighteenth century well into the twentieth, akin to America’s ‘Uncle Sam’. Southern England is formed by a sea-monster; its head is East Anglia, its mouth the Thames Estuary, and its tail formed by the south-western extension of England: Cornwall and Devon. The north of England is a rather portly, jolly fellow, smoking a pipe and raising a frothing jug of ale as if to toast the viewer; Wales is formed by his cloak, blowing in the wind. The pair seem to be leaping from the sea, like a dolphin with rider, while the seascape below has any number of ships.

This triptych are among the most famous of all satirical maps, and spawned a host of imitations for the next thirty years; indeed, such was their popularity that in 1806, the rival firm of Laurie and Whittle appended these lines to their Whimsical Map of Europe.

‘Oft we see in the shops, a print set up for sale, England colour’d, an old fellow striding a whale: Yes! Old England’s a picture, the sea forms its frame, And Hibernia and Scotia they class with the same.’

Geography Bewitched! or, a droll Caricature Map Of England and Wales. Dighton Del. London Printed for Bowles & Carver, No. 69 St Paul’s Church Yard.

From London : Henry Carington Bowles & Samuel Carver, [ca. 1795] (separate publication) Copper engraving, image 181 x 156 mm Location Maps C.27.f.15.(1)

From London : Thomas Jefferys sr., 1770 (separate publication) Copper engraving, border 484 x 472; with the side-panels of text: 505 x 695 mm Location BL, Maps * 950.(22.): original wash colour, previously dissected, now joined and laid on linen backing

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Leo Belgicus. Iohann van Doetechum fecit. CIVisscher Excudit Anno 1650 [text:] Artificiosa et Geographica tabula sub Leonis figura XVII. inferioris Germaniæ Provincias representans, cui addita sunt singularum insignia, una cum ordinaria Præfectarum distinctione, Longè elimatius quam hactenus unquam expressa. Accesserunt & icones Gubernatorum Generaliū qui utrinque Belgium, Gubernarunt. (Artistic and geographical map, in the form of a lion, presenting the XVII Provinces of Germania Inferior (i.e. the Low Countries) . . . )

Bulmer MT Std, regular, 9pt/11pt

From Amsterdam : Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1650 (separate publication) Location Maps C.9.d.1.(6): original wash colour Copper engraving, border 436 x 554 mm

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Proportions and typography of a typical spread

32 Professional assignment / The Curious Map Book

The first word of every essay is treated in titlecase small caps.

220mm

Bulmer MT Std, bold, 16pt

1598

Snell Roundhand, bold script, 17pt/33pt

Leo Belgicus johannes van deutecum, amsterdam

One of the most famous of all anthropomorphic maps is the ‘Leo Belgicus’ – the Lion of the Low Countries (XVII Provinces), modern Belgium and The Netherlands. Apart from naturally fitting the shape of the region, the lion was frequently to be found in the arms of the individual provinces of the Low Countries, but also in the arms of the cities, and so could be readily accepted as symbolic of the XVII Provinces.

However, the appearance of the first ‘Leo’ map coincided with a period of great turmoil in the Low Countries – the so-called Dutch Revolt, where the provinces sought to gain their independence from Spain. The first ‘Leo’, although conceived by the Austrian author Michael von Eitzing, was engraved by Frans Hogenberg, a supporter of the revolt. In this way, he conceived of the lion as an emblem of strength, courage and master of its own destiny, roaring to put fear into its enemies; but by bringing all the different provinces within the ‘body’ of the lion, he could also encourage the provinces to unite together in face of their common enemy – Spain.

Hogenberg’s map was published in von Eitzing’s De Leone Belgico . . . , 1583, a history of the war of independence to that date; the revolt began in 1568 and continued until a truce was declared in 1609; when the truce expired, the fighting began

Bulmer MT Std, regular, small caps, 12pt/22pt

again, ending with the northern, Dutch, provinces securing their independence.

The ‘Leo’ symbol struck a particular chord with the Dutch public, and a large number of different versions were prepared between 1583 and 1648, while the struggle for independence continued, and these continued to be printed long after the fighting had ended.

The example illustrated here was first published by Johannes van Deutecum jr. in 1598. This version is an altogether more elaborate piece than Hogenberg’s original. The most notable addition van Deutecum made was the insertion of the elaborate borders on three sides, with portraits of the successive governors in the side panels, and the Dutch Stadtholders in the lower border; in the two lower corners are text, in Dutch and French, explaining the significance of the ‘Leo’ map. Two insets depict the seats of government in Brussels and ‘Palatium comitū Holland’ (Palace of the Court of Holland). Van Deutecum’s plate passed to Claes Jansz. Visscher, who printed this example in 1650. For this printing, Visscher made a small number of changes to bring the plate up to date, including adding the portraits of Archduke Ferdinand (Spanish governor from 1634 to 1641) and Prince Frederick Hendrick, Stadtholder from 1625 to 1647).

Text box is dropped from this horizontal guide

Body: Bulmer MT Std, regular, 10.5pt/13pt

Folios: Bulmer MT Std, regular, 12 pt, centred

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Design and making 33

223mm

The CURIOUS MAP Book Baynton-Williams

Layout of the book jacket The dimensions of the book jacket are adjusted to fit the hardback case made for the book.

34窶ケrofessional assignment / The Curious Map Book

100mm

286mm

The CURIOUS MAP Book Jacket shown at 50 percent scale.

Design and making  35

Specification Trim size: 220mm W x 280mm H Number of pages: 224 Binding: Section sewn, hardback Inner pages stock: Olin regular high white 120gsm Cover stock: Olin regular high white 150gsm End Paper: Popset hot brown 120gsm Board for hardback: 1mm box board Other materials: Dark red book cloth red and white headband

36窶ケrofessional assignment / The Curious Map Book

Spreads from the printed sections and the making of the hardback case.

Conclusion This was the only project this year where I worked with an actual client. It was a different experience as compared to the other projects. From the first briefing session to the subsequent meetings, it was not only about the design and explorations but also about the way we present to the client.

When I was told that I had to work on a book for the British Library, the fact that it has published so many books, each having a characteristic style, made me wonder if I would have to follow an existing style guide or template. However, when I got the brief, it was an open ended project with very interesting material and an interesting name as well, ‘The curious map book’. Several constraints in the form of specifications came from the client. I was provided with the format, the number of pages, an approximate costing, the manuscript and images of some of the maps. Handling these maps of varying sizes, some being extremely large, was a challenge. How do you display these maps in a book without

losing their effect? I came up with a system wherein all the maps could be shown at actual size or closest to actual size.

This book had both, intensive images and detailed text. It was about handling both together and integrating them in a way that it looks different from the books that already exist in the market. The typography required was challenging as well. It took me several explorations to achieve the desired hierarchy among the titles and the captions. The cover for this project seemed more important due to the commercial aspect attached to it. The client demanded for a cover that would sell on the shelves as well as online on sites like Amazon. I enjoyed the various explorations for the cover.

The desire to make it interesting, make it curious enough and commercial at the same time was a challenge and kept me working at it.

Overall, this project has been an experience in handling actual material for a book and working along with a client.

One of my first experiences of real world book design.

Images from the final dummy bound together with a hardback case and jacket.

Design and making  37