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The Manuscript Legacy
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 September 1984
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
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Maps in the Department of Manuscripts by Peter Barber
Peter Barber is the Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts responsible for the map collections. He has already written articles in 'The Map Collector' on unusual acquisitions: the Boutflower maps of the Falklands (Issue 20) and the Laurence Nowell map of England and Ireland .
IT WOULD PROBABLY be true to say that the Department of Manuscripts possesses the principal British collection of European cartography for the 1000 years preceding the introduction of printing. Even after that date the Department's holdings cannot be ignored by serious students of the history of cartography since in several major fields of mapmaking advances in geographical knowledge and cartographic technique were first registered in manuscript maps which were not intended for publication in printed form. From the time of its foundation in the 1750s, the Department of Manuscripts has possessed outstanding examples of such maps, complementing and not infrequently surpassing in execution the many significant manuscript maps held by the Map Library.
In a sense the Department's earliest maps are to be found in a volume containing twelfth century copies of Roman surveying treatises by the so-called ‘Agrimensores’ While it must be admitted that these are not as colourful and important as the ‘Agrimensores' manuscripts to be found in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbiittel in Germany and the Vatican in Italy, the Department's holdings of Christian medieval 'climate', 'zone' and 'TO' world maps, in their many different varieties, would seem to be surpassed in quantity and variety only by the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and by the Vatican Library. The best known of these early world maps are the 'Anglo-Saxon' world map of about 1000 and the 'Psalter' map of about 1300. The earlier map contains a remarkably accurate depiction of the British Isles, with London and Winchester indicated, while the other stands on a par with the Ebstorf and Hereford Cathedral maps as an embodiment of the medieval Christian world view.
What is not generally so well known is that the back of the 'Psalter' map contains another, schematic, TO world map which, while less decorative, conveys still more clearly the medieval idea of the close relationship between Christ and the world. The magnificent 'Apocalypse' of Silos, a Spanish liturgical manuscript of the late eleventh century, when Spain marked the southern frontier of the Christian world, contains a stark world map showing strong Arab as well as Christian influence. The continuing hold of medieval learning on the eve of the age of the great discoveries can be seen in the whimsical TO world map illustrating a French translation by Jean Corbichon of Bartolomaeus Anglieus's encyclopedic Liber de Proprietatibus Rerum produced in Flanders in 1482 for Edward IV.
Equally outstanding are the holdings of Ptolemaic cartography. These include what may be the earliest surviving Ptolemaic maps of Britain, Spain and the world, probably produced by the Greek monk Maximos Planudes (1260-1310) in the monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos'. The rediscovery of Ptolemaic theories in the West can be seen in several fifteenth century Greek texts and Latin translations, one of which'" is closely related to the earliest printed editions. The revision of Ptolemy to take account of the great discoveries from the late fifteenth century is perhaps most brilliantly demonstrated in the world map by Henricus Martellus Germanus (also known as Heinrich Hammer) of about 1490, while Harley MS 3686, a Ptolemaic text from Italy of about 1450, shows how Ptolemaic concepts were sometimes conveyed through maps showing the stylistic influence of Renaissance sea charts and books of islands (lsolarii).
The Department of Manuscripts possesses one of the largest collections of Renaissance sea charts and atlases (also called `portolan' charts and atlases) outside Italy. Starting with an atlas by Pietro or Pierino Vesconte of Genoa, the most prolific of the early chartmakers, dating to about 132512, the range extends to Italian charts and atlases produced more than three hundred years later, such as Pietro Cavallini of Livorno's atlas of 1669". The work of the Catalan school of chartmakers and of the leading fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian chartmakers, notably Grazioso Benincasa" but also including two atlases by Battista Agnese, is well represented". Among the isolarii are three beautifully illustrated fifteenth century copies of Buondelmonte's Liber lnsularum Archipelagi containing lively depictions of the Mediterranean islands and of Constantinople.
French maritime cartography of the early sixteenth century, derived from Italian, Catalan and Portuguese work but supplemented with illustrations drawn from direct observations made during the voyages of discovery, is seen at its apogee in a beautiful altas and two splendid world maps owned by the Department of Manuscripts. The `Boke of Idrography' by Jean Rotz is well-known from the facsimile recently produced under the expert editorship of Dr. Helen Wallis. The earlier of the two world maps dated to 1547 and commonly known as the `Harleian' or 'Dauphin' world map's, is famous for its depiction of Jacques Cartier in Canada. The other world map, of 1550, is by Pierre Desceliersm. It is equally splendid and deserves to be better known.
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COPYRIGHT September 1984 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Peter Barber is the Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts responsible for the map collections. He has already written articles in 'The Map Collector' on unusual acquisitions: the Boutflower maps of the Falklands (Issue 20) and the Laurence Nowell map of England and Ireland .
IT WOULD PROBABLY be true to say that the Department of Manuscripts possesses the principal British collection of European cartography for the 1000 years preceding the introduction of printing. Even after that date the Department's holdings cannot be ignored by serious students of the history of cartography since in several major fields of mapmaking advances in geographical knowledge and cartographic technique were first registered in manuscript maps which were not intended for publication in printed form. From the time of its foundation in the 1750s, the Department of Manuscripts has possessed outstanding examples of such maps, complementing and not infrequently surpassing in execution the many significant manuscript maps held by the Map Library.
In a sense the Department's earliest maps are to be found in a volume containing twelfth century copies of Roman surveying treatises by the so-called ‘Agrimensores’ While it must be admitted that these are not as colourful and important as the ‘Agrimensores' manuscripts to be found in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbiittel in Germany and the Vatican in Italy, the Department's holdings of Christian medieval 'climate', 'zone' and 'TO' world maps, in their many different varieties, would seem to be surpassed in quantity and variety only by the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and by the Vatican Library. The best known of these early world maps are the 'Anglo-Saxon' world map of about 1000 and the 'Psalter' map of about 1300. The earlier map contains a remarkably accurate depiction of the British Isles, with London and Winchester indicated, while the other stands on a par with the Ebstorf and Hereford Cathedral maps as an embodiment of the medieval Christian world view.
What is not generally so well known is that the back of the 'Psalter' map contains another, schematic, TO world map which, while less decorative, conveys still more clearly the medieval idea of the close relationship between Christ and the world. The magnificent 'Apocalypse' of Silos, a Spanish liturgical manuscript of the late eleventh century, when Spain marked the southern frontier of the Christian world, contains a stark world map showing strong Arab as well as Christian influence. The continuing hold of medieval learning on the eve of the age of the great discoveries can be seen in the whimsical TO world map illustrating a French translation by Jean Corbichon of Bartolomaeus Anglieus's encyclopedic Liber de Proprietatibus Rerum produced in Flanders in 1482 for Edward IV.
Equally outstanding are the holdings of Ptolemaic cartography. These include what may be the earliest surviving Ptolemaic maps of Britain, Spain and the world, probably produced by the Greek monk Maximos Planudes (1260-1310) in the monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos'. The rediscovery of Ptolemaic theories in the West can be seen in several fifteenth century Greek texts and Latin translations, one of which'" is closely related to the earliest printed editions. The revision of Ptolemy to take account of the great discoveries from the late fifteenth century is perhaps most brilliantly demonstrated in the world map by Henricus Martellus Germanus (also known as Heinrich Hammer) of about 1490, while Harley MS 3686, a Ptolemaic text from Italy of about 1450, shows how Ptolemaic concepts were sometimes conveyed through maps showing the stylistic influence of Renaissance sea charts and books of islands (lsolarii).
The Department of Manuscripts possesses one of the largest collections of Renaissance sea charts and atlases (also called `portolan' charts and atlases) outside Italy. Starting with an atlas by Pietro or Pierino Vesconte of Genoa, the most prolific of the early chartmakers, dating to about 132512, the range extends to Italian charts and atlases produced more than three hundred years later, such as Pietro Cavallini of Livorno's atlas of 1669". The work of the Catalan school of chartmakers and of the leading fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian chartmakers, notably Grazioso Benincasa" but also including two atlases by Battista Agnese, is well represented". Among the isolarii are three beautifully illustrated fifteenth century copies of Buondelmonte's Liber lnsularum Archipelagi containing lively depictions of the Mediterranean islands and of Constantinople.
French maritime cartography of the early sixteenth century, derived from Italian, Catalan and Portuguese work but supplemented with illustrations drawn from direct observations made during the voyages of discovery, is seen at its apogee in a beautiful altas and two splendid world maps owned by the Department of Manuscripts. The `Boke of Idrography' by Jean Rotz is well-known from the facsimile recently produced under the expert editorship of Dr. Helen Wallis. The earlier of the two world maps dated to 1547 and commonly known as the `Harleian' or 'Dauphin' world map's, is famous for its depiction of Jacques Cartier in Canada. The other world map, of 1550, is by Pierre Desceliersm. It is equally splendid and deserves to be better known.
Read Full Article >>
[Acrobat Reader required]
COPYRIGHT September 1984 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
