The author, Map Librarian of the British Library, was for twenty years a cataloguer in the antiquarian map business. He offers warning and advice to aspiring cartobibliographers, and indeed to any who wish to deepen their appreciation of engraved maps as physical objects.

THE SEVEN SYLLABLES of 'cartobibliography' trip lightly off some tongues. but a number of readers may view the word with unease. What arc 'states', 'editions', and 'watermarks' beside the thrill of the chase? Convinced, however, that a better understanding of how printed maps were made and revised will give added enjoyment to those who collect or study maps. this article will attempt to break down the barrier separating the so¬called amateur from the so-called expert. The study of old maps is one of the more democratic branches of history. Provided there is access to original maps, the observant novice can make an immediate and worthwile contribution to the subject.

The content of a printed map is. of course, of primary importance and interest. But if the map is to be properly understood, it must first be considered as a physical object in its cartobibliographical context. For instance. unless a 1676 printing of a John Speed county map is seen as a reissue of one engraved in the 1600s. and copied, with minor mistakes, from Christopher Saxton's survey in the 1570s. an account of the Elizabethan landscape will be mistaken for one of Restoration England. Reconstructing a lineage of that sort, for areas less fully studied than English county maps, can be partly achieved by delving into historical sources. Much more will emerge from examination of the maps themselves.

The map of the British Isles was dramatically transformed between its original printing by Claes Jansz. Visscher about 1623 and its reissue by his son Nicolaes perhaps 50 years later. Note the unchanged North Sea lettering. This is a good example of the trouble a publisher would take to preserve an existing copper plate (By courtesy of the British Library, Maps C.3.c.9 and K.Top.5.5).

Accurate and adequate reconstructions of early map production techniques already exist, and this piece will not attempt to retrace the same ground. [1] Nor will it trespass on the detailed technical accounts of expert practitioners. [2] But it is notoriously hard for those interested in recreating the publishing history of printed maps to find practical advice, and each has had to devise their own working methods. This article will try to pass on some hard-won personal experience. gained during twenty-five years spent in close observation of early maps. Those who follow will no doubt adapt and improve on the suggested procedures. The best advice was given by the late Professor Coolie Verner some years ago. [3] It will be impossible to avoid retracing some of his steps. but this opportunity to present the 'nitty gritty' of early maps to a wider audience. with the benefit of illustrations, is intended as a tribute to an inspiring example. and a friend.

The overwhelming majority of maps produced between the mid-sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries arc engravings. normally on copper. But - when laying down what could be termed the first law of cartobibliography - it is not necessary at this point to distinguish engraving from woodcut and lithography. the two other techniques most likely to be encountered by those handling pre-1850 maps:

Each printed map is an impression made by the transfer of ink from a unique printing platform or group of platforms (usually woodblock, copper plate or lithographic stone).

No understanding of printed maps is possible unless this simple fact is kept constantly in mind. This is. in a sense. the copper-bottom-line of cartobibliography. Since it is hardly ever possible to examine the printing platform itself. and never in any but its finally amended form. the researcher must make do with surviving printed impressions taken from the particular platform concerned. Of course. it is primarily printed maps that are collected. curated and studied. not woodblocks or copper plates. But if we are to begin tapping the secrets of maps it is as well to remember the second law of cartobibliography:

That the piece of paper we are looking at is no more than a reflection, literally a mirror-image, of a wooden, metal or stone printing platform, which was present in a particular workshop at a particular time.

I have used the ungainly term printing 'platform' so that comments could apply equally to wood blocks. copper plates and lithographic stones in a way that 'plate' cannot. The practical discussion that follows. however. will be concerned solely with copper engraving. an intaglio process in which the printed detail is cut into the plate. Woodcut is the opposite of this in that all unwanted matter is cut away (a relief process). whereas the lithograph is drawn directly onto and reproduced from a flat surface (planographic). Any examination of maps produced by one of these three different methods starts from premises that are inapplicable to the other two. Woodcut and lithography would need their own separate articles.