“Approaches to Valhalla”

Map – noun 1 a diagrammatic representation of an area of land or sea showing physical features, cities, roads, etc…

This description, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is what we all imagine when we think of a map, and when we look at that map we expect to see a location, whether a detailed town plan or country, continent or world, somewhere that exists both in reality and on paper.

Despite all this there are some outliers in the map world, maps of places that only exist in the mind, maps of imaginary lands. The Bodleian has a nice collection of these maps, of places as diverse as Ambridge, Middle Earth and Utopia, you can read more and see some here Imaginary lands. Within this genre there’s a nice offshoot, a type of map of a made-up place designed to be a guide to cartographers by showing how to portray certain features, or for the map reader to show what the symbols mean (see here and here).

Here’s an example, ‘Colours and symbols used on fair sheets and fair tracing’, issued by the Hydrographic Office of the Navy in 1973. Fair here meaning a document after correction, ready to be used. But is it fair? With this ‘made-up’ map the Hydrographic Office have used real names but in random locations, so Campania, in reality a region of Italy, features, as does the English county of Rutland (though as a town here) and a made-up mountain, Montrosia. Best of all is mention of “Approaches to Valhalla”. The map shows different forms of landscape, both natural and man-made with the symbols used to show those features, and the names are added to give the whole an authentic feel.

The text is laid out in a way similar to the Admiralty charts that this legend sheet is a companion to. Along with a title there is surveying information and notes on depths. But again here there is confusion, and the impression that the cartographers are having fun either at our expense or with a knowing wink if we’re in the know with naval lore and history. There’s no online record for a ‘Lieutenant-Commander R.J. Shackleton, Royal Navy’ so is this a nod to Ernest Shackleton, Royal Naval Lieutenant and Antarctic explorer? And the H.M. Survey Ship “Rattler”? There were a number of Naval ships called Rattler, the most famous built in 1843, one of the first to use a screw propeller.

Here’s a variation on a theme, created by the Canadian military for planning purposes during the Second World War. As with the Hydrographic Office map the topography looks real, but the names given don’t appear to be. The defences, in purple, seem too accurate, with notes saying ‘Third gun reported, but position unknown’, and then the note to the top, ‘This map is unreliable. It has been produced by enlargement from One inch to One miles maps…’. The real location is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The lesson from looking at these maps is if you’re going to make up a place then why not use your imagination. Normal rules don’t apply, you aren’t restricted by actually portraying an existing place or, in the case of Admiralty charts, a coastline or depths. It seems that even in the confines of a serious military organization like the Admiralty there’s room for a bit of fun. The Admiralty still produces legends for their charts, but it’s fair to say that the romance has gone out of the product now.

Town planning or erasure?

This nineteenth-century map of the area around Collo, on the coast of Algeria, shows a “Ville projetée,” a proposed town. With a regular grid of streets, including a church, a market and several unidentified buildings, it looks orderly and regular, fitting into the comparatively flat and empty plain between the hills and the sea. To the north of the town is an area set aside for “manoeuvre et bivouac” – presumably a military site. It appears on a sea chart of the area, surveyed in 1869 and published in 1874.

The proposed town is represented on an area of empty land

As this is a navigational chart, most of it is taken up by sea, which is shown in some detail with many recordings of depths and the locations of rocks that could be a hazard to ships. There are two lighthouses, marked in hand colour on the otherwise monochrome map; the more remote one, at the end of the Djerda peninsula, is connected to Collo by a road along the coast. The map was surveyed under the direction of Ernest Mouchez, a captain commanding the ship Travailleur, in 1869, assisted by several of the ship’s officers, as part of a wider survey along the Algerian coast, producing many charts which were published by the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la marine (the French hydrographic office).

The full chart shows sea depths and lighthouses as well as land information

France had been taking control of coastal settlements in Algeria since 1830, so the plan to establish a new town at a useful port is unsurprising. As is often the case, the earliest detailed map of a coastal area appears on a navigational chart, as previously mentioned here. An earlier sea chart shows that the land was not uninhabited as it’s made to look here. This chart surveyed in 1851 (also a French survey, by C. Bouchet-Rivière) shows the same area with three small clusters of buildings, one identified as a mosque; there are roads, trees and cultivated land around them. This was not empty land.

An earlier chart makes clear that the land was already occupied

The modern layout of Collo suggests that the grid of streets was built as planned on the 1874 chart, presumably erasing the settlements that were there before. Subsequently the town seems to have developed more organically, as most of the surrounding streets follow a more irregular pattern. The earlier buildings closest to the sea may not have been affected, and there is still a mosque on the same site.

Algérie: plan de Collo / levé en 1869 par Mr. Mouchez. [Paris] : Dépôt des cartes et plans de la marine, 1874. B1 a.61/25 [17]

Plan du mouillage de Collo / levé et dressé en 1851 par M. C. Bouchet-Rivière. [Paris] : Dépôt général de la marine, 1852. B1 a.61/25 [18]

Speed’s history lessons

John Speed (1552-1629) was a celebrated cartographer whose career spanned Tudor and Stuart Britain, from a stable Elizabethan age to a more turbulent time under James I. Speed’s great work is his atlas ‘The Theatre of the empire of Great Britaine: presenting an exact geography of the Kingdomes of England, Scotland, Ireland and the iles adoiyning…’ . It’s a work full of little vignettes and text to be found amongst his county maps, displaying both his love of history, the volatile times in which the atlas was made and the fact that it seems map-makers can’t abide any blank spaces in their work.

The title-page features five figures in British history, the rough and ready ancient Briton is followed by a Roman, Saxon, Dane then Norman, gradually getting grander with each passing historical phase.

There then follows a short introduction to the work, in which Speed states…And finally the Battels fought either by the forreaine or home-breed Conspirators, I have also added, Where we form under our own vines without fear may behold the prints of indured miseries, fealled with the blood of those times, to the losse of their lives, and liberites…

Here are a few examples of the historical decoration Speed includes in his county maps.

The first image comes from Sussex, and shows the Norman invasion fleet sailing towards Pemsey Harbour with ‘896 ships furnished for war’ in 1066. The famous outcome of the invasion was the Battle of Hastings, 14th October, 1066.

Speed tells us ‘And the 14 of October following, beyng saturdaye, nere Hastings…joyned in battle with Harold, King of England, whoe in ye fielde vallinatly fighting was there slaine by the shott of an arow into his braynes’.

It is fortunate that Speed includes text with these images, if he hadn’t some might be difficult to decipher, as is the case with this next image, from the ‘Hantshire’ county map.

The image shows the Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I, who in the mid 1100s was engaged in civil war with her cousin King Stephen over who should hold the crown. The image shows Maud (also called Matilda) escaping one battle in…well, let Speed explain ‘But success of warr altering Maud the Emperese to save her owne life adventured to throwe the host her enimie, layde in a coffin fayned to be dead, and soe was carryed in a horse litter from Winchester‘.

An unlikely looking Stonehenge appears in the Wiltshire county map, complete with tubular lintels and a hilly landscape. Speed tells us ‘This ancient monument was erected by Aurelius, surnamed Ambrious, King of the Brittaines, whose nobility in the raigne of Vortiger (his countryes scrouge) about ye yere of Christ 475 by treachy of ye Saxons, on a day of parleye were there slaughtered and their bodeyes there interred. In memory whereof this King Aurel caused this trophy to be set up‘.

Speed loved a battle scene, especially, judging by how many there are in his atlas, massed ranks of men wielding pikes. Here’s an image from his Norfolk county map, with text describing rebellions in 1381 and 1549.

This dramatic image is of a battle between Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, and James Butler Earl Ormerod against Edward, Earl of March, 1461, in Herefordshire. ‘Where in befor the battell was strok, appeared visibly in the firmament three sunnes; wihch after a while joyned all together and became as before‘. And, at the bottom, is this a glimpse of Speed at work? Surviving portraits, see below, suggest it could be.

Finally from Gloucestershire a double image, with the top picture showing the hand-to-hand combat between ‘Canut the Dane’ and Edmund Ironside following numerous battles between the two. With no outcome from the fight they ‘accorded to parte ye kingdome which they joyntly governed, till treason took away the lyfe of King Edmund and left ye Dane sole monarch’.

The second battle is from Tewkesbury, 1471, fought between King Edward IV and King Henry VI. This is the first appearance of guns in war in the atlas.

These are just a small selection of images in Speed’s remarkable atlas. A large number of the county maps have pictures of groups of men wielding swords, pikes or ancient rifles. These images reflect both Speed’s fascination with history and the nature of history in the British Isles up to 1611, which was largely one of conquest, invasion or fights for supremacy. Speed’s atlas was available in a number of different formats. Printing was done in black and white with options to have prints then coloured, either just outlining the county (cheaper) or the whole sheet fully coloured (more expensive). The atlas could also be bought bound or unbound. The Bodleian has a number of bound atlases, all in black and white, and some loose maps in colour.

Here’s a sheet covering Bedfordshire showing borders coloured (Gough Maps Bedfordshire 5, from a 1743 reprint including roads, not on Speed’s original) and then Oxfordshire in with the Oxford map in colour ((E) C17:49 (116), 1627 .

Both maps are an improvement on the achievements of the Tudor cartographer Christopher Saxton in both their detail and decoration. Speed included in all his county maps plans of the county towns, which would have been amongst the earliest, if not the earliest, of maps for each location.

Do these images add to the quality of the maps? No, not really, but they do add to the history of the particular county, giving a depth of knowledge to the place, an extra level of understanding, not found in other county maps both before and after.

John Speed The Theatre of Great Britaine: presenting an exact geography of the Kingdomes of England, Scotland, Ireland and the iles adoiyning…’ 1611. Map Res 74.

Nordic minecraft

It’s rare for a general purpose map to give attention to what is under the ground as well as to what is on the surface. This map shows the county of Akershus in Norway, centred around Christiania (now Oslo), in the eighteenth century. The map was drawn by Johann Baptist Homann, a largely self taught cartographer and engraver, in 1729. The area is described by a Latinized version of its name, Aggerhusiensis. About a quarter of the map is taken up by an illustration of a mine, with the surface cut away to show the internal workings.

The map appears here in a general atlas, titled Atlas geographicus maior, published in Nuremberg by the heirs of Homann in 1798. The company was founded by Homann in 1702; he built a successful map publishing business, both creating his own maps and publishing those of others. He was succeeded by his son Johann Christoph Homann, who died young, and the company passed to friends, and connections by marriage, who continued the company as Homännische Erben (Homann Heirs). It lasted into the mid-nineteenth century and issued over 900 maps, a remarkably long run. The atlas, as its title suggests, is very large, containing 152 maps, and covering most of the world apart from Germany. A second volume of 124 maps concentrates on Germany alone. There is extensive geographical text in German, but the maps are mainly in Latin.

Activities in and around the mine are shown in some detail, providing an interesting view of early mining processes. There are ladders to move between levels and a pulley system, and a furnace in the background, perhaps for the iron working associated with the area. Near the top, a stream has been diverted to turn a water wheel.

There is nothing specifically Christmassy about this map, but somehow it felt appropriate to this time of year. Perhaps it’s the combination of the clearing of paths through the snow, the little fir trees, the pale blue wash colour (a shade normally used for water, and an unusual choice for land) and the many figures working away underground like Santa’s elves.

[Edited 16/12/25 to remove reference to coal mining, as it is not clear that this is what is being mined.]

Tractus Norwegiae Danicus. Magnam diecoseos Aggerhusiensis / partem sistems editus a Johanni Baptistae Homanni … Noribergae Anno 1729. In Atlas geographicus maior. Norimbergae: Homannianis heredibus, [1798]. Map Res. 40

This map is made very false

Held within the collections here at the Bodleian is a green scrapbook. There’s no clue inside about when the material was gathered together, the only information we have about the material comes from the shelfmark, Wood 276 b. The Wood tells us this is part of a donation of over 900 books left to the Ashmolean Museum, then transferred to the Bodleian, by Anthony Wood (1632-1695), an antiquarian and collector mainly of material relating to Oxford.

The scrapbook features a range of different items; starting with a number of World and country maps by cartographers such as John Speed and Abraham Ortelius the volume also includes plans of the hot and cold baths in Bath, portraits of Oxford dons and religious pamphlets. At roughly halfway through is a map of Oxford, probably the most frustrating we have in the collection.

Oxforde as it now lyeth fortified by his Ma.ties forces an. 1644 is a strange map on a number of levels. Its mixture of scales is off-putting, a large Oxford looms at the top of the Thames running down past smaller representations of Abingdon (‘Abbington’), Wallingford and Reading (‘Reding’) like the head of a carnivorous plant and then there’s the depiction of city itself, with soldiers between the city and siege walls larger than the buildings inside the city. And what to make of the note written in the bottom corner, ‘This map is made very false’, possibly by Wood himself. Not what you want to read when looking for accuracy.

The reason for the map’s overall design is easy to explain. Oxford was a key location in the Civil War, soon after the start in 1642 King Charles I was forced out of London by Parliamentary forces and settled in the city, taking over, along with his Queen and entourage, a number of colleges. This move proved disastrous; resources such as college silver and lead from roofs were stripped and melted down for coins and bullets, the amount of people coming into the city led to over-crowding and a number of dangerous fires and, worse of all, with the King in town the city quickly came under siege. Abingdon, Wallingford and Reading were important towns on the Thames, vital for the success of the Royalists during the War for their strategic value but by the time the map was made all three had either fallen to Parliamentary forces or soon would do so.

It is because of this way of showing Oxford in relation to the three towns that causes the problem with the map, and the reason for the handwritten note at the bottom. All existing maps of the city prior to the war had south at the top, but by including the towns to the south Oxford needed to be shown with a north orientation. To achieve this our unnamed cartographer has taken an earlier, southern orientated, map of the city and seemingly flipped round the orientation. So now, without looking too closely, all seems ok, with the two largest features on the map, the castle and Magdalen Bridge, to the west and east respectively of the city, as they should be.

We’re pretty confident we know how this has been achieved. The earlier map mentioned is the map of Oxford from John Speed’s county map of Oxfordshire, 1611, we know this because the Civil War map uses Speed’s legend and key to identify buildings. Speed has south at the top and it looks like to change this around our cartographer has held a mirror up to the edge of the map and reproduced what he sees. Here’s Speed from his 1611 map, next to what you would see in a mirror.

The problem with doing this though is the flip in orientation only works horizontally. Everything inside the city walls has stayed where they originally were so everything is now upside down. Take for example T, which is at the top of both Speed and the Civil War maps. The T is Christ Church college, which is on the road leading south out of the city on your left as you go past it, on the map it’s both on the wrong side of the road and in the north. The question is, has this been done deliberately, is this an attempt by besieged forces to confuse the enemy? This seems unlikely, Speed’s maps were well known so it’s doubtful that many would have been fooled by the deception. Which leaves one other suggestion. This is just a badly made map, hastily put together using a method not properly thought through. ‘Very false’ indeed.

Anthony Wood is one of those historical characters that more is known about his ways than his achievements. A born and bred Oxford man he grew up during the Civil War, living through the siege and fires that entailed. Wood produced a number of histories of the city and the university, one of which, the Historia et Antiquitates Universtatis Oxoniensis included what is regarded as the best portrayal of the city, David Loggan’s beautifully engraved map of 1675, which includes some of the Civil War defences (and has south at the top!)

Wood often worked with the antiquarian and collector John Aubrey who described Wood, who by this time liked to be called Anthony à Wood, as ‘a shiftless person, roving and maggoty-headed and sometimes a little better than crazed’. Others were less complimentary with one stating that he ‘was always looked upon in Oxford as a most egregious, illiterate, dull blockhead, a conceited, impudent coxcomb’.

‘Oxforde as it now lyeth…’ is just one of a number of beautiful and interesting maps at the Bodleian written by members of the maps team https://bodleianshop.co.uk/collections/all-books/products/treasures-from-the-map-room It’s nearly Christmas after all…

“Nice to look at … “

An old letter found at the bottom of the slipcase containing a copy of Andrew Bryant’s Map of the county of Oxford from actual survey, published in 1824, sheds some interesting light on attitudes to history and the value (or otherwise) of old documents. The letter was written from one local historian to another. H.E. Salter wrote many books on the history of Oxford through the first half of the twentieth century, made a map that reconstructed the medieval city, and was one of the editors of the Victoria County History for Oxfordshire. He wrote the letter when sending, as a gift, his copy of Bryant’s map to Edmund Greening-Lamborn, a highly regarded head teacher and largely self-educated local historian who had published many articles and several books on local history and genealogy of Oxfordshire. Greening-Lamborn also wrote on other subjects, and the two men had worked together on archaeological reports. Salter remarks that “Old printed maps of the county are of little use …”, a statement that will no doubt shock many readers of this blog, although he does acknowledge that they are “nice to look at”.

The southern portion of the map. A detached portion of the county is shown as an inset.

Bryant’s map of Oxfordshire is indeed nice to look at, as well as historically informative. However, a closer reading of the letter might lead us to absolve Salter of a dismissive attitude to old maps. Salter clearly had a value for history, but he mentions the Ordnance Survey maps specifically; these covered Oxfordshire from the mid-1830s, and their accuracy and reliability meant that researching any period after they appeared is made much easier.

The letter carries no year, but is addressed from Broad Oak, in Sturminster Newton, so dates from after Salter retired to Dorset in 1942 when he was nearly 80; he died there in 1951. He remarks in the letter that “I am sending you something that I shall never need again.” There is a certain poignancy in the suggestion that, in old age and retirement, he wanted to pass the map to a younger and more active owner.

Bryant’s map is beautifully engraved and accurately surveyed; the copy concerned is from the latest known state of the map, which had some minor revisions made soon after its first publication in 1824. It is enhanced by hand colouring; Salter comments on the usefulness of the individually coloured hundreds, and it marks many minor features of historical interest such as mills, ferries, the names of farms, toll bridges, and minor settlements.

The map shows Oxford at the very south of the county. Historically, the River Thames was the county boundary.

The map reached the Bodleian as part of the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, which in fact includes a considerable amount of less ephemeral material, like this map. Whether Johnson ever noticed the letter is unknown; it was firmly wedged into the bottom of the slipcase and had to be extracted using a certain amount of force and small plastic ruler.

For more on the life and work of Edmund Greening-Lamborn, see this article by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques scheme.

Map of the county of Oxford from actual survey / by A. Bryant. London : A Bryant, 1824. J. Maps 4

Death by numbers

What we now call trench maps are an organized set of maps at a detailed scale which start on the coast either side of the French and Belgian border and go, numerically, in a north-west to south-east flow down through France and Belgium. Using pre-war French and Belgian maps as a reference these maps show an idealized landscape long since fought over and largely destroyed. Overlaying the topographical information are the trenches of of both the British and German armies, facing each other of what was often a very narrow strip of no-man’s land. German trenches were shown in full while almost always only the front-line of the British trenches would be included for security reasons*.

Fonquevillers, 57D N.E., sheets 1 & 2 (parts of) Feb 1917 C1 (3) [1449]

This map has the village of Monchy au Bois at the top, and is dated to a time between the Battles of the Somme and Arras, with ‘trenches corrected to 27-12-16’, and this sheet is edition 4a. In total there were ten different editions of this sheet made between September 1915 and November 1916, a demand on map production made possible by the Ordnance Survey providing mobile printing presses behind the front-line. The maps show an ordered topographic representation of a pre-war landscape, with villages laid out, streets, churches and countryside. In reality the village would be a ruin, as can be seen in this image from the Imperial War Museum (Image: IWM (Q 61260) of the village in June 1917

THE BRITISH ARMY ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-1918 (Q 61260) A British soldier in the ruins of the village of Monchy-au-Bois, 30 June 1917. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205308715

The main purpose of the maps was to give artillery positions behind the lines accurate co-ordinates for firing on enemy positions, often from information given to them by forward observation posts. Maps would be gridded, areas separated into smaller areas by a designated letter, then each square within the lettered area numbered. These squares were then divided by a broken line into 4, a,b,c and d. Finally, to give as accurate a reference as possible, ‘tick lines’ are included around the edge of the square, 10 on each line. Using this system would give a simple but highly accurate point of reference for artillery to work on.

This is how most trench maps work. Occasionally though an extra help to identify location was given on a map. Key positions would be numbered in red circles. These positions would be at junctions or corners of trenches, areas where troop movements would slow down and soldiers would inevitably bunch up. In a calculated way artillery fire would be targeting areas which would give the maximum casualties amongst enemy forces for the minimum shell use. These are extracts from the trench map showing the grid system in place and then the circled numbers at the points of junctions.

*Here’s an example of a trench map with both British and German trenches, La Bassėe, sheet 44a N.W. 1, 1918. With the extra trenches these maps become more than just an historical record of the course of a battle at a particular time. With named trenches they are part of the social history of the First World War as well.

The disappearing engraver

In 1827, James Gardner published a map of the main roads of central Europe: New post map of Central Europe, exhibiting the great and secondary routes with the various stations where the relays are obtained … the whole forming a complete posting companion for the continental tourist. ‘Post’ roads were the main communication links across countries, the routes for carrying both mail and passengers in stage coaches, with regular stops to change horses. The map includes eastern England, with sea routes to the continent, and covers Europe as far south as northern Italy and as far east as Hungary. The map first appeared in 1827 and was reissued with updates for a few years thereafter; the Bodleian holds copies from 1828 and 1830.

The map has an attractive design, with hand colouring to show international borders, clear symbols for categories of roads and settlements, and distances given in ‘posts’. It is dissected and mounted on cloth, enabling it to be folded in a leather case for carrying when travelling. The geographic coverage is enhanced by narrow strip maps down each side, one of western Italy (including major cultural centres such as Florence and Rome) and one of the River Rhine. Top centre is a detailed map of the ‘Route of the Simplon’, a high pass in Switzerland, newly improved in the early years of the nineteenth century by Napoleon; this is beautifully engraved by William Palmer, showing the mountains and in a different style to the rest of the maps.

The small inset map of the Simplon pass was engraved separately by William Palmer

The identity of the engraver of the main map has an intriguing story attached. The 1828 edition has his name clearly marked in the lower margin: ‘engraved by W. R. Gardner.’ The updated version a couple of years later has his name erased. It’s not uncommon for erasures of this sort to be made to printing plates, perhaps if a new publisher took them over and reissued the work, but it’s rare for it to happen quickly and when the work was still being issued by the original publisher (who may in this case have been related to the engraver, although no relationship has been identified). The explanation may well be that the engraver’s name had been disgraced.

The engraver’s name in the lower margin, fro the 1828 version of the map

In later editions Gardner’s name has been removed, although faint traces can be seen

An advertisement in the London Gazette of September 1829 invites the creditors of William Gardner, ‘engraver and printer .. late of number 13, Harper Street, Red Lion Square’, to a meeting with the assignee of the estate to agree on a method of recovering their money; they are invited, amongst other proposals, to assent or dissent to ‘giving up to the Bankrupt’s wife such part of the household furniture, estate and effects, for the use of herself and family, as he shall think fit’; it was clearly an unfortunate situation. Bankruptcy wasn’t the whole story though; Gardner was found to have fled the country for New York with thousands of pounds in forged bills, taking one of his four children with him; one wonders about the fate of his wife and the remaining children left behind. He is described in British map engravers (quoting a contemporary report) as having ‘a very prepossessing exterior and agreeable manner’ – a charming conman, perhaps. It’s easy to understand James Gardner wishing to erase William Gardner from his map, even – or perhaps especially – if they were related.

New post map of Central Europe, exhibiting the great and secondary routes with the various stations where the relays are obtained … London: Published by James Gardner, Agent for the sale of the Ordnance Surveys &c., [1828]. Allen LRO 299

The itinerary of Jan Huygen van Linschoten

Maps come in all sorts of formats and sizes, and they also come in all sorts of different mediums as well; globes, atlases and single sheets. As well as these early printed maps are often to be found in itineraries, those wonderful descriptions of early exploration, full of tales of new lands, new people, new customs. It was often in these itineraries that readers would first see in illustrations the strange new sights that they may have only heard about previously – imagine being told what an elephant looked like, and then seeing a picture of one – and the maps, though important in themselves as cartographic records, were more often than not secondary to the written narrative and illustrations.

One such itinerary is in the office at the moment. Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563-1611) was, as it seems with a lot of people we read about from these times, a bit of a polymath. Dutch merchant, traveller, writer and, intriguingly, a spy as well. Spy because he travelled extensively through Portuguese areas of influence in the Far East, especially around the Spice Islands of Indonesia, and then wrote about his travels in a book published in 1596, Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien inhoudende een corte beschryvinghe der selver landen ende zee-custen… (Itinerary, voyage or navigation, of Ian Huygens from Linschoten to the East or Portuguese Indies containing a short description of the same lands and sea coasts…).

Here’s a beautiful double hemisphere World map from the start of the book with representations of the 4 continents in the corners. The map is by Jan Baptista Vrient, a Dutch geographer and cartographer.

There are a number of regional maps throughout the work, the most important considering what Linschoten’s work was dealing with was of the Far East, and the Spice Islands. The itinerary pre-dates the Dutch influence in the region but only by a few years, and the work had an influence on Dutch ambitions in the region. By the early 1600s the Dutch had started to gain control of the spice trade with the setting up of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the Dutch East India company in 1602.

As can be seen these are beautiful maps, hand-coloured and for the time accurate depictions of the regions shown.

As well as maps the books contain illustrations of flora and fauna, people and customs. Here’s a page showing different fruit trees (bamboo, mangrove and durian)

Another page has illustrations of temples and religious practises, including a pagoda and a mosque.

Itineraries have a long history, dating back to classical times in the form of a periplus, a list of destinations on a journey which would often then be expanded by Greek and other writers into more general histories through to itineraries like the one in this blog to works on travel writing as a form of social commentary (such as Daniel Defoe’s ‘Tour thro’ the whole island of Great Britain’ (1724)) on to the current trend for travel writing as a form of entertainment. Linschoten’s itinerary is a wealth of information and illustrations of the people, customs, trade and geography of the Far East. It’s just one of a number of books he wrote in the 1590s about the region and of the voyage to get there along the east coast of Africa. An English translation was published in 1598.

And here’s our spy, looking quite dapper in his ruff and whiskers. It’s wonderful to imagine the adventures and sights seen by Linschoten on his travels.

French encroachments

Cóvens & Mortier’s Atlas nouveau is a beautiful thing: a re-engraved copy of the work of the French cartographer Guillaume de l’Isle, it was published in Amsterdam from the 1730s onwards in several editions, expanding from a early version with around 50 maps to a much larger volume. This copy, dating from around 1745, contains 130 hand-coloured maps and occupies two large volumes. A surprise bonus at the back of the atlas is a collection of other material, maps, illustrations and text, relating largely to English history. This is unrelated to the Atlas Nouveau but of similar date, and was presumably bound in by a previous owner of the atlas.

Of particular interest is A new map of North America wherein the British Dominions in the continent of North America, and on the islands of the West Indies, are carefully laid down from all the surveys, hitherto made, and the most accurate accounts and maps lately publish’d. This is copied (with acknowledgement) from the work of a French cartographer, Louis Delarochette, engraved by the highly regarded Thomas Kitchin, and published in London by John Bowles and Son. The general tone of the map is, to be blunt, anti-French. The title continues: Also the French encroachments on the English Provinces particularly described, being an improvement on D’Anville’s, Popple’s and other maps of North America. A section below the ‘Explanation’ highlights ‘The encroachments made by the French on the British Colonies,’ with colour coding. There are little text panels across the map, some of which refer to the French ‘pretending’ that Louisiana has a greater extent than it really does, while another claims that they ‘by a piece of chicanery would reduced the limits of Acadia ceded to the crown of Great Britain.’

The title cartouche is decorated with two Native Americans, wearing elaborate headdresses and jewellery but little else. The presence of the Native American inhabitants is acknowledged on the map itself; there are the names of many tribes across the map, ‘Indian villages’ are marked, and there are descriptions such as ‘Iroquois hereditary country,’ or mention of a treaty between Great Britain and the Six Nations.

There is much other detailed information as well: mountains, rivers, settlements, natural resources, major roads and even the circuitous route taken by ships through the Gulf of Mexico to avoid the trade winds.

The map is undated, but gives an account of the taking of Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh) in November 1758, making it likely that this version at least dates from 1759 or later. And it predates 1763; there were numerous states of the map, with the information being updated, and after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which brought an end to the Seven Years War between Great Britain and France (also known as the French and Indian War) the tone of the map changes completely. The second part of the title is rephrased as Also extracts from the definitive Treaty of Peace in 1763, relative to the cessions made to his Britannick Majesty on the continent of North America, and to the partition agreed on for the islands. Negative comments about the French are removed, and replaced with extracts from the peace treaty; the reference to encroachments at the bottom of the Explanation is erased entirely. The updated, peaceful version can be seen on the website of the Library of Congress.

A new map of North America wherein the British Dominions in the continent of North America, and on the islands of the West Indies, are carefully laid down from all the surveys, hitherto made, and the most accurate accounts and maps lately publish’d. : also the French encroachments on the English Provinces particularly described, being an improvement on D’Anville’s, Popple’s and other maps of North America. / This map is laid down by Delarochette and engraved by Tho: Kitchin. London: Printed for John Bowles and Son at the Black Horse in Corhnhill, [1759?]. Map Res. 39

Bodleian Map Room Blog

Items of interest from the wonderful world of maps