1 · The Map and the Development of the History of Cartography J. B. HARLEY THE HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE MAP ronment.,,3 In the History o(Cartography we have gone further and accepted language as a metaphor for the The principal concern of the history of cartography is the study of the map in human terms. As mediators lowe a considerable debt to those who have helped me formulate the ideas as well as the substance in this inevitably eclectic essay. Alan between an inner mental world and an outer physical R. H. Baker (University of Cambridge) provided, through his theo­ world, maps are fundamental tools helping the human retical writings, the initial stimulus to search for a deeper understand­ mind make sense of its universe at various scales. More­ ing of the place of maps in history, while the late R. A. Skelton, by over, they are undoubtedly one of the oldest forms of his outstanding example of fertile scholarship, long ago convinced me human communication. There has probably always been that the history of cartography constitutes a discrete and important field of study. Among those who contributed material to an earlier a mapping impulse in human consciousness, and the draft of this Introduction, I am especially grateful to John Andrews mapping experience-involving the cognitive mapping (Trinity College, University of Dublin), Michael J. Blakemore (Uni­ of space-undoubtedly existed long before the physical versity of Durham), Christopher Board (London School of Economics artifacts we now call maps. For many centuries maps and Political Science), Tony Campbell (British Library), Catherine have been employed as literary metaphors and as tools Delano Smith (University of Nottingham), O. A. W. Dilke (University 1 of Leeds), P. D. A. Harvey (University of Durham), Francis Herbert in analogical thinking. There is thus also a wider history (Royal Geographical Society), Roger J. P. Kain (University of Exeter), of how concepts and facts about space have been com­ Cornelis Koeman (University of Utrecht), Monique Pelletier (Biblio­ municated, and the history of the map itself-the phys­ theque Nationale), David B. Quinn (University of Liverpool), Gunter ical artifact-is but one small part of this general history Schilder (University of Utrecht), Gerald R. Tibbetts (Senate House of communication about space.2 Mapping-like paint­ Library, University of London), Sarah Tyacke (British Library), Vladi­ miro Valerio (University of Naples), and Denis Wood (North Carolina ing-precedes both written language and systems in­ State University), and Lothar Z6gner (Staatsbibliothek PreuBischer volving number, and though maps did not become Kulturbesitz). everyday objects in many areas of the world until the 1. The extent to which the map has become an almost universal European Renaissance, there have been relatively few metaphor is indicated by the second definition of a map in Webster's mapless societies in the world at large. The map is thus Third New International Dictionary ofthe English Language (1976): both extremely ancient and extremely widespread; maps "something (as a significant outward appearance, a pointed or concise have impinged upon the life, thought, and imagination verbal description) that indicates or delineates or reveals by repre­ senting or showing with a clarity suggestive of that of a map." For a of most civilizations that are known through either discussion of the importance of the map analogy in scientific research, archaeological or written records. see Stephen Toulmin, The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction Any appreciation of the historical importance of maps (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1953), esp. chap. 4, "The­ depends upon a clear conception of their nature, of the ories and Maps," 105-39. For a recent example of the sustained use factors that have shaped their making and transmission, of the map analogy in teaching the history and philosophy of science, see units 1-3 in Mapping Inquiry (Milton Keynes: Open University and of their role within human societies. In these respects Press, 1981). The present History cannot be systematically concerned the starting assumption is that maps constitute a spe­ with the development of these metaphorical uses, although it should cialized graphic language, an instrument of communi­ be borne in mind that in various societies they may provide some index cation that has influenced behavioral characteristics and of how much familiarity and sophistication in handling maps writers the social life of humanity. Maps have often served as assumed among their audience or readers. 2. This wider history would include, for example, the study of spatial memory banks for spatial data and as mnemonics in representation in architecture, dance, drama, geometry, gesture, land­ societies without printing. Scholars over the centuries scape and town plans, music, and painting as well as in oral speech have been convinced of the eloquence and expressive and written language. Such a list serves also as a guide to topics that power of maps, which can speak across the barriers of are not systematically considered within the History even where they ordinary language. A group of American historians has provide examples of communication that was spatial in intention. 3. Frank Freidel, ed., Harvard Guide to American History, rev. ed., asserted that maps "constitute a common language used 2 vols. (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1954), by men of different races and tongues to express the 1:44-47, where the importance of maps in the history of geographic relationship of their society. .. to a geographic envi- exploration, diplomacy, economic development, social planning, and 1 2 The Map and the Development of the History of Cartography way maps have been used in past societies as well as a it more readily perceived than knowledge encoded in means of tracing their spread through time and space. other ways. One of the map's properties is that it can We must accept, although our general position is be taken in quickly by the eye, contributing to the po­ founded in semiology, that precise scientific analogies to tency of cartographic images. It has been said that maps the structure of language may be impossible to sustain;4 have an "extraordinary authority," even when they are 8 but as a general metaphor, helping to fashion an ap­ in error, that may be lacking in other forms of images. proach to the history of cartography, the concept of a graphic language-and the map as a graphic text-is warfare is especially stressed. See also CarlO. Sauer, "The Education valid. The significance of maps-and much of their of a Geographer," Annals ofthe Association ofAmerican Geographers meaning in the past-derives from\the fact that people 46 (1956): 287-99, esp. 289, where he wrote that "the map speaks across the barriers of language; it is sometimes claimed as the language make them to tell other people abo~t the places or space of geography." they have experienced. This implies that throughout his­ 4. Arthur H. Robinson and Barbara Bartz Petchenik, The Nature tory maps have been more than just the sum of technical ofMaps: Essays toward Understanding Maps and Mapping (Chicago: processes or the craftsmanship in their production and University of Chicago Press, 1976), discuss the analogy at length. It more than just a static image of their content frozen in is also rejected as an exact analogy by J. S. Keates, Understanding time. Indeed, any history of maps is compounded of a Maps (New York: John Wiley, 1982), 86, although he continues to employ it as a metaphor for the way maps "can be studied as ordered complex series of interactions, involving their use as well structures." Another recent discussion is C. Grant Head, "The Map as their making. The historical study of maps may there­ as Natural Language: A Paradigm for Understanding," in New Insights fore require a knowledge of the real world or ofwhatever in Cartographic Communication, ed. Christopher Board, Monograph is being mapped; a knowledge of its explorers or ob­ 31, Cartographica 21, no. 1 (1984): 1-32, and Hansgeorg Schlicht­ servers; a knowledge of the mapmaker in the narrower mann's "Discussion" of the Head article, ibid., 33-36. Our context in relation to semiology is that maps form a system of signification. sense as the originator of the artifact; a knowledge of This is defined by Roland Barthes, Elements ofSemiology, trans. An­ the map itself as a physical object; and a knowledge of nette Lavers and Colin Smith (New York: Hill and Wang, [1968]), 9: the users (or-more likely-the community of map "Semiology ... aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their users). The History of Cartography is concerned, as far substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and as possible, with the historical process by which the the complex association of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, graphic language of maps has been created and used. At at least systems of signification." once a technical, a cultural, and a social history of map­ 5. C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825 (Lon­ ping, it rejects the view of a historian of discovery who don: Hutchinson, 1969), 396. It is not suggested that this view is wrote that "cartographical studies do not come within typical; see also note 139 below. the sphere of social history.,,5 On the contrary, it favors 6. Edmund Leach, Culture and Communication: The Logic by Which Symbols Are Connected: An Introduction to the Use ofStruc­ an approach that is potentially capable of exploring the turalist Analysis in Social Anthropology (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni­ behavioral and ideological implications of its subject versity Press, 1976), 51. matter. 7. Jean Piaget and Barbel Inhelder, The Child's Conception of A major problem in assessing the importance of maps Space, trans.