An Attempt of Comparison of the Content of Woodcut and Copperplate T H Maps Issued in Europe Until the Beginning of the 19 C E N T U R Y
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An attempt of comparison of the content of woodcut and copperplate t h maps issued in Europe until the beginning of the 19 c e n t u r y LUCYNA SZANIAWSKA W a r s a w l u c y n a [email protected] A b s t r a c t. Social expect ations regarding the century, before any printing techniques came content of maps changed over the centuries and led into use in Europe. Gradually, though slowly, it to the development of new map editing methods and replaced leathers tanned to vellum. Paper -ma- the rejection of outdated reproduction techniques. king spread in Italy since 1268, with Fabrino The article focuses on the circumstances of the in - troduction of the woodcut and, t hereafter, replace - near Ancona being the site of the first paper - ment of the woodcut by the copperplate and the mills; in France paper -making began in 1320 positive results of that change. (the first paper -mills there were established on K e y w o r d s: history of cartography, woodcut the Hérault riv er, Languedoc) and in Germany maps, copperplate maps, content of maps, density of (in Cologne since 1320, and, thereafter, in Nu - message on map remberg since 1390). The first paper -m i l l i n 1 England was built in 1494, and in Holland over 1. Introduction a hundred years later (H.U. Wallis, A.H. Robin - Social expectations rega rding the content of son 1987, p. 278). maps changed over the centuries and led to 2. Multiplication m a p s before the the emergence of new map editing methods introduction of the woodcut techniques and the rejection of outdated map reproduction techniques. Today we expect a map to contain It is known that to create a map it is essential an ever growing amount of geographical data to gather data, to develop a concept for the and should ever more accurately reflect the map and to finally make it. In manuscriptal reality. But have these always been the ex - maps we often deal with one map maker. pectations with regard to the data presented on Thereafter, a copyist neede d a lot of time to the map? Or maybe these expectations have make each new copy. The multiplication pro - evolved along with the development of civili - cess was time -consuming and, therefore, sation and accumulation of knowledge about costly. However, it had one advantage – e a c h t h e w o rld? What did the authors of old maps subsequent hand copy could be significantly want to show, or ‘what was the goal defined revised and completed. Usually maps could be both by map authors […] and by their future produced to order, w ithout bearing the risk of users’ (W. Ostrowski 1974, p. 14). Unfortuna - not finding a buyer. That method of map pro - tely, old cartographers rarely gave a direct duction continued to work very well even after answer to this question. Instead, one can s e e the invention of print. From the end of the 13 t h what they showed on their maps. The article century at least until the end of the 16 t h c e n t u r y aims to outline the goals that might have been portolan charts were hand -reproduced, w h i c h behind the making of maps by means of a each time enabled the addition of more accu - content analysis of selected old woodcut and rately measured and newly discovered areas of copperplate maps which in their own time seas and coasts. Already within a few days’ enjoyed recognition of their user s . after the return to the mother harbour of the The kind of support for a printed cartographic ship whose pilot described the unknown coast - image discussed in this article has been limited lines, the ship could set off for the next voyage to paper surface. It was not the only type of with updated maps. This gave a lot of preval - support used for that purpose, but within the ence over the competition and brought huge analysed period, i.e. from the end of the Middle profits in trade. It is probably for this reason that Ages until mid 1 9t h century it was definitely the in the area of the Mediterranean Sea for over most popular one and used from the beginning three centuries (14 t h –1 6 t h century) the man u- of that period. Paper was manufactured in pa - scriptal reproduction of navigational maps had per mills in Spain and Italy already in the 13 t h not been replaced by print. 1 T h e orig i n a l a r t i c l e w a s p u b l i s h e d i n : Polski Pr z e gląd Kartograficzny, Vol. 46, 2014, no. 3, p. 297–306. 1 3. Woodcut maps ure of encyclopaedic Christian knowledge about the history of the world, based on the The introduction of printing techniques entail - Bible. It contained several longer geographical ed a necessity of cooperation of map produc - descriptions of the worl d and the Holy Land ers at all stages of the map production process. and two two -page maps covering these areas. The nearly complete con trol of a cartographer The round map of the world ( mappa mundi ) o f over the hand -made map is evident, but all the a 38 cm diameter was based on information stages of map production that followed at the contained in the works of either ancient or order of the map’s publisher, including the pro - mediaeval writers, such as Herodotus, Pliny the duction of the negative matrix and printing, we - Elder, Solinus , Bartholemaeus, John Chrysos - re beyond his control. It was the publisher w h o tom, Isidore of Seville and John Mandeville. An decided about the use of materials and the unknown author took ideas from the earlier method of copying, as well as the method of mappae mundi , including the location of lands the map’s distribution, either as a self -s t a n d i n g and seas in relation to one another, the round map, added to the text or as a map included in shape of the ecum ene and the meaning of th e the collection of maps, later called the atlas. eastern orientation underlined by the paradise The map as one of th e graphic elements de - placed there, but used a different convention of corating manuscriptal and later on printed cod - content selection. He did not surround the i c es was a very w e l c o m e addition for readers. It image of the continents by a universal ocean. didn’t have to contain additional geographical Apart from Rome, marked by a figure of the information. In the Middle Ages the aesthetic Pope, he did not mark othe r cities, but the values basically sufficed. However, the inclu s- densely placed icons of fictitious cities on the ion of a map was associated with increased map, lacking any specific reference, have been book production costs. Hence the map was ex - diversified in size and shape. The author of the pected to be decorative and to give the feeling map covered the entire surfaces of the conti - of luxury. The map, together with other illustra - nents with mounds emerging from water which tions, decorative initials, illuminations, elaborate h e m ostly marked by nearly one hundred na - marginalia and co mplex borders, made up the mes of states and lands. In southern Asia he, complex graphic decoration surrounding the among others, placed the names: ‘Persia, graphically after all rather austere text. Arabia, Terra amaleth, Sabea, Ophir and Pa - The earliest preserved map printed with the lestina’; in northern Asia – ‘Armenia, Affaria, use of the woodcut method is the miniature Albania, Amasonia, Galilea, Medea, Samar i a , image of Earth, not exceeding the size of Siria and Judea’; in Africa – ‘Lybya, Egiptus, 7 . 5 c m , i n c l u d e d i n Etymologiae , the work by Ethiopia, Maditania’ (probably Mauritania), the bishop of Seville, Saint Isidore, published whereas in Europe, from east to west, he for the first time in Augsburg in 1472 (L. Sza - 2 m a r k e d – ‘Tartariea, Ciprus, Creta [both islands niawska 2008, pp. 174, 179 –1 8 2 ) . A miniature marked as states], Moscauia [the Duchy of ‘T -O’ map of the world inserted into the text Moscow], Littauia [Lithuania] , Pruscia [Prussia], was printed with a woodblock in the Gü n t h e r Slauia minor, Grecia, Ponegaria [perhaps it is Zainer printing house. Most probably, that Bulgaria], Macedonia, Polonia, Vngaria, Bo - miniature could not meet the aesthetic expect - hemia, Saxonia, Holsacia, Vinland, Gothia, ations of the audience, but started a certain Frisia, Liuonia [Latvia], Dacia, Anglia, Morauia process in incunables. [Moravia]’ etc. It follows from the above list that The earliest printed maps had a relatively the location of lands in relation to one another modest share in decorations surrounding the is not the map’s strength. Along the coastline of m a i n text. The ones that followed and were Asia and Africa, the author placed also names printed from woodblocks as a collection illust - of islands or mountains, e. g. in south -e a s t e r n rating the work about universal history were Asia he marked ‘Tabrobana’ (it seems it is the more impressive.